“You have one new message.”
“First message, July 1st, 2007, 8:39 pm.”
“This is hell.”
“So’s Florida, what happened?”
“All our cousins are inconsiderate.”
“Yes.”
“And it’s hot.”
“It’s summer, Alex.”
“I brought along my keyboard to practice but no one will leave me alone long enough to get any good practice time in.”
“You’re on vacation, relax.”
“I want to go home.”
“(laughs) Poor indoor kid, forced out to have fun.”
“Message end.”
“Message deleted. You have no new messages.”
“You have one new message.”
“First message. July 4th, 2007, 2:16 pm.”
“We have all just been informed Aunt Clara is having another baby.”
“Don’t they already have like nine kids or something?”
“They claim this will be the last one, but they said that last time, so?”
“And everyone calls me weird.”
“Happy fourth? Bye!”
“Message end.”
“Message deleted. You have no new messages.”
“You have one new message.”
“First message. July 6th, 2007, 8:01 am.”
“Hey Sam!”
“Hey.”
“I just took a sunrise walk on the beach. It was amazing. The colors and the cool air rolling in off the water, wet sand under my feet. You would have loved it if I could have pried you out of bed early enough to go with me.”
“Eww, not likely.”
“But I probably would have had a better chance if I’d just kept you up all night and only let you go to bed after.”
“You know me so well.”
“It was nice to be alone for a little while though. Having everyone here, packed together in the cramped, humid beach house is kind of getting to me. Especially since you’re not here to run interference between me and the others.”
“Tell Mom you’re getting overwhelmed.”
“I really don’t want to say anything about it though.”
“(sigh)”
“I think Mom is having a really good time. This is the most relaxed I’ve seen her in months, so I don’t want to make her worry.”
“She’ll be a lot more worried if you have a break down out of nowhere.”
“I think I’ll be fine, just have to keep an eye on it, right? Bye.”
“Message end.”
“Message deleted. You have no new messages.”
“You have one new message.”
“First message. July 8th, 2007, 11:12 pm.”
“So, Uncle James brought along this guy he’s dating.”
“Oh, wow, how’s that going.”
“His name is Charles by the way.”
“Never met a decent Charles.”
“I know how you feel about people named Charles, but Sam, this guy is the worst.”
“I’ve tried to warn you.”
“He subtlety treats me like I’m not really part of the family.”
“Welp. Hate him.”
“Nothing crazy, just like little comments and stuff. Like today we were talking about family traits and Emmi said something about my and Grammie’s love of music and he said ‘oh, but she’s adopted so that doesn’t really count, right?’ And like, I want Uncle James to be happy, but this guy sucks. He chews with his mouth open.”
“Typical.”
“And leaves dirty socks everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I found one under my bed. What was he even doing in there?! It’s super weird. And he laughs at his own jokes.”
“Lots of people do that?”
“Like full on belly laughs, but he’s not even funny! Like at all! It’s awful. Grandpa cringes every time the guy speaks. No one likes him.”
“Except James apparently.”
“Uncle James is super desperate for everyone to getting along though, so everyone is trying to play as nice as they can.”
“How come they can’t do that with me?”
“It’s basically torture. I can’t wait for this vacation to be over. Everything sucks without you.”
“Oh please. I’m supposed to be the dramatic one.”
“Message end.”
“Message deleted. You have no new messages.”
“You have one new message.”
“First message. July 14th, 2007, 1:18 am.”
“We’re finally heading home.”
“You’re literally the only person who hates going on vacation.”
“This last week has been really hard. I had like three panic attacks.”
“What? Why?”
“I was able to keep it to myself mostly so at least I wasn’t a problem,”
“You’re not a problem! And you need to tell Mom if you’re struggling!”
“But I’m really tired. I just want to sleep and play on my real piano. Hopefully being back at home won’t be so stressful.”
“Ugh, stupid sister!”
“Night, Sam.”
“Message end.”
“No, wait, tell me what happened!”
“Press one to-”
“Damn it!”
“Message deleted. You have no new messages.”
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