Forever

The sun was shining through the crack of the window. It was about 6:00, but I couldn't fall back to sleep. I looked over and realized Matt wasn’t there. I could still smell the trace of his cologne on my sheets, blanket,and pillow case. He spent the night at my house because his parents were fighting again. I put on his sweatshirt and some shorts and went and sat on the couch. I then scrolled on my phone for the next few hours. After a few minutes, Matt texted me and said that his mom told him to come home so he did.

A few hours later, about 9:00 A.M, Alex and I wanted to go to the mall. So I put on my clothes, grabbed my keys, and we met up in the parking lot and went in. Some of the stores we shop at were closed, even Hot Topic was closed. That was strange because it was never closed. There were only a few stores open, so that’s where we shopped. It wasn’t as busy as it usually is on weekends, but we ignored it and continued shopping.

It's usually hot in California, so we bought sunscreen and some swimsuits. We then grabbed a few snacks at check out and walked out. We then went to a restaurant near the mall and grabbed some food to eat.

When Alex and I got back to my apartment, we put on our swimsuits, packed our bags, and drove about half an hour to the beach. The beach also wasn't busy, but we also ignored it. It was boring at the beach, so we called our other friends to come to the beach.

About an hour later, a black jeep pulled up. My boyfriend Matt, my brother Garrett, and my two other friends Amy and Lily, jumped out of the car. I noticed on top of their car were six surfboards.

“What took you so long, Mattie?” I said sarcastically. “We sat on the beach, eating sand waiting for you four.”

“I'm sorry! We made a stop ‘cause Garrett about pissed himself,” Matt said back. “And I’m not letting him piss in my car!”

“Did you bring beer? And some non-alcoholic drinks for Garrett?” I said. I sat my beer down and went to give Matt a kiss.

“Yeah, we grabbed some Root Beer, Sprite, Coca Cola, and some wine and beers. I still don't know how I snuck these past my mom,” Responded Matt.

“ You stuck these past your Mom? Matt,you're a legal adult. You don’t need permission to drink” I said. ”Shit, It might be illegal, but you don’t care, right?”

“I know, but she scares me,” he responded.

“Dude, I turned 18 three months ago,” Garrett responded, confused.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” I said.

“Where have you been the past few months?” He said back.

“Working, trying to pay my phone bills, apartment bills, and car bills, which are very expensive by the way,” I responded.

“When the hell did you get a car? Nevermind that. Can we just get to surfing please?” He asked with an annoyed tone in his voice.

“Yeah sure,” I said.

Lily grabbed the large waterproof speaker out of the back of the Jeep and connected it to her phone. She started playing her Spotify playlist. Gotta be honest, that shit was fire. She was playing AltJ or some shit, I really don’t know, but I liked the playlist though. We grabbed the surfboards and split them up between the six of us.

Amy’s blonde wavy hair was flying in the wind and it was shining like a star in the midnight sky. Lily’s brunette hair was up in a messy bun. Her boyfriend doesn’t really approve of us, but she really doesn’t care. She swears he’s real, but none of us believe it.

I’m the second oldest in the friend group, but Matt is a few months older than me. Amy and Lily are the same age, and Me and Garrett are one year apart. Lily and Garrett dated in high school and that's how me and her met. When they broke up I was hanging out with her and she invited Amy over

After a while, we all got hungry. So, we added our money together and grabbed a large pizza from a dominoes nearby. Surprisingly it wasn’t closed, but it took awhile to be served.

After we ate, we went back to surfing. We surfed until sundown and then we all went to my house. Everyone spent the night there. Matt slept in my bed Amy and Lily slept on one of the air mattresses. And Garrett got his own room. I have a two bedroom apartment with a bathroom in each, and my apartment complex is pet friendly, so I have a golden retriever named Sunny. Matt loves Sunny, and my niece, April. Matt says that he hates kids, but that isn’t true. One time, when Matt was spending the night, I went to go get some Mcdonald’s and April was staying the night, and I came back and April was asleep on the couch with Matt by her side. I took a picture of it and sent it to the group chat, and he was so pissed. Like he didn’t talk to me for a few days pissed. The friend group doesn’t talk about it anymore, but if someone brings up 6 year old April, Matt always gets made fun of.

We went to bed and got comfy and fell asleep about five minutes later. Not me. I stared at the ceiling and thought about how I’m friends with these amazing people. Matt is nice, polite, and he and Garrett are the best of friends, and Lily and Amy are the girls that helped me through all of my late night meltdowns, when me and Matt fought, and they have been there since I was 17 years old. When me and Garrett were younger, we were inseparable. Until my parents divorce in 2010. Me and Garrett rarely saw each other. He was and will always be my younger brother.

My parents fought a lot when we were younger. We never really thought much about it cause we were like 9 and 10. A few months after I turned 13, my parents were fighting. I thought it was a normal fight, until I heard glass shattering. I went to go peek downstairs and saw my mother had a large scratch down her arm and another on her face. I went to tell Garrett and I locked him in his room with me until the morning. I was thinking about that while staring at the ceiling. I then started crying. I guess I was crying too loud, because Matt pulled me closer to him and I cried in his arms for ten whole minutes. He was telling me, "It's gonna be okay” and “I’ve got you, baby.” This reassurance called me down and then I fell asleep.