Excerpt, The Boy Who Came That Summer

Richard hadn’t been working six days like he had hoped, but he also hadn’t asked Simon to do so. He wanted to every day, but he either forgot while working or talking and joking around with his coworkers or was nervous to ask him because Simon seemed like an angry guy.

At the same time, he hadn’t been that focused on working six days, either. In fact, the plan to move back to Chattanooga had become a longshot at this point. He didn’t mind that much, anyway. He had made a real close bond with Mark, Darrell, Julien and Cesar at work and was looking to see where things went with Kelsey.

He was back at her place the Friday after the party, just sitting around in her living room watching TV and enjoying what Kelsey called Italian grilled cheese sandwiches – basically white bread with mozzarella cheese as opposed to cheddar cheese.

It was a more filling sandwich, but it was so good. Richard wished he could eat more, but after four, he became full. He sat in a layback position on Kelsey’s couch, looking at the ceiling and taking deep breaths.

“So…. full,” he said between breaths. Kelsey laughed.

“I told you they were delicious,” she said.

“So fucking delicious,” he said, licking his lips. Kelsey laughed again. He wasn’t trying to be funny, but he was happy to see she found him to be.

“You want to go out in the backyard? Too nice to be sitting inside,” she said. Richard looked at her, still breathing heavily.

“Sure. Let’s go sit outside,” he said. “I’ll need a water bottle, though.” Kelsey grabbed two water bottles from the fridge and the two went down the back steps into the backyard.

Kelsey’s backyard was an average sized one with a table on either side of the yard, one by the back gated fence and one in the shade next to the back door. Richard sat in the shade and guzzled down half of his water bottle while Kelsey, who wore a white shirt and black Nike shorts, went over to her basketball hoops and began shooting shots from different spots, missing almost all of them.

“Ha-ha. You suck,” Richard mocked her, still slumping in his chair. She raised an eyebrow at him.

“I know you’re not talking about me like that, sitting like a lump on a log,” she said, laughing at her own insult.

“You’re damn right I’m talking about you,” Richard continued to mock her.

“Get up and show me what you got then, Larry Bird,” she said. He looked at her, his eyes wide open. She had just challenged him, and he never turned down a challenge.

“Oh, that’s it. It’s on like ping-pong now,” he said. He shot out of his chair and joined her on the grass. He took the ball from her and started dribbling. Kelsey knelt down and began to play a defender. He drove up to the basket and laid a shot in.

“Boo-yah,” he said.

“Alright. First to ten wins,” Kelsey said.

“Bring it on,” Richard said back.

Kelsey got off to a 5-2 lead, but Richard came back and took a 6-5 lead of his own. After that, he began trying to throw Kelsey off her game.

“What do you got, huh? What do you got?” he said every time she had the ball. She had made a couple shots to bring her up to nine points, and Richard kept telling her how she got lucky on each shot made.

He also upped the anty on his shit-talking. Every time she went to make a shot for the win, he shouted gibberish to throw her off and it worked. Towards the end, she went for another shot in which he shouted “I slept with your sister!”

Kelsey looked back and said “what?”, laughing hysterically. He then took the ball back, made a shot saying “for the win!” and banked in the game-winning shot.

“Let’s go!” he shouted, pounding on his chest like he was an ape. Kelsey was still laughing at him saying he slept with her sister, although she was an only child.

“You’re so stupid,” she said as she continued to laugh. “Good shit, though. You got me.” The two of them went back into the house.
Kelsey sat on the couch and checked her phone. There was a message from Troy, and what she read scared her.

I’m coming over. Be there in ten.


The message was from six minutes ago. She gasped.

“I’m sorry, but you need to go,” she told Richard.

“What? Why? Is everything okay?” he asked her.

“My parents are coming over for dinner and I need to get ready. I completely forgot. I’m so sorry.”

“Oh. Okay. No problem.” Richard began to head toward the front door, but Kelsey stopped him.

“Can you go out the back door and over the back fence?” she asked. Richard was confused. Something was up, but he wasn’t sure if he should question it further. Kelsey led him to the back door, which she opened and closed as soon as he walked through it.

Richard went down the flight of stairs, out the back door, through the backyard and hopped the gated fence, down the street.

“What the hell was that about?” he asked himself. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever get the answer to that question.