Our Summer | Teen Ink

Our Summer

March 16, 2022
By ferniecat, Santa Ana, California
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ferniecat, Santa Ana, California
0 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Author's note:

I am a human

(Chapter 1)

Walking to school today is just like yesterday, the day before yesterday, and the day before that. It’s pretty much the same as always. I wish my mom could at least drive me to school but she’s probably still passed out on the floor. Dad could have taken me but he’s with another family. Amalo continues walking to school feeling anxious.

It’s been only a week since Amalo started school after a long summer at home. He continues to school then someone tickles him from his back. It was Beomgyu, Amalo’s best friend. 

¨Hey man, how was your weekend? What did you do?¨ He says while looking at Amalo.

¨Making sure my mom doesn’t end up dead,¨

Amalo looks down. ¨Oh…don’t be sad it’s okay,¨ Beomgyu gives a hug and a comforting smile to Amalo. 

They both stay silent the entire way to school not speaking, not even looking at each other just walking side by side. As soon as they both arrive at school, a swarm of people comes towards them. Beomgyu is one of the most popular people at school as he is “The Cutest Asian” at school. Amalo is one of the Hispanics at his school that no one cares to even look at. As soon as. 

¨I think I´ll go to class now,” Amalo tells Beomguy as soon as he sees all the people around him.

¨Okay, yea sure,” he responds. Beomgyu never has cared about his popularity and never really wanted any friends apart from Amalo. Amalo walks to class with Beomgyu following behind him. Kind of ironic how Beomgyu and Amalo have all of our classes together. Science is their first class, the worst possible thing that could happen in school at 8:00 AM. After they finish half of their classes, they finally get a lunch break. Amalo opens his phone and sees all the messages from


his boyfriend. It’s not messages like ¨I Love You¨ Or ¨Hey Babe¨ It’s´s ¨RESPOND NOW¨. He’s not the best… cause he hurts me. 

¨Hey sorry for earlier, I know it annoys you,¨ Beomgyu says as he sits down next to Amalo for lunch.

¨It's Fine…You can't control them anyway,¨ I watch him as he drinks his juice.

¨Hey Amalo can I see your hands,¨ Oh no did he see my bruises earlier…

¨Y-Yea of course,¨ He opens my hand and gives me a bracelet. 

¨This is for you I made it during the weekend,¨ He smiles while giving it to me 

¨Oh thanks,¨ My heart beats faster the more he looks at me. I developed feelings for him last year but I’ve never bothered to tell him, I have a boyfriend anyway so I can't cheat on him…and I´m scared of what’s going to happen If I try to cheat on him. After a while, I end up going to the school library because Beomgyu is sitting with other friends, and since he´s my only friend I have no other friends during lunch. I walk looking for books then I meet this guy ¨Daniel¨ 

"Hi um do you know where to find this book?"

I look at the book he shows me, luckily I know this library very well so I know where the book is…I show him the way to the book and I give it to him with a smile, a smile I don’t usually give…to anyone. After class, I walk back home already knowing what to expect. The person I saw at the library came towards me. You can tell it’s him because of his blue hair.

"Hey thank you for getting me that, with my IQ of 1 I would never be able to find it,¨ He laughs at his joke while I stay quiet.

"Y-yea no problem,"

I give the stare of please leave me alone cause I wanna be alone. He leaves me alone then I just keep walking to my home. When I get there I give a sigh and I open the door and get the strong smell of marijuana and beer bottles around the entire floor. 

"WHY ARE YOU HOME SO LATE?¨ 

 

My mom comes towards me with her fist raised…beating me…again. I’ve gotten so used to the pain by now that I don’t flinch at the beatings she gives me. The intentions of it are what makes me cry, knowing the person that is supposed to be the first person to love me…Is the person that will probably never love me. The person that is supposed to care for me is replaced by a best friend. I go up to my room and cry, Crying is my way of calming down. I keep getting texts from my boyfriend and being horrified of him I go meet up with him. 

"Did your mom give you another beating," 

I nod and look at him…Why is he caring about me right now…

"Why haven’t you answered my text, " I look at him and look back at the ground…

"Hm?¨ He looked at me angrily, "I was in school so I couldn’t answer," I walked away angrily and started running knowing what would happen if I didn’t. I soon start walking to the place I work at. At a small coffee shop called "Crown Coffee," I put on my uniform and start my shift. I wait for people to come in, meanwhile, I´m either on TikTok or Insta. I see the familiar blue hair and realize it’s the same boy from school with I guess what would be his friends. He walks in with 3 other guys.

"Oh hey, you’re the boy from school right?…You work here?¨ He gives me a smile 

"Well, obviously I work here cause I am here," I chuckle and give him the same smile from before. 

"These are my friends, ''Terry ``,''Sky ``, And "Abel". I wave at them and ask for their orders and of course, give them their orders.

(Chapter 2)

After a few weeks of Amalo following the same routine, Amalo kept getting to know Daniel…Amalo walks into the bathroom one day to look at his phone for a while because, to be honest, who likes to be in class? As he goes in he hears yelling from someone inside one of the 

 

stalls. He gets curious and then starts walking closer and closer. He starts seeing big blobs of blood dropping onto the floor. 

"Oh sh*t, what that person doing that’s making all that blood go onto the floor,"

I start backing away and somehow the blood starts drying up by itself, I don’t see how that is possible at all. I wash my hands pretending that I didn’t hear or see anything. I see that familiar blue hair and see it´s Daniel. He looks at me with a surprised look

"Oh hey…" He walks to the sink to wash his hands pretending nothing just happened.

"I don’t know if I should ask this right now but are you okay? I kinda saw what just happened and I´m a little bit concerned, "I give him a worried looks 

"Y-yea I'm completely fine…Just a little nosebleed," He gives me a nervous smile and you can tell he was nervous because his hands were shaking and sweating. 

"Oh okay," I smile at him and walk away like nothing happened. 

After class, I start to walk back home from school like every day. Daniel comes next to me trying to catch his breath

"Woah Buddy, Did you just run a marathon or what?" I chuckle at him but he gives me a serious look.

"No…I wanted to tell you can you like not tell anybody what happened in school about the nosebleed cause itś kind of embarrassing,"

"Yeah sure, "I didn’t question him, and after he said that he started running again. I think this dude is targeted by the mafia or something because he’s being weird. I then see three people running the way Daniel went and they zipped past me. I felt like a feather when they pushed me so hard I went in the air. I was concerned but I decided to go back home. I hope my mom is passed out cause I'm terrified of being at her house. As soon as I´m about to walk into the house my dad honks 

"Get yourself into this f*cking car right now," 

 


"Sorry I’m not about to get into the car of an *sshole who only talks to me when he needs money for his f*cking children," I start to walk inside as soon as he grabs me and starts dragging me to his car and he ends up getting me in. He gives me one of the hardest slaps in my life. 

"You didn't give the money you owe me," He gives me an angry look 

"I don’t owe you anything…You left my mother for another person that hates me with the most spoiled children and you left us nothing. You’re the reason I’m going through so much,"

 My father yells at me to get out of his car. "I swear I’m so done with life," I go inside and go to my room…I start feeling pressure on my chest that wouldn’t let me breathe. I feel dizzy and numb. Soon I started crying, after a while the feeling had gone away. My boyfriend texts me once again to meet up with him. 

"Love got me f*cked up," 

I go with him to the place we usually meet and I start thinking about doing what I've wanted to do for so long. 

"Who was that guy you were texting,"

"It’s just a friend," I look at him while I say it and he gives me the same angry look from always

"I know your lying to me," I look at him like he wasn't cheating on me

"Hey Joseph, I want to break up. Our love is like a drug. It's so bad but addictive for some reason…I would need you to fix yourself if I wanted to continue… Forgive me for bringing this upon you and me. It’s really hard for me to let you go. You won’t take advantage of me or my innocence anymore, you disguise yourself as someone you’re not and I made my version of you in my head. You have me stuck in a place I can’t get out of cause I’m tryna play on the safe side of life. I know exactly what I wanna do so goodbye," When Joseph is about to hit me I barely put my hands out to save myself and push him on the floor. I leave and go back. As soon as I get to my room I cry, I cry more than I have ever before. I start feeling pain on my head. I start seeing blood dripping from my head and get concerned

"Oh Sh*t Uh-Uh I think I´m dying,"


 I look at my mirror. I start seeing things poking out of my head and they start growing out

"Never mind I think I’m becoming the incarnation of the devil," The pain stops and the horns have grown to the fullest. I look at myself and wipe off the blood on my head and face. I look at myself once more

"Is this what happened to Daniel," I look at myself and wonder what to do with these giant *ss horns that are on my FREAKING HEAD. I start panicking wondering what people would think. 

"People will think I’m a monster,"

I start getting teary-eyed but for some reason, I don't cry. I decide to go to bed and see how I'm going to deal with it tomorrow. 

(Chapter 3)

As soon as I wake up I run straight to the mirror to see myself. When I look at myself I don't see the horns anymore

"I think this is black magic or something, It was probably just a dream I had because I don’t see how it’s possible for horns to just out of a sudden disappear," 

I brush it off as just a dream and get dressed for school. Nothing special just some jeans and a long sleeve. I walk my normal way to school and of course, see my best friend "Beomgyu". Today we just talked about the homework from last night because both of us don’t do any homework. We get to school and have like 45 minutes before school starts. 

"Hey, I'm going to go with daniel right now," 

I look at Beomgyu but he seems unpleased

"You always hang out with him and we barely hang out anymore can you just stay with me this morning," 

He gives me the puppy eyes he uses to make me feel guilty. 

"No Sorry, He asked me yesterday to meet him and I said yes,"


 I give him a soft smile and leave. 

I look back slightly and he just stands there sad. I keep walking and meet Daniel at our first class. Beomgyu usually comes late to class. As soon as Daniel sees me he hugs me. He's never seen this happy. We just became friends like 4 weeks ago. 

"It’s been like a day and I already miss you" 

He looks down on me cause he’s like 5 inches taller than me. We walk into class and I sit next to each other and watch Netflix. I look at Beomgyu once and he gives me a glare

“What's his problem today" 

When he catches me looking he looks back to his paper and pretends like nothing ever happened. 

“Hey Amalo I got us tickets to the theme park nearby so you have to go '' He gives me a smile looking desperate for me to go.

“Sure I'll go, only if you buy me a funnel cake cause ima be hungry” He gives me a big smile and walks away. 

After school, I avoid going home. I go to the park where all the little children are screaming and also that one kid crying because he fell off the top of the slide. Great memories. I see Beomgyu walking around like an idiot. I decide to go up to him after like 5 minutes

“Beomgyu! Wandering around like an idiot I see” He gives me the side-eye look and says

“Wow I didn’t know you still cared about me, shouldn’t you be with that boy Daniel” He gives me a mad look and starts forming tears in his eyes. Before He starts to cry like a tiny child I give him a hug and put my head under his chin. He gives me a really comforting hug. I wish people could give me these kinds of hugs. It feels like no one really loves me apart from him.

“Don’t cry cause you look ugly, I mean you always look ugly but especially when you cry” He gives me a pout and hugs me tighter.

“I have to go” I look at him.

“Oh ok,” Beomgyu gives me one last hug and lets me go. After I leave I meet up at another park to see Daniel. As soon as he sees me he says hi and we have a little conversation. We walked so close 


side by side we were basically holding hands with each other. As we got there you could already smell the food there was music everywhere and all the lights were lighting up as the sun was setting. After eating omne of the best funnel cakes I had, Daniel decided the worst…

“Hey Amalo we should go on a ride” I literally start sweating knowing I’m terrified of rides. I only go on carousels

“I-I I think um…Dog” 

“Aw, are you chickening out?” He laughs at me and I blush but slap him.

“No i’m not i’ll go on” I think i just made the biggest mistake I could ever make in my life. f*ck He takes my arm to a freaking drop tower. Out of everything he could have chosen he had to choose a drop tower I think i'm going to faint. As soon as we start going up I hold Daniel's hand tight because I’m about to cry. As soon as I open my eyes I see WERE STILL ON THE F*CKING GROUND.

“DANIEL HAVE WE EVEN GONE UP I COULD HAVE SWORN I FELT US GO UP”

“We haven't even moved” He laughs and holds my hand tighter.

“I'll protect you” He smiles again. This dude is horribly corny. I don't know what I see in him. As soon As the ride starts going up I close my eyes tight again. I feel the drop down and scream and hold Daniel's hand even more tight. I feel the ride stop. 

“Oh that wasn't that bad” I look at Daniel shaking.

“N-not that bad…I think you broke my hand” I see him smiling with tears. I drag him away as he is still shaken up. When he's alright after like an hour he decides to play one of those rigged carnival games that I can never win. Daniel wins on the first try and gets me a teddy bear.. THIS DUDE IS A MAGICIAN HOW DID HE GET IT. 


After a while of being there we decided to leave. Before we go we take a picture in front of the ferris wheel. We started walking back home and then I saw Daniel's nose start bleeding.

“Daniel I think you have a nosebleed” I look at him and give him a napkin.


“Oh thank you” He starts speeding up while walking and I don't ask why he's going faster and I just follow. Its like he doesn't want me too see something,

Daniel's nose starts to bleed even more so I run out of tissues to give him.

“Daniel I'll take you home if you want because It seems like your not okay right now and I wanna make sure you make it home”

“NO, I mean you can't come home with me because my parents will be mad for coming home so late with a friend” He looks at me nervously.

“Daniel I wont leave whether you like it or not”

(Chapter 4)

I go into his house and it seems like no one's home. He shows me the way to his room before I enter his room. He falls onto the floor and starts yelling. I see blood coming out of his head. 

“Amalo go please” He looks at me, almost crying. I just stand there, Right now i'm probably looking like a psychopath looking at horns growing out of his head. The horns dig their way up. After his horns grow I hug him tightly. 

“Daniel, it's okay” He looks at me crying and hugs me back tightly. After a little while I take him to his room and sit him on his bed. I wiped off his blood. 

“No one has ever cared about me this much” He chuckles and looks at me. I look at him and chuckle too.

“Can I ask you something…” He looks at me seriously. 

“Yea sure” I say sympathetically.

“Why weren't you scared when you saw horns growing out of his head, I mean a regular human would probably be horrified and never talk to me ever again” He said

“It happened to me too. I was even wondering if this is what happened to you too and it seems like I was right in assuming that” I look at him and he seems shocked.


“These horns represent one of your problems being taken away. It's a gift. It's given to 6 people around the world but I know most of them already. The friends I presented to you at the coffee shop last time were 3 of them.Your the 5th. It's a surprise that we could find you because I thought It would take way more time. We have to find the 6th person now. We don't know how far or close they are and it will be tough to find them” I look at him in shock after that long ass explanation. We stare at each other for a very long while.

“ Well i'm glad because…After a while I realized that I li-” Daniel gives me a long kiss on the lips. 

“I think that's to prove that I also like you” He smiles.

“I don't think that's enough yet”  I chuckle and he starts kissing my entire face. After an entire makeout session he says

“I think those are enough kisses for a little baby like you” I chuckle and caress his soft blue hair. 

“Are the horns bothering you?” He looks at me. 

“Nope they look cute on you” We both laugh.

“Hey Daniel, I think I should go home.” I look at him and he gives me puppy eyes again. 

“But it's too late and they might kidnap you and I don't want to be alone tonight” He gets under a blanket and tries to look cute. 

“But I really have t-” He grabs my arms and starts pouting and gives me those puppy eyes.

“Okay okay i’ll stay but just for tonight” He gives me a bright smile and hugs me.

“Thank You, Thank You” 

“I'll sleep on the floor” He looks at me from his bed.

“You can sleep with me, I don't mind, the floor must be uncomftorbale” He keeps looking at me. 

“No im used to it” 

“Oh okay” He says

I try sleeping but for some reason it's hard for me to sleep. I don't want to wake Daniel up but I decide to because I couldn't sleep.

 

“Hey Daniel, can I sleep with you cause I can't sleep?” He pulls me up from the floor and puts me on his bed. 

“ Yes you can,” He chuckles. We both lay down and I actually slept well for the first time in a very long while. As soon as I wake up I notice Daniel's arms around me and I feel very comforted by him. I take out my phone and check what time it is.

“Oh It's only 7:54, WAIT ITS 7:54” I shake Daniel awake and he wakes up in a heartbeat.

“DANIEL ITS 7:54” We both get out of bed quickly and just run to school. 

“Good thing I brought my backpack” I look at daniel. We both run to school bursting into class at the same time the bell rings. Everyone looks at me and Daniel. I notice Beomgyu glaring at us mad. Did I do something wrong? 

“Hi beomgyu” He doesn't even bother looking at me and starts talking to his other friends. I decided to leave him alone for now. After class when we go to lunch I go next to Beomgyu and he's sitting next to some other people and I sit next to him 

“Hey Beo-” Before I can continue he cuts me off

“It would be better for you to leave” He gets angry at me and I leave without saying anything. I sit next to Daniel and Beomgyu glares at Daniel and I ignore it. Me and Daniel go to the library to study and we hold hands there for the first time.


After class me and Daniel hold hands and we both end up walking to my house. When we get there he holds my head and gives me a kiss on the lips. 

“I love you” He looks at me smiling. 

“I love you too” I hugged him before walking in. I look for my mom in the house but I don't see her. I go up to her room and see her body on the floor with a syringe still in her arm 

“M-Mom, Wake up” Tears start forming in my eyes. I called 911 informing them about the situation. 


“Mom please wake up” I started crying on her and waited for the paramedics to get there. I feel a sharp pain on my head again. I see horns rising on my head. After about 10 minutes they're gone and the paramedics get there. I tried calling Beomgyu but he still won’t even respond. The paramedics take my mom and I go in the ambulance with her. As soon as she gets into the hospital I can hear the little sound that a machine makes when someone is dying. As they go into a room I stay outside and cry. I know my mom didn’t treat me well after my dad left us but I knew she was always good on the inside. As I'm crying someone taps me from behind. It was daniel. He squats down and looks at me worried.

“Amalo is something wrong? Why are you here?” He keeps looking at me. 

“My mom died…” He wipes my tears and hugs me. 

“It's okay my baby” he hugs me tighter from the back of my neck.

“Why are you here?” I look at him still teary-eyed. He gets up and then gets me and holds my hand. We walk for a little while. 

“My older brother got into a fight a month ago and then he got knocked out and he's been in a coma ever since. Today it actually turned into a month since he's been in a coma” I look at him feeling bad.

“Oh sorry…Have your parents visited” He ignores my question 

“Hey, you hungry? I can go get us food” He looks down at me.

“Uh, yeah sure” I wait for him to bring food. I see him coming with some subway sandwiches. He could have bought something better but I guess this will do. He gives me my sandwich. 

“Sorry I forgot to ask you what you like so I just got you this,” He says. 

“That's okay” I smile and start eating. 

“You like a bunny when you eat” I blush. 

I see my dad walk into the hospital. My parents were never actually divorced but broken up. I leave when my dad gets there and I walk out with Daniel. He can handle what comes next.

“Wow it's a nice night,” Daniel says while hugging me. 


“Daniel can I stay at your house since I kind of have no house now” 

“Yes of course” We both walk to Daniel's house and as soon as we get there I look around to see if his parents are there. I see no one and the house seems really empty, maybe also because it's a 2 story house.

I go up with Daniel to his room and get on his bed and do homework. 

“Are you really gonna do homework after what happened?” He asks.

“I mean yea it's inevitable” I look at him and smile.


After a long hour of doing homework with Daniel I decided to ask him.

“So what happend to your parents?” I look at him and he looks back at me nervous.

“I've never really told anyone about this but they're dead. They got into a car crash a year ago. I've been alone with my brother but now I'm by myself since he's in the hospital” He looks at me and about to cry. 

“Oh…” I hug him and pat his back. 

“We should go to bed, I don't feel good, I think the sandwich made my stomach hurt” He looks at me pouting. 

“Yea” I responded and lay down next to him. I stay there thinking how hard his life has been. I soon end up falling asleep. I've been asleep and I woke up hugging Daniel this time. I check the time again

“7:01” I wake up and make Daniel some waffles for breakfast. When I wake him up he starts groaning because of his stomach. I carry him on my back to try to get him to eat but he really doesn't want to eat. 

“You hate to eat a little at least daniel” God this feels like i’m taking care of a child. After what felt like an eternity I finally got him to get a bite of a waffle. After I finished eating because Im not gonna feed him anymore. I realize that hes actually pretty bad from his stomach. 

“Amalo I dont think I can go to school today” He looks at me looking like a freaking zombie. 


This dude is probably gonna start the zombie apocalypse. I walk him back upstairs to his bed. 

“I don’t mind skipping school for a day” I look at him. After an entire day of taking a nap he talks.

“I appreciate you watching me and taking care of me but I kind of feel like I’m on my death bed watching people who are gonna see me die” He stares at the ceiling with wide eyes. 

“You okay daniel” I look at him concerned.

 “Yea I’m still alive”. I think he’s gone into his sick emo phase. I go downstairs to make him soup because I’m a better chef than ratatouille. As I make him soup I burn my hand. I yell when I feel the burning sensation of my skin being burned and I start getting flashbacks to the times when my mom used to hit me. I start having a feeling where I can’t breathe my arms become tingly my vision goes dark again. I start sitting down on the floor gasping for air. Daniel comes up to me and hugs me holding my arms trying to calm me down. I slowly calm down and hug daniel back.

“Daniel I love you” I look at him with my puffy eyes. 

“I love you too” he hugs me 

I sit down and drink a cup of water. I take deep breaths and keep calming down.

“Daniel can you hug me one more time,” I say while putting my head on his shoulder. He gives me another hug and kisses me. 

“You’ve been through so much, how did you deal with it?”  Daniel looks at me sorta smiling. 

“I just do what I need to do in life and hide what goes on, I feel happy if I’m like that” I lay my head on his shoulder again.

“Amalo. We found the next person that had horns. We have a place where all the people that have this go to. Do you maybe wanna go?” He looks down at me nervously.

“I mean yeah I have nothing to do today or ever so why not?” After I say that daniel takes me to a building I didn’t even know existed it was a restaurant covered with very pretty vines from the outside. Daniel takes me to a corner of the restaurant that had an elevator. 

“Whatever you do…keep your eyes closed” We both go in and stay with our eyes closed. Daniel pushes something and the elevator shakes violently. After what seemed like a year we finally go to another place. When I looked the place was full of flowers and one big tree in the middle. I saw all 5 people with horns and then I started to grow my horns. This time it didn’t hurt. I saw all the friends daniel introduces me to but one caught my eye. It was beomgyu. 

“Wait beomgyu is that you?” We look at each other surprised. 

“Yea…” We hug eachother. This world feels really different with no worries and no mistakes that can be done. 

“Do you like it?” Daniel looks at me.

“Yes, I do?” Daniel kisses me and looks at me.       El Fin.



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This book has 1 comment.


Makyek BRONZE said...
on Mar. 24 2022 at 12:39 am
Makyek BRONZE, Phoenix, Arizona
4 articles 0 photos 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I'm not mad at you because you called stefan I'm mad at you because I love you"-Damon Salvatore
"I'm not sorry for loving you"-Elena Salvatore

This was so good. I was so invested and actually started crying