Sommerstall Academy

‘We did it!’ Jamie whoops, raising his drink. The guys and girls around me cheer as we clink our glasses.

We’re standing in the living room of our home. Our home where we’ve been living for a few months now. Orion, Jamie, Marcus, Benji, Liam, Sarah, Miley, Marcus’ sister, Elija, and me. Strictly speaking, the girls don’t live here but let’s be for real, they have their own drawers filled with clothes and toothbrushes. They live here.

We’re toasting to the end of the school year. The end of an era now that we’ve finished the academy. I couldn’t be happier.

‘Stay with us, Florence,’ Elija whispers into my ears. I lean to my tiptoes to kiss him quickly. Damn, how I love this boy.

‘I’m right here,’ I tell him. There’s no place I’d rather be.

‘Come on, Eli. Play something for us!’ Sarah suggests.

‘Yeah, Rockstar. Or are you too famous to entertain us simple folks now?’ Jamie teases him.

Laughing, Elija grabs his guitar and stands up in front of us. ‘Any wishes?’ he asks, looking at me. Even now, my cheeks still have the audacity to heat up as I smile back.

‘The one you showed me last night,’ I say. Now my cheeks are really heating up, images of what else we did last night flooding my brain.

Our friends chuckle, watching the interaction with some clear amusement.

‘Let’s not. We all know what you two did last night. Thin walls, remember? I’m pretty sure we’re not ready for that kind of show,’ Benji says, nearly laughing his ass off.

‘I sure as hell don’t want to know what he did to make-‘ I cut Orion off before he can finish that sentence. It’s likely to be the last thing I do before I die because of mortification.

‘The song! Talking about a song!’ I yell, covering my face with my hands. Oh, this is why you don’t move in with friends.

‘It’s a draft. Unreleased so let me know what you think,’ Elija says, amusement clear in his voice. He looks so proud of himself. Traitor.

And so Elija shows us a song he’ll release soon. Release, yup, you guessed it. My boyfriend is famous as I predicted. I forced him to start uploading snippets of his songs and remixes on TikTok and his videos quickly blew up. Now two of his singles are up on Spotify, the streams rising by the hour. He quickly found himself a producer and they’re now working on his album.

I couldn’t be prouder.

I’m not doing too bad myself. Currently, I’m working at a local library but I’m starting an internship at an architecture firm after this summer. I can’t wait to start. But first I’ll enjoy some time off with my friends.

Luckily, it seems so far no one will move out. Marcus will play with an important team in our region, Liam will work for his father, Jamie’s going to castings for any shows and movies nearby, saying he’ll just figure out what to do when he feels like it, Benji is going to collage to become a doctor, and Orion is working at a retirement home. He doesn’t plan on doing it forever but right now, he’s happy there.

And that’s it, I guess. That’s my family.

My beautiful, messy, patchwork family standing in our living room and celebrating like we’ve already conquered the world.