'Clouds in the Summer' Ch. 3

Reading Music: Choose a song from "A Quarrelsome Playlist" on YouTube or Spotify

Dear Old Friend,

𝙸 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎.

Thinking about you made everything in my world lighter. How did I guess you were my needle in a haystack at first sight? I'm not afraid to put myself out there, and it's not a problem of being too particular. I don’t want a forced truth with someone else. I’ll never forget when you messaged me, “It’s raining. I’ll be thinking about you.”

"It's like she's left me with all of this unfinished business. I'm feeling really" Oakley tosses the letter beside its messy open box "manipulated."

''She wrote you a little book. You're in a situation, Oak. I would've thrown those away a long time ago'' Josh says eating cereal from across the kitchen.

''You wouldn't have hidden them around the city, huh? That doesn't sound like fun?''

''Uh, maybe! But that would be enabling.''

"Enabling what?"

"What you're complaining about."

''Which is what?''

''I don't know what it is that you two can't put down about each other. It's really obvious to me that she wants you to go after her.''

''I know for a fact that she doesn't think I'd ever actually go after her'' he looks off into the distance. "It's a bit of a trip from here."

''You are unbelievable. I never liked Harmony, and we didn't really want you to talk to her, ever. Georgia told me everything.''

"Okay. Georgia had something to say about a lot of people, including you and I, and aside from that, friends and rumors- you know the story. You and Georgia and a lot of other people said stupid things about Harmony right in front of me."

"I've never judged someone based on rumors" Josh rolls his eyes.

"Maybe I did just a little bit."

"You have to, dude. Sometimes they're true. You even told me they were a little bit true."

"But I didn't want her thinking about herself what you guys kept throwing out."

"I hear you, man- were jerks to her. So now we're here where she's written you a book's worth of love. She'd be surprised to see me again" Josh smirks as he clears the table. "So Portland? Eugene? Salem? Where in Oregon do you think she's living?"

"I looked up the coast on the map, and Cannon Beach rings a bell. I'm 99% sure it was Cannon Beach."

"My dad's got a property there."

"Of course he does."

"Takes forever to sell. We could literally go all the way there and chill if we wanted to" Josh comments with half-seriousness as he leaves the bowl and spoon in the sink. "I don't work Monday and the shop is closed on the fourth anyway."

"I heard there's some cool ghost stories about the coasts."

"I hope the ghosts don't scare her away then."

"She was really into the history and all of the stories wrapped around it. She told me she thought I didn't remember anything- like anything she said about herself."

"Like, the little things."

"Exactly. It kind of felt like she was calling me dumb, honestly."

"From what I used to see, one of you would be mad at the other one, and whoever made that one mad was like, you didn't really get how you made them mad. In her case it was definitely like she would overthink things when you'd act like something she said just didn't make a lot of sense to you or if you called her out for being tense, or stooping down to the gossip level. You follow me?"

"Yeah."

"See? I remember things too. We're both doing better in the thinking-department than she gives us credit for."

"Yeah, I mean I don't like gossip from anybody. I was thinking, you can't just gossip and keep thinking about and sharing all of these things- you need to move on."

"Red flag. And I believe the girl moves first nowadays. I sit back and wait" Josh sits on the chair by the island.

"Harmony isn't okay with that" Oakley laughs, still perched on the counter.

"Hey, none of these girls deserve it and I don't think they ever did. Just because you're a woman does not mean I automatically have all of these rules to upkeep. We're past that now."

"You're killing chivalry."

"Purposefully. You remember that argument around the campfire."

"That was so funny. We laughed the whole way home at how you two were trash-talking."

"I thought she was bad at the trash-talking, and I made that clear."

"She wasn't."

"I was trash-talking celebs. I think they're all working for, you know."

"What's that?"

"The shadow government."

"Wow. That's right. I thought that was something you believed during our junior year."

"I was serious, which is why I got this tattoo of the illuminati there" the tattoo above his elbow is a stepping stone in his modest tattoo sleeve. "She didn't like it."

"Yeah, I remember she was like why?"

"I don't think any of the famous people look like they age. There's a chance they're already AIs. And if they're not, they all get famous over blasting them and their exes' sh*t."

"That's why she was laughing- you said a few times over 'that's our sh*t- why you gotta play it like that and perform it all over the world?" Oakley laughs honestly. "I wouldn't say she's the starstruck-groupie type you accused her of being."

"Definitely annoyingly mysterious at times, and then it's like, annoyingly open at other times. I don't like her because Georgia doesn't like her, and Nicki doesn't like her, Clara, McKenna, Bradley, Stefan, John- I thought she was really disruptive in math class."

"Funny- I'm picturing a grapevine in my mind right now."

"Dude, she was not chill. She read books in math class."

"Books in math class? That sounds weird."

"They weren't related to math. The teacher kept telling her it wasn't a lit class. Huh, wait- lit class. A class...that's lit. I need to write a rap about that. Up in this lit math class, homie jealous of my lit tatts, she's trying to bum out my lit-day, lit-hour, in this lit-class" he speaks into his phone. "Watchin them read stuff in math, screamin' 'Stop reading! Put your books about me away- this was never a lit-class! Ah, whatever, I'll work on it. "

"Nice. I like how you really emphasized it at the end there."

"Anyway, dude, I'll ask my dad and see what's up. You know he's cool with it so be ready to hear back from me about this weekend."

"I'm really not in a rush to try and show up in front of her, but sure, I'll go have a blast in Cannon Beach if it works out."

Josh picks up his keys and places his sunglasses on top of his head. "I'm sure she's a homebody no matter where she goes. Maybe hide em around over there for her to go find. Or I'll be a friend and help you throw them into the ocean, maybe with slingshots or something like that. Or finda cannon since it's Cannon Beach."

"Thanks man. I'll let you know what I decide."

"Later."

Josh's theme song