Summer Boys #3: After Summer by Abbott Hailey

Author:Abbott, Hailey [Abbott, Hailey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Scholastic Books
Published: 2009-09-30T17:00:00+00:00

11

Beth had never seen George look so excited. And she found that the tired feeling she seemed to carry around these days was no match for George being excited about something. In fact, it was breaking right through the fatigue and kicking her into high spirits, too.

It was Saturday, late afternoon. The annual big Halloween party, thrown that night at the summerhouse of one of their Martin friends, was out on Cape Cod. George had decided that they should book a hotel with some of the money he’d saved up working construction over the summer.

This was an exciting prospect, considering the sleeping arrangements at this particular party were first come, first served. Beth remembered last year sleeping on top of the pool table when all the floor space was occupied. Still, she had been better off than the kid who had slept on top of the washing machine. But nothing could beat their own private hotel room.

It was to be, as he’d told Beth a zillion times, the Weekend of Beth and George.

“This is going to be legendary,” he told her again, navigating his way through the traffic. His eyes were on the road but he was grinning nonstop. “Seriously, Bethy. You might have to take drastic measures on Monday morning and, like, contact the media to brag about this weekend.”

“Assuming we make it,” Beth said, looking out at the sea of taillights. “Have you ever noticed that the amount of traffic is in direct proportion to how badly you want to get somewhere?”

“Oh, we’ll make it!” George promised her, cocking an eyebrow at her in a naughty way. “Don’t you worry.”

Beth leaned her head back, and instructed herself to relax into the moment. She’d been so tense lately, and the last thing she wanted for this weekend was to be tense. This was like a mini-vacation. With George. What could be better?

George loved Halloween. He always had, as long as Beth had known him. And the Cape Cod party was the kind where everyone got very serious about their costumes, and even awarded prizes at midnight for creativity. Last year Beth and George had gone as Homer and Marge Simpson—and it had been one of Beth’s favorite nights all year. Something about being caked in yellow makeup and wearing blue hair, she guessed. This year, in what had started out as a kind of a fight about Beth’s swimming commitments, Beth had told George that if he wanted to go to Cape Cod, he needed to plan everything.

And I mean actually making a plan instead of planning to make a plan, she’d told him, because she had this vision of ending up sleeping in the backseat of the car, which George would claim was romantic.

To her surprise, George had been all over it. There’d been no fighting at all as he started to talk about how cool it would be to go away together, which they usually did during the summer. They hadn’t spent the whole summer together this year and maybe that was why things were weird between them.

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