Free Last Chance Summer by Kels Barnholdt Page B

I would die for.
    “But none of them are you.” Paige’s voice pulls me back to reality and I sigh.
    “I can’t believe I have to leave so soon. It’s like they waited until the last possible moment to lay it on me so I would have no time to get out of it.”
    Paige nods. “It’s totally unfair.”
    My flight leaves tomorrow at six in the morning, which means we have to be to the airport by four, which means I have to get up at a ridiculously early hour. The only good part is that my parents agreed to let Paige spend the night so that she can come with them tomorrow to drop me off at the airport and say goodbye.
    “On the upside, maybe you’ll have a hot summer romance!” Paige tells me now.
    “Oh, yeah. I won’t hold my breath.”
    She laughs and we spend the rest of the night finishing my packing, eating pizza, and watching movies.
    It’s all so normal. But somewhere deep down, I can’t help but feel like everything’s about to change forever.

    ***
    “You remembered your cell phone charger didn’t you, honey?” my mom asks me.
    It’s the next morning – well, if you can call it morning. Personally, I don’t think anything that has you up while it’s still dark out should be considered morning, but apparently American Airlines didn’t get my memo.
    “Yes, Mom, I remembered it,” I say, in between yawning from the back seat. I glance at the clock. 3:27 A.M. Ugh. There should be some kind of law against being up this early.
    “Of course she remembered it! You know how attached she is to that thing, haha!” my dad exclaims loudly from the passenger seat. He is surprisingly chipper for being awake at 3:30 in the morning. I don’t even think he’s had any coffee yet, either.
    The only person who seems to feel as miserable as me is Paige, who’s been sleeping for the last forty-five minutes right next to me. We pull into the airport and I feel this horrible feeling of nausea start to creep over me. It’s not just because I’m leaving my best friend and my family for a few weeks, it’s because I know within the next fifteen minutes I’ll be seeing Arielle. What makes it even worse, though, is the fact that when I see her, it’s going to be the start of a whole chain of minutes, days, weeks, that we’ll be spending together. The thought alone is enough to make me want to puke.
    My mom pulls into the parking lot and I quickly nudge Paige awake. None of us speak while we park and unload my bags. It’s as if my parents know better, and I think anything Paige would want to say she can’t say in front of my parents. Like how much this sucks, or how miserable we’ll both be without each other.
    As I roll my purple suitcase behind me, I can’t help but think about how alone I’m going to feel over the next few weeks. Arielle and my aunt and uncle go to South Carolina every summer, so I know Arielle has a group of friends she keeps in touch with down there. So it’s not like she’s going to have any trouble keeping busy. And if you knew my cousin at all, you would know she isn’t exactly the type to take me along and introduce me to her friends.
    There’s a row of cabs in front of the main entrance to the airport with all different types of people getting out of them. Some in suits, some in pajamas, and some in shorts and T-shirts. I can’t help but wonder if any of them are headed to a fate better than mine, or perhaps even by some slim chance, a fate worse than mine.
    “Now lets see,” my dad says, looking down at a map of the airport he printed off the internet last night, “according to this, we should turn to the left.”
    “DAVE! DAVE! HEY! OVER HERE!” The voice belongs to my Aunt Jenna who’s about thirty feet to our left, jumping up and down waving her arms in the air like a mad woman. My Aunt Jenna is tiny, with dark brown hair and really pretty light brown eyes. She has a warm smile, and sometimes I find it hard to believe that her and Arielle are related. Not only do they look