There are times you can bang your head against the desk for weeks and weeks trying to write a story worth posting, then there are those inspired moments when you sit down and the words just flow. This is the latter. Not to worry, if you're waiting for a sequel, or another chapter of one of my other stories, I promise I'm working on them.
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The news was bleak. After a short, but heated argument, I was going to get stuck playing security guard to my sister and her roommate when they came down to the beach house for the first few weeks of summer vacation. I was only eighteen myself, having just celebrated my birthday a month earlier. My folks didn't have a lot of time off from work so they would come out for the first weekend, then leave us during the week to fend for ourselves. They weren't overly concerned about me but their precious first born, my sister Tara was a pretty twenty-one year old college student who now that she could get booze without having to steal it from their liquor cabinet, was a wildcard in their eyes. I don't blame them. She was the free-spirit, I was the stable one.
I banged out my finals which thankfully my school planned the week before Memorial day so that the teachers had time to grade them and get our transcripts completed and ready to ship to our respective college choices. That left the seniors with no classes as of June first. I was headed to Rutgers in the fall. Tara and Ali were at Villanova in Philadelphia.
The plan was for me to drive mom's car down to the beach and they would take dad's so we would have a car for the week. Neither of us kids ever bothered getting our own since we never had any problem borrowing one, and the driveway at home didn't have space for us to park them.
"Teddy, why don't I give you some money to fill up the tank. You pick up the girls in your dad's SUV. When he's ready we'll head south and pick up groceries for you guys before we meet you at the beach."
"Aw mom, I thought you were going to pick the girls up. Since I'm going to do most of the cooking shouldn't I do the shopping?" I asked hoping to sway her from the current plan.
Since my future was geared toward business management and culinary arts my folks had often leaned on me to cook dinner to get in practice. I blame mom and her addiction to cooking shows when we were young for getting me hooked. We only had the one TV when we were kids and the moment the cartoons were over on Saturday mornings, any day that wasn't scheduled with activities was public broadcasting cooking shows for hours. She watched, but rarely could she emulate any of the recipes. Her cooking was pretty standard professional mom fare and we made out just fine. I started getting the knack in my early teens to tackle entire menus and she gladly let me flourish in that respect as her days as an upwardly mobile corporate lawyer left her drained when she got home.
"We have a beach house, I can't afford to let you do the shopping or it will be diver scallops, and filet mignon, with truffles for every dinner until you empty my bank account." She added with a laugh.
"I was thinking Asian inspired grilled salmon, but I need to get a look at the grill first and see how bad dad left it."
"Here's some money. It should cover some drinks and snacks for the ride down." She handed me several folded twenties. "If you get there ahead of us, go ahead and open some windows, it was a bit musty the last few weekends we were there because of the rainy spring. You can help the girls get settled and make up the beds in your rooms too. Don't just ditch them and head to the boardwalk."
She gave me the well honed cold eye stare of a lawyer waiting for an answer to a question.
"Yes mom." I rolled my eyes and she reached up to ruffle my hair.
"C'mon, your sister just texted me that they were just leaving and should be here in twenty minutes. It'll take you that long to get to the station, you can probably pick them up at the curb. I warned her you were coming."
I sighed knowing I wasn't getting out of it, but knowing if I didn't give her a hard time she would think something was wrong. I had already stowed my bag in the back so I took the keys off the rack in the kitchen and headed out the door. I was thinking as I drove into town about Ali, Tara's roommate. In a conversation with Tara, mom had learned Ali like me, took karate classes, and was pre-law. I just hoped she wasn't more of a pain in the ass than Tara was.
When I got the train station I took a chance and slowly rode up to the curb hoping they were already there. I saw Tara and next to her was a tall blonde haired supermodel that I desperately hoped was Ali. I stared just long enough that I nearly drove past them. I stopped short hoping I wasn't about to get rear-ended. I put on the hazards and hopped out.
"Cook to chauffeur, is there no menial job you can't do?" Tara asked, the first shot had been fired in our casual sibling rivalry.
I popped the trunk and the blonde stepped off the curb to join Tara at the back. She swept her hair behind her ear and smiled. I melted.
"You must be Ali." I took her bag and slid it into the back before walking her around to the passenger door and opened it for her. I'd left Tara to take care of her own luggage.
"I can sit in the back."
"Absolutely not. You're our guest. If she thinks I'm her chauffeur then she can park her ass in the backseat." Once Ali was in I ran around the front to find Tara standing at the drivers door with her hand out for the keys.
"No way." I said putting my hand to her face and pushing her back gently. She rolled her eyes and got in behind the back.
"As you no doubt figured out Casanova here is my little brother Teddy. Teddy, this is Ali. Be nice or else."
"I'm always nice, just not to you."
I made my way south out of town noting I didn't need to stop for gas immediately. Once we were on the highway south I pulled into Wawa's and filled the tank before joining the ladies inside.
"It's about an hour and a half ride so get what you want, my treat." I said. Ali only grabbed a bottle of water so I decided to get some shareable snacks. We were on our way a few minutes later.
"Ali what do you like to eat?" I asked as the girls surfed their phones.
"Food mostly." She replied without looking up. I glanced sidelong at her and she had a silly grin on her face as she tapped the screen.
"As you no doubt heard I'm the chef de cuisine at chez Quinlan. So it's always good to know what people want."
"She doesn't eat. As your eyes, which practically fell out of your head when you first saw her can attest, Ali's a model, so she drinks water, eats lettuce and stares longingly through bakery windows."
That got Ali to look up from her phone. Shots were fired and it was nice to see Tara was bringing Ali into the fold. I reached over and turned up the radio and glanced at her. "Do you hear that noise coming from the back? I don't know what it is but it's really annoying."
Ali laughed at that and glanced toward the back. "I'm her roommate, I know that noise."
