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summer.
    “Chase,” Whit says softly, “what’s going on with you?”
    Looking up at her, I decide to be completely honest. Well, completely honest without the details.
    “I fucking hate summer.”
     

Chapter 7
     
    CHASE
     
    11 years ago…
     
    Last summer was the best one yet. This summer is the last time we’ll have to wait. By next summer, she’ll be graduating and moving out here. I’d move there if I could, but she knows I can’t leave my mother. She’d be dead if I wasn’t constantly here to save her life.
    Most people don’t consider her life to be a life worth saving, but she’s still my mother. She did what she could until life got too hard and she started drowning it out. Now it’s my turn to take care of her.
    It sucks, but it’s the way it is. I’d love nothing more than to get out of Hayden, but I’ll be stuck here for the rest of my life or until Mom finally manages to get herself killed when I’m not in time to save her.
    Besides, Hayden has one silver lining. It’s our fucking nest. And Mika will make this place shine once she’s here.
    Annoyed with the fact it’s been four days past the normal time she shows up, I decide to finally head over to her dad’s place. Mika’s parents split up this past winter, which isn’t surprising. I think Jessica hated Milton most days, and he looked more exhausted every time I saw him.
    Mika is nothing like her mother, thankfully.
    Dad’s truck is gone, which isn’t a surprise. He’s probably off getting loaded at the bar in town, blowing what little bit of money we have on booze and poker. I have a decent paying job during the off season. I’m saving every fucking dime of it too. That way we’ll be one step closer to having that bowling alley next summer. Then… Then we’ll have endless summers.
    Grabbing my skateboard, I jog down the dirt road until I hit pavement. As soon as there’s a smooth patch of road, I toss the board down, and start kicking my way to Mika’s much faster. It seems to take forever, but I finally get there.
    Confusion and excitement hit me at once when I see the BMW inside the open garage. She’s here, which is perfect, but she didn’t come to me, which is the confusing part.
    As soon as I step onto the porch, the door swings open before I get a chance to knock, and Milton gives me a grim, pitying expression. If Mika isn’t answering the door, then she’s probably in trouble for something. Normal kids get into trouble.
    “What?” I ask him. “Is Mika grounded or something?”
    I don’t know what it’s like to be grounded. If I piss my parents off they just throw shit at me or hurl insults my way. So I’m not sure what the protocol for being grounded is.
    “Mika can’t come this summer. Her mother is being stubborn and irrational.”
    My entire stomach slams into my toes, and my legs turn to rubber. By some miracle, I manage to stay upright.
    “You’re sure?” I ask in a whisper that betrays the fact I’m trying not to act like he just punched me.
    His pitying expression becomes more pronounced. It never once crossed my mind that she wouldn’t get to come. She never wrote anything like that in any of her letters.
    “Look, Chase, I like you, kid. You know I do, but can I ask you an honest question?”
    No idea what this has to do with Mika not coming, but I nod, unable to speak at the moment. Why hasn’t she written me about not coming?
    “What happens when Mika is allowed to leave home? Do you two plan on eloping? Going to college? Going straight to work? I’ve asked her, but she refuses to even acknowledge me on the matter. The problem is that Mika has her own goals, but she’d give every one of them up just to be swallowed by your own dreams.”
    Clearing my throat, I finally sit down. I can’t speak and stand, so sitting is the only option. The wicker chair creaks beneath me as I run my hand through my hair.
    “We’re going to buy the Pins and Balls bowling alley as soon as we