I rested against my pine bedroom door as I looked at my bedroom one last time, well, one last time until summer was over.

But even after summer vacation I won’t be back here.

“Knock-knock.” I turned at the sound of my Dads voice. I chuckled loud enough for him to hear; he carefully opened the door a few inches and poked his head around to look at me me. “You ready, Sin?” He smiled. (My Dad’s nickname for me is Sin, short for Sinead. Pronounced ‘Shin-aid’, usually people hate their names, but I can cope with mine, I actually find it quite sweet).

I nodded. He offered to carry my bags for me but I refused. He smiled again and disappeared. This was going to be my brother’s last vacation so we wanted it to be so special for him. Usually when you say it’s going to be your last vacation with your brother it means that he’s either growing up or moving away, going to college or university. But with me it’s different. I mean he is only twenty four. It’s not fair.

I glanced around my room another last time, pulled the two of my fully packed bags around my shoulder and slowly clicked shut the door behind me.

I really enjoy summers in Arizona but it gets too hot so we usually go upstate to Utah for two or three months but since this was our last vacation together my Mom and Dad thought they’d treat my brother to something different. Personally I think they’re taking us to Mexico or somewhere, but I’m not quite sure.

My brother is called Finn (Short for Finley), he’s only two years older than me, (so that makes me twenty two... if Math isn’t your strongest subject) and people always thought we were twins because of how similar we look. We both have our Moms eyes and hair colour, dark brown button eyes with medium brown hair. I inherited my Dad’s smile, which I am very grateful for! And to say our Dad’s Irish, I’m surprised we can actually tan.

I carried my bags to the bottom of the staircase and made my way to the kitchen, where I found my two parents whispering to each other. They’ve been doing that a lot recently. I just ignored them, if I were to know what they were talking about, I would’ve been told by now. I grabbed the last Carpi-Sun from the fridge and made my way outside to sit with Finn in the car.

The sun was already smouldering and it was only twelve in the afternoon. I approached the car and analysed his face before I opened the door. He looked well today; the circles around his eyes had faded and his cheeks had an actual pale pink flush to them, but I’m not sure if that’s just because of the warmth. He was sat quietly, on his phone.

“Hey...” I murmured. I opened the door and threw my handbag next to him, and then followed afterwards.

I rested my head on the car seat and pinched his cheek. “Sinead?! Quit it!” He shouted dramatically, flinching his face away from me.

“Well notice my existence then.” I laughed. I changed the subject quickly. I rubbed his cold shoulder, “You excited?” I asked.

He shook his head, refusing to break the eye contact between him and his phone. “I don’t really care to be honest, Sin. It’s just a vacation, right?” He shrugged and pulled this ‘Oh-look-at-me-I’m-trying-to-be-a-grumpy-hormonal-teenager’ sort of look with a hint of ‘leave-me-alone’ in his eyes.

And that is one thing that you’ll learn about Finn. He’s got the mindset and attitude of a fifteen year old.

I shrugged. “I guess. It’ll be fun though...” I sighed and began to sip on the Capri-sun. His hair covered his slim, pale face from the sun as he continued to play on his cell. I turned away to look outside of the car window. Mom and Dad were finally making their way out with the bags.

I sighed again and prepared myself for the flight ahead of me. Luckily for me the flight wasn’t apparently that long, so jetlag wouldn’t be a problem. I flicked through a few of my Mom’s crappy magazines that consisted of mainly underweight models who portrayed these ‘glamorous lifestyles’ of only eating one apple a day...

I still had no complete idea where they were taking us; I hoped it would be somewhere pretty, like an actual coast with a sea where you can look out to the horizon or where you can run out into the sea at midnight without freezing your nipples off, yeah, I tried that in Utah once, except in Utah we usually stayed at a lake and god knows what creatures were in it.

I turned my head to look outside of the plane window and smiled at the orange glow from the sunset that was warming my face.

“Sinead...” My Mom sighed to the left of me, bringing me from my calm thoughts.

“Yeah?” I smiled.

Her lips parted slightly but then she turned away and shook her head. “He’s getting worse, isn’t he?”

“Finley?” I asked.

She looked down at her hands, nodded and looked back up at me. “You can see it in his eyes.” She spoke quietly.

“Don’t worry, Mom.” I grabbed her hand. “It’ll be ok... he’ll be ok.”

I’ve never particularly been good at sympathising; I usually just make things worse. I could tell how badly this was affecting her, he was her only son, I mean it’d be easier on her if he didn’t act like a small child about it all of the time, but that was his only dealing with his pain too.

She nodded after a small moment of thinking and rested her head on my shoulder.

“So, you going to tell me where we’re going?” I asked, trying to force a different topic.

She explained that we were going to South Cali, her and Dad rented out a house near the coast, but it wasn’t very close to the city, so it was quiet. I was quite excited; apparently my cousins were coming down from New York, so it made me more excited than usual.

The plane landed in the set destination and the sun had set, leaving behind a pale blue sky behind. The weather was actually bearable here, and there was a soft breeze that was lovely. My brother tried to help my dad receive the luggage as me and my Mom grabbed a coffee from the overly priced airport Starbucks.

She didn’t really speak that much since our little conversation during the flight, it was starting to worry me, and I didn’t want her to be like this during the full two months we’re here. She needed a break and worrying about Finn constantly isn’t going to help.

We met Dad and Finn back at luggage claim and made our way to check out. We got a cab to where we were staying but I think I fell asleep for the majority of it. I woke up during the last ten minutes of the journey but nothing from outside the car window was visible, it was just darkness with the exception of the yellow streetlights every so often. I checked the time; it was only half past ten.

The cab finally stopped and we carried our bags to the porch. The air here’s warm, but not humid like Arizona.

I could hear waves crashing in the distance and grasshoppers calling out from the shrubs. There were two or three other houses forming a sort of cul-de-sac, but there were no other cars parked outside so I presumed nobody was in. We approached a somewhat beach house. I heard the key clicked in the door and it opened. I plonked my two bags down in the living area and flicked on the light switch so I could look around easier.

My Mom and Dad went to unpack upstairs in their room. Finn followed closely behind them, but he was probably going to just hit the sack instead.

I decided to go for a walk around and get a feel for the place, but before I did I found my room (after about ten minutes, I didn’t realize how huge this house was, it’s like a freaking Tardis- minus the blue exterior and ‘police-box’ signs above the door) and changed into something comfier. I noticed we had a pool too, however it made me worry about how expensive this place actually is. I found that I had packed some pyjama shorts and some old football jersey so I decided just to wear them, they were cool and it’s not like I’m going anywhere fancy.

I made my way downstairs and exited the house through the patio door. The view was almost breathtaking, the horizon that met the ocean was a lighter blue than the rest of the starry sky and the moon was glowing bright, the reflection off the calm sea lit up a dirt track down to the beach... although it was so small it looked like a cove.

The sand was soft underneath my feet; it felt like silk in between my toes. I eventually approached the water; it made me flinch in shock as it grabbed my feet, enticing me into it. It wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t exactly warm either, it was only just bearable.

I sat down slowly, onto the dry sand but kept my feet in the water.

I turned my head as I heard laughter a distance away from me, from behind the houses, I turned to figure who it was but it was too dark to make out who was there, but I saw a few lights turn on. I turned around to look back at the horizon; the laughter disappeared and left a peaceful silence between me and the ocean.

After about ten minutes the off-shore breeze began to pick up so I decided to make my way back to the house.

I looked up at the house next door to mine and met eyes with a tall stranger leaning onto the balcony.

He didn’t look away, nor did I.

He just smiled slightly.

I looked away and continued to make my way back to the house.