For the rest of August, I kept wondering about Johnny. Why had it felt so different hugging him like that? He’d always been a best friend, a brother even, so I shouldn’t feel like that towards him, right? I tried my hardest to ignore it, and I most certainly did NOT mention it to Tony. We spent every summer day together, everyday was a new adventure. We went to the pool, on a bike ride through the woods, hiking, on a picnic in a random meadow we’d found, it was perfect. Blissful. I knew he was the one for me, some of my friends in Texas that I’d write to would tell me I was ridiculous, but when they’d come to visit, they saw that there was something special there; Pure, absolute love. Call it puppy love; call it just a childhood crush that wouldn’t last, but you weren’t in our position. We talked about marriage, we argued over what we’d name our kids (we finally decided on Katherine & Damon), and we talked about just always being together. School was coming back to fill our beautiful days once more on September 21st, and me & Tony prayed we’d be in all the same classes again. We never could have imagined what was still to come.






******
September 9th, 2009. Tony and Sylvia were visiting their cousins in LBI, and I was about to call LuLu to hang out when my doorbell rang. It was Johnny. My heart raced for about 5 seconds before I internally told it to shut up.
“Hey Cherry!” He said walking in. His chocolate eyes seemed warm & cozy; like a wool blanket on a stormy night, and his smile was almost glowing in the sun. STOP IT! My brain shouted You love TONY!
“Hey JoJo!” I smiled trying to keep the image of the awkward, gangly kid he once was.
“I brought over “Legend of Princess Zelda” wanna play?” he said holding up my favorite video game of all time taughtingly in my face.
“Duh!” I laughed. We played for about 3 straight hours, and I started to relax, we could still be best friends even though he had become suddenly boyishly cute. It was dark as we were saying goodbye, the stars were hanging over my front lawn and the crickets chirped in perfect harmony. It’s like the background music for some romance movie I thought absently.
“I had fun today, Cherry.” Johnny’s voice snapped me out of my daze.
“Oh yeah, me too. We defiantly don’t hang out enough.”
“I know a way we could.” Johnny stepped closer, there was almost no space between us.
“I’m glad we’re buddies, JoJo.” I said trying to step back, but my legs refused to cooperate.
“We don’t have to be.” He whispered, his hands cupping my face. “I’m in love with you, Summer.” My heart was pounding, This isn’t right! I don’t love him!
“Johnny, I-“
Too late. He was kissing me, and I wasn’t pulling away. It felt strange, like kissing your brother, but it also felt sweet & beautiful. NO! Pull away Summer, NOW! But I couldn’t. His arms were holding me to him, and I just couldn’t find the will to move away.
“Summer?”
Johnny stopped kissing me. The world went dead. It was like a movie someone had just muted and dimmed the color on. I turned as slowly as possible, praying there had been some mistake. There wasn’t.
Standing in front of me & Johnny, looking more hurt than I’d ever seen him, was Tony DeVito.