"Summer" short story

Summer. My parents, unhappy with my academic performance, send me to a summer school to improve my grades. All morning and every day, except for Sundays.

My mother leaves the country for the summer for some reason she doesn’t bother to tell me. My father is too busy tending to the family business by himself.

I make friends over at summer school in the first week. We all agree to skip school a couple of days a week, convinced that our parents wouldn’t notice. These days are spent in an abandoned lot behind some residential buildings. We found a back entrance through a back street that’s only used for the residents to park their cars.

We jumped the barbed wire fence and spent the days playing soccer. After we grew bored of that, someone came up with the idea of drinking beer. I was only twelve, the second youngest of the group; I threw up after 2 beers. I was on the verge of passing out, so they took me to E’s house, which was a mere five minutes away and was empty except for his sister. They stripped me naked and put me in the shower with cold water running.

Out of the four of us, I’m the only one without any siblings. E’s sister was fifteen and was really pretty, nothing like her brother. She always smelled good and wore revealing clothes; everyone had a really hard time hiding how attracted we were to her. Or maybe it was just me.

J, the youngest, the smallest, the skinniest. He was also twelve years old. His hair was dyed a very bright, artificial yellow and his ears were pierced. He had a sister, too. She was 16, had a piercing on her tongue and always had her belly button showing, always wore tight jeans. J liked to smoke and every time she smelled it on him she would hit him. There was an older brother, who I saw very little. I remember he had a motorcycle and tattoos.

F’s birthday was on the same day as mine. He and E were best friends and F used to spend the nights at E’s house playing Gamecube. He had a brother, named Sam. He was always smoking, drinking beer. I disliked him.

2

By the time August came around, I was already used to drinking beer and was getting much better at soccer, which made me feel more a part of the group. On weekends, we liked to sneak into a private school near our neighborhood because it had a small soccer field with artificial grass. Other kids from the neighborhood came and we made groups of five. F was our best player and I was starting to catch up to him. We were growing closer thanks to soccer, and I started bringing him over to my house to play Playstation. He told me his mother was crazy, and that he actually lived with his dad; he was only staying with her for the summer. After days of annoying him, he finally invited me over to his apartment. It was the last floor of the building. We came in and nobody was home. The place was strangely dark. His room was much better, and he showed his Playstation games. Then he showed me his brother’s stuff. Porn magazines. Condoms.

‒What about this green stuff, what is it?

‒That’s weed. He sells it, so there’s always bags of it around. You have to use these ‒he grabbed a small carton box with the letters OCB on it‒ to make it into a cigarette.

After a short silence, we agreed to steal a little. F put it inside a sock, which he put inside his underwear, and we left. I grabbed a box of rolling papers and a lighter on the way out.

3

To get to the abandoned lot, you had to cross a small bridge which was over an even smaller river. We had explored the idea of climbing down to a spot were we could hide. There were two little kids looking at us while we were trying to get down there. We chased after them and starting hitting them for no reason until they started crying.

‒Never come back here! ‒I yelled.

After they were gone, we got to a cozy spot ‒despite the many insects crawling around‒ under the bridge where we couldn’t be seen from above. We sat down and put all our loot before us. F then taught me how to smoke weed: He’d regularly seen his brother do it. After about three times, we managed to roll a joint that didn’t fall apart at the slightest touch. We coughed so much, we were incredibly lucky we had taken some soda with us. We stood in silence listening and looking at the river. It was a really hot day. We were completely alone, I realized. I looked over to F: His cheeks were red. He had an erection. I noticed that I, too, had a powerful erection.

4

I was walking back home, alone. Holding back tears, looking down. Suddenly, I saw someone moving behind a car and I stopped. A little kid holding half a brick in his hand came from behind the car.

‒My mom says I have to hit back if I am ever bullied.

‒Wait-

I heard a loud noise and fell to the floor. I heard his footsteps get further and further away from me. Then more footsteps, coming towards me. The person helped me get up. Blood was dripping on my face, on my shirt. My father held my hand on the way to the hospital and also when I was getting stitched up. I think he thought I was crying because of the pain.

---

Thanks a lot for reading. Comments are appreciated.

Picture was taken by me.