Four Summers Read Online Free PDF

replies to that. We pull up back at home and turn off the car. Everyone piles out. My insides don’t know if they’re excited to play, to hang out with Alec and the people we know. To do something comfortable, or if I’m freaked out because being around Nathaniel seems to make me that way.
    “You ready?” Alec asks, but he’s not looking at me. He’s looking at Brandon.
    “You know it.” Brandon grins.
    “Charlie Rae! Thank God you’re back. I’m going to need your help a little bit, kiddo!” Dad calls from his perch by one of the boats.
    I deflate. It doesn’t matter if I was excited before. Doesn’t matter if I wasn’t sure how I felt because now there isn’t a choice.
    “We were going to play football,” I say, knowing it won’t change anything.
    Dad looks bummed. “It won’t take long. I’ll make it real quick and then you can get back to your friends.”
    I turn back to the group. This is where Alec would usually say he’d stay and help me. We’d get done quickly and go play, but the look on his face—the guilt blending with the desire to play is as plain as day
    “Go with them. I’ll be over when I’m done.”
    “Thanks, Charlie. That’s why I love you.” He gives me a hug and then bounces on the balls of his feet. All energy, like he always gets when he plays football.
    “Want me to stay?” Nathaniel asks. “I can help.”
    That causes Alec to pause. It makes my heart stutter, too.
    “No,” I shake my head. “That’s okay.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Charlie! Hurry up, please!” Dad shouts.
    “I have to go,” I say, and turn around to walk away.

It’s dark outside when I slowly slide open my window and sneak out. I’m not sure my parents would really care. I’m sure they wouldn’t. It’s not like I’d be sneaking out to meet a boy or do anything dangerous, but I still never let them know. They wouldn’t understand my fascination with the night. With the stars and how they amaze me and make me wonder what else there is in the world.
    Sure they know I like them, but they don’t know how the stars carry my dreams. That I wish I could drift away on one and see and explore everywhere.
    That's a fact I like to keep just for me.
    Tonight, I need a little piece of that thing that’s just mine. By the time I finished helping Dad this afternoon, the football game was over. Sadie was angry because Brandon disappeared with Alec to do some stupid boy stuff and, according to her, she didn’t know or care where Nathaniel was. I’d used the home phone twice to call Alec, but he didn’t pick up or call back. That’s never happened before and I know I shouldn’t let it bother me, but it does.
    It’s not like I should want to hang out with them anyway. Alec can be best friends with that stupid summer boy if he wants to.
    When I walk by one of the cabins, a noise startles me. Looking over I see the older couple in chairs on their porch. The light shows me they’re holding hands. Pausing, I watch them for a second, my heart going pitter-patter as I think about how much they much love each other and how hard it must be to know, they’ll soon be separated. Shaking my head, I start walking again.
    It doesn’t take me long to walk to my spot. There are other places I like to go at The Village, places that are more private and harder to get to, but tonight I don’t go to them. Tonight I want to be here, in this same little place I snuck off to the other night with the cool view, down the beach.
    I have my telescope in the bag over my shoulder. My eyes are following the light from my flashlight as it dances across the ground. I’m not even wearing any shoes, because it doesn’t matter out here. For a minute I think of my toenails and how plain they are without all the colors that Sadie Ann and Mom like to use. Maybe I should paint mine too.
    I shake my head. I have no idea why I’m thinking about my toenails right now. I’ve never cared how they looked before, so I’m not about to