The Last Summer on Cedar Lake

Jules arrived to the smell of lake water in the floorboards and the knowledge that the house was already half sold. Her mother had said it kindly, which somehow made it worse. College in August. Strangers in September. This was the last summer the dock would remember her name.

Andi was already there, feet in the water, as if the last three school years had been a rumor. “You look taller,” Andi said. “Or I got shorter. Don’t make it a metaphor.”

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