Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Mia
“This is it! This is the last summer I’m coming up here with you guys!” Ruby snapped from the back row of the van. She’d decided she needed the entire back row to herself this year for the drive up to Agate Harbors. I sat in one of the captain’s chairs in the middle of the car.
“Ruby…” our dad cautioned from the driver’s seat after glancing at her in the rearview mirror.
“I’m eighteen now. This is the last year you’re making me come up here.”
It was the summer before Ruby left for college, and she was never home, always babysitting or off doing super important things with her friends.
My parents had thought making her come with us this last summer would force one last chance at family bonding, but they didn’t realize this week wouldn’t be any different.
She’d disappear with the girls from the resort who she always hung out with.
Mom sighed, cradling her forehead between her thumb and index finger in the passenger seat.
“I think that’s enough, Ruby…” Dad said. “You’ve already put us through plenty today.”
Ruby had climbed into the van without the sweatshirt she was always wearing recently. I’d thought it odd that she’d been wearing sweatshirts in June but had brushed it off as just Ruby being Ruby. She always did her own thing.
I’d come to expect that, but this time, she’d really put our parents over the edge. It turned out that under her sweatshirts, she’d been hiding new tattoo sleeves and some ink on her chest, which she’d chosen to reveal to us all today.
It had taken several threats from our parents to cut off her cell phone data to get her up here this year—now I wondered if they regretted threatening to cut off her data when they should’ve been threatening to cut off all the time she’d spent babysitting, saving up for what had to have been a very expensive tattoo.
Fighting against my curiosity, I tried not to stare at it, or at least what I could see of it beneath the V-neck shirt she wore, as I pulled up my socks that had fallen toward my ankles.
I hated that feeling. My quirks hadn’t gotten any better over the past year.
If I was being honest with myself, they’d probably gotten worse.
“Mia…” Mom said from the passenger seat.
My face scrunched up at the sound of my name. How typical. With Ruby already slinging attitude, I became the easy target to harp on.
“Make sure you check in with us at least once a day. We need to know you’re okay.”
Our car passed the welcome sign for the small town where Agate Harbors was located, reading Population 207. The only people who lived in the small town of Northpoint year-round were the resort owners and employees.
“If I had a cell phone, I could just text you.” I’d just turned sixteen and had already completed all the behind-the-wheel hours required. I was ready to get my license.
It was my turn for a pointed glance in the rearview mirror from Dad. “You’ll get a cell phone after you get your driver’s license.”
“I’m ready right now,” I argued. “I’d pass. I’m a good driver.”
“I know you’re a good driver, Mia.” Mom turned around in her seat to look at me. “But your father and I agree you need some time to mature before you get your license.”
My dad grunted in agreement.
I groaned. This wasn’t the first time we’d had this conversation, but it didn’t get any easier to hear.
“You can’t even dress properly.” Mom looked down toward my feet. “You wear rain boots every single day.”
“I’ve already explained to both of you why I wear them—I don’t have a choice.” My voice was flat, almost monotone. We’d literally had this conversation every morning during the school year before I’d left for the bus in my rain boots.
I had Bower to thank for the rain-boot idea—they were lifesavers.
The boots kept all the dirt away from my skin from the knees down.
The yellow ones Bower had given me had stayed at the resort, but I’d bought a black pair back home that matched everything I wore.
They worked great in the winter and on rainy days—no one looked at me funny when I was wearing them.
But in the spring and summer, everyone gave me strange looks when I wore them.
Especially at school, when all the girls were wearing cute sandals and I showed up in my cumbersome rain boots, but I had to wear them.
I couldn’t think about anything else if I wasn’t.
I’d tried other types of boots, but they weren’t the same.
They squeezed my feet unevenly or had laces that pressed against my feet too tight.
Nothing compared to the smooth insides of rain boots.
The rubber remained in a permanent shape, and there were no laces to mess with.
Every time I slid my foot inside them, I knew what I was getting.
The boots would be comfortable, and my feet would stay protected. They’d become a safety net of sorts.
“Don’t pretend like you don’t have a choice,” Mom said, turning back around. “You have at least three pairs of sandals in your closet at home.”
I put my head in my hands, bending over and stretching the seat belt. They didn’t get it.
“Look, I packed a pair for you. A nice pair. Birkenstocks.” I sat up and watched Mom pull out a pair of brown leather Birkenstock sandals from her bag. “The ones we got you for your birthday last year. All the girls are wearing them.”
They were my version of a nightmare. The leather rubbing against my skin, the sand and dirt that would inevitably get under my feet and between my toes…
She handed them back to me. “Put them on.”
“No, thanks.” I pushed them back toward her.
Dad cleared his throat. “Listen to your mother.”
The van’s walls suddenly felt closer, the tall trees we were driving by moving faster. The seat belt cut into my lap and my shoulder, holding me in place. “But I—”
“Put them on, Mia! You’re not going to walk around the resort all week in rain boots. It’s supposed to be ninety degrees and humid. You’ll look ridiculous.”
“I can’t, Mom—”
“Do what your mother says!” Dad yelled from the driver’s seat.
Our car swerved a little as he yelled. I hunched over in my seat, trying to make myself small.
“It’s time to grow up, Mia,” he spouted, his forehead red and splotchy in the rearview mirror.
“You can’t wear rain boots for the rest of your life.
” He ran his hand through his hair before he let out a breath and gripped the wheel.
I took the sandals from Mom and pulled off my boots. My nose felt tickly, and a tear trailed down my cheek. They didn’t get it. They never let me fully explain. But even if I did have the chance to and they listened, would they understand? Probably not.
A hand slid onto my shoulder from behind, and I looked back to see Ruby looking at me with sympathy.
I lifted my shoulder and bent my neck to the side, giving her hand a squeeze between my shoulder and ear.
We didn’t always get along, but she knew how Mom and Dad could be.
She’d been rebelling against them her whole life.
Next year, when Ruby was gone, it would just be me at home. I wasn’t looking forward to the undivided attention.
I finished pulling off my boots and slid my feet into my sandals. I still had my socks on. It was at least a small barrier.
Mom’s hand reached back toward me again, this time empty. “Boots please.”
I put them into her hand with the dirty soles resting against her palm. That was about as rebellious as I got.
An arched sign over the gravel drive read Agate Harbors. I let a sense of relief wash over me. We were here.
The resort looked the same as it always did. Brown cabins scattered among tall oaks and evergreen trees. Small bonfire pits sprinkled among the cabins with wood stacked next to them, ready for an evening fire.
My dad stopped at the lodge to check in and grab the keys before we parked at our cabin. Ruby and I jumped out and grabbed our bags from the trunk. I took a minute to breathe in the fresh air. It always felt different up here.
I walked cautiously up the gravel walkway to the cabin, careful to not let any stray pieces of gravel flip into my sandals.
We climbed up the deck and entered through the back door.
Ruby and I hightailed it up the stairs and into the loft, throwing our duffels onto our beds.
I had an extra bag of blankets with me as usual.
“Let’s get out of here before she makes us help unpack,” Ruby whispered.
I nodded in agreement. The four-hour car ride had been enough time with our parents for today. We snuck out the front of the cabin just as Mom and Dad made it through the back door with bags of groceries in their hands.
Ruby waved at me before she trotted off to find her friends. I knew exactly where I was heading. It would take me longer in sandals, but I’d get there just the same.
“Mia!” Betty’s voice rang out the minute she saw me walking up the gravel road toward the lodge. She gingerly got up from the flower bed she was weeding to greet me.
“It’s always such a treat to see you,” Betty said as she held me. “Come inside and have a Popsicle with me. Bower will be back soon. He’s off on the boat with Dean.”
I followed her into their cabin, and Betty pulled out a chair from the round table in the middle of the kitchen before she opened the freezer and started digging around.
I sat there, surrounded by photos of Betty and Gill in front of different parts of Agate Harbors throughout the years and photos of Bower as a little boy.
“So, how are your parents and your sister?” Betty asked as she handed me a packaged Popsicle. I ripped open the wrapper, pleased to discover it was orange. The best flavor.
“They’re fine,” I answered quickly before shoving the Popsicle into my mouth. I didn’t really want to talk about them. Especially after what had happened earlier in the car. I looked down at my new Birkenstocks, which had probably already given me a blister.