When your life revolved around, resided, and lived in a big city, you would sometimes find yourself yearning for the peace and quiet of a small, beachside town or the country roads of the middle of nowhere. Or, maybe you just happened to revel in all of the noise, the chaos, and the excitement that the big city brought and had to offer. Jasper liked to think that he reveled in it.

With his mom being a two-time New York Times Bestselling Author, he knew a thing or two about being mildly famous in the big city so it only made sense that his mom went away to a rented house for some peace and quiet at some beach in upper Massachusetts while she worked on a new book. So you could only imagine Jasper's mild disappointment when he found out he would be spending his summer with his mom, which he didn't really mind at all, it would just be a major shift to what he was used to. Sure, was it legal that Jasper was home alone without a legal guardian in the house? No, but he kept himself out of trouble with his little summer job at the movie theater.

And with that, if you told Jasper that he'd be heading upstate with his mom to Cousins for the summer, he would've looked at you funny.

It wasn't the fact that he was a rising star in more ways than one, but it was just that he was so used to his little routine in his cozy brick house by himself that pulling him out of it and into a new one would just upset the whole thing of it all. So sitting at his computer and looking at a job application for a country club in Cousins was not something he was ready to put on his summer to-do list. But he didn't want to sit around and do nothing all summer while his mom hacked away at her new novel so he started to fill it out. The acceptance offer was almost instant—there was almost no turning back now. After clicking "Accept", Jasper let out a sigh—of relief, of apprehension, he didn't know quite yet.

"Well, I did the damn thing," Jasper announced as he bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen, watching his mom stir her cup of tea at the breakfast table while reading. He took a quick peek at the cover, realizing that she was rereading Party's Over by Laurel Park. He remembered the first time she read it, how she went on and on about wanting a book like this when she was going through her own divorce with Jasper's dad, albeit it being an amicable one.

And considering that she found out that she was a lesbian in the midst of it all, Jasper was affectionately called a "comphet baby". At least it made Jasper's coming out a lot easier, even if he had to endure a majorly detailed PowerPoint presentation as a result of it. But he was okay with it in the end, considering he didn't freak out when he got his first "morning wood" erection through a wet dream he had the following night.

"Did it take any years off your life like you said it would?" Constance, Jasper's mom, asked, looking up at her son, her tortoiseshell glasses sliding down her sharp nose a bit. Given the mild celebrity that his mom had, it didn't stop the kids who got a license to call her a "milf" every other time she came around to pick him up, gray hair and all and a fierce, no-bullshit look in her eyes whenever she stepped out of her pitch-black Nissan Rogue. He gagged at the thought of his mom being fuckable—he already hated Sigmund Freud, he didn't feel the want to prove him right with his onslaught of a possible Oedipus complex. She was pretty, but that was as far as Jasper was willing to take it.

"No, actually. I got the job offer a few minutes later. They were either really impressed with my application or they were just really desperate."

"I mean, to be fair, I did raise you to be a cultural guru." Constance raised her mug in congratulations.

"Is that why I have two middle names?" Jasper laughed.

Constance laughed, as well. "Well, I was backpacking across Europe when I came up with the names for you. It's not my fault the British are influential."

"That would explain the milk in your herbal tea."

"Yeah, and not the Buckingham Palace replica on the shelf in my office. Alright, sport, go pack."

Jasper nodded and went back up the stairs.

The drive up to the beach was already such a different view from what Jasper was used to—the roads, the trees, hell, even the sky looked bluer as they continued on. It also felt like the noise of the city was rapidly quieting as they entered the beach town. Everything was either white or brown or covered in sand, not a piece of rusting metal in sight.

    "Hey, mom, can we stop at the gas station real quick? I wanna get snacks," Jasper asked, catching sight of a small gas station as they headed up the road.

    "Sure. I need to get gas, anyway," Constance agreed, turning on her blinker before pulling in.

    "I thought you loaded up the tank before we left."

    "Inflation, honey. Inflation." Constance waved Jasper off as he jetted into the convenience store attached. Already knowing what he was going to get, he headed straight for the back wall and pulled out a bottle of Mountain Dew, along with a bag of Fritos Flavor Twists and a packet of Extreme Sour Patch Kids. Not too far from his right, he heard the sound of a bag being ripped open and he turned to see a girl in a pink shirt and ponytail digging into a bag of Cheetos.

    "Don't you have to pay for those first before you eat them?" Jasper asked playfully, nodding his head to the open snack bag. The girl, who had a Cheeto between her lips, widened her eyes as she slowed her chewing.

    "I mean, if the cashier knows I'm gonna pay for it and not shoplift, I guess they'd be okay with it," the girl shrugged, continuing to chew.

    "It's technically shoplifting if you tamper with an item without paying for it." Jasper raised an eyebrow in jest, and she smiled. "But I'm sure the cashier will be okay with it. He's been practically gawking at you for the past five minutes."

    "What? No." The girl swiveled her head over to the cashier, who was indeed shamelessly checking her out. And if it had been Jasper in her place, he would've been creeped. Hell, he was creeped just standing where he was.

    "I'm Jasper, by the way." Jasper stuck out his hand, but then realized the girl's fingers were imprinted with cheese dust.

    "Isabel, but my friends call me Belly." Luckily, Belly shook with her clean hand.

"Nice to meet you, Belly. I'm off to go pay for these like a decent, law-abiding citizen." Jasper held up his goodies and walked off to the checkout counter. Dropping everything on the counter, Jasper pulled out his wallet and waited for the cashier to ring everything up.

"You new around here?" the cashier asked, looking Jasper dead in the eye.

"What, am I that green?" Jasper returned, handing over his debit card.

"Neon."

"Anything I can do to remedy that?"

"Tell you what. There's a bonfire on the beach tonight, you should come if you wanna be a little less green."

"I'll see what I can do." With a two-finger salute, Jasper headed out of the convenience store.

"I was getting worried. Almost thought you got suckered into the store with no way out," Constance commented as Jasper got back into the car.

After Jasper buckled his seatbelt, he said, "No, but this girl and I got to small-talking and the cashier said something about a bonfire happening tonight on the beach."

"Oh," Constance nodded in approval, "are you thinking about going?"

Jasper shrugged, blowing out a raspberry. "I mean, I guess it beats hanging out with you all night."

"Okay, easy, buster. I brought you into this world, I can take you out, too, alright?"

"All right, all right. I'll behave. But you better drive before you kill the battery, though."

"I'm not afraid to make you walk, you know."

Pulling up to the house was a whole other experience.

    The outside of the house was a beautiful shade of blue, with an eggshell trim going around the outside edges and a cute front porch that Jasper would be taking advantage of in the early morning.

    "Okay, if I remember correctly, there's an office off to the right where I will be making Emily Dickinson roll in her grave and a grand piano for you to become the next Mozart," Constance started, "there's a pool out back that you can use if you want. And there should be a local mini market somewhere down the road if you ever wanna make something like your turnovers or you can finally perfect your crème brûlée!"

    "Yeah, you said I could make a few for the book thing that was coming up," Jasper reminded her as he lugged his four-wheeled suitcase up the wooden stairs. The inside walls of the house were very much a Dakota Johnson lime green with crème accents going every which way to contrast. Straight ahead through the foyer was the living room with a mantel and fireplace and a piano off to the side, complete with French doors that led out to the backyard. The kitchen was something that only ever came out of Jasper's wet dreams as it decked with every state-of-the-art appliance that very few people could only touch.

    "Hey, mom? How come you never invited me to this house for the summer?" Jasper dropped his duffel bag down as he looked around and took it all in.

    "I mean, you never showed much interest in coming with me to Cousins while I wrote—"

    "But you coulda mentioned that the kitchen came with a fuckin' sub-zero!"

"I see that much metal at the gyno so it didn't interest me."

"Mom!"

"Hey, your species invented the damn thing. If you can't handle the heat. . ."

Jasper promptly zipped his lips afterward.

Once Jasper was finally settled in, he took a look around the rest of the house, getting a feel for everything and getting an eyeful of the pool that he would definitely be using later on. Through the ivy-covered fence, he could get a peek at another family gathering around the driveway. He couldn't see much, but he figured he'd make himself known later in the day, or maybe even at the bonfire if he was lucky. Funny enough, he noticed the girl from the gas station. Her hair was down this time. It looked nice.

    "I'm gonna go say hi to the neighbors," Constance said from the house, "you coming?"

    "Mom, we can't go over empty-handed. Hospitality one-oh-one," Jasper commented, coming up the back steps.

    "We're just going over to say hi, it's not like we're inviting ourselves in, JJ."

    "Who knows? They might invite us over for dinner and then they'll remember that we came over with nothing."

    "Then you can make a dish, then. Are you trying to give yourself an excuse to cook?"

    Jasper only shrugged before heading for the front door. On their way over, Jasper looked around some more, surprised by all the shrubbery that surrounded the neighboring house. It was all so lively and colorful, it was actually really sweet to look at.

    Ringing the doorbell, Jasper asked, "Do people even do this over here? You know, make themselves known to the neighbors? Doesn't seem like a beach town thing to do."

    Constance raised a challenging eyebrow. "They do now." And with that, the front door was swung open by a lean-muscled guy who was about 6'2" in a collared shirt and shorts, with curly, almost highlighted hair, and a shower of freckles dusted across his nose and a prominent one over his top lip. Jasper was fairly taken aback for a moment.

    "Um, hey," Jasper started once he snapped out of it, "my mom and I just moved in next door for the summer and we wanted to come say hi, introduce ourselves, and let you guys know that we're not total murderers."

    "A mother-son serial killer duo. Never seen that one before," the guy chuckled, smiling, and of course he had a perfect set of teeth, molars, and canines.

    "Not unless you count Sante Kimes and her son," Jasper retorted, fully regained of his composure.

    "Jere bear?" A woman's voice from inside the house, "Who's at the door?"

    "Just the new neighbors, mom," Jere called back, turning back to Jasper and Constance, "I'm Jeremiah, Jere for short. And you are?"

    "Jasper. Or, JJ."

    "Cool! What's the other J stand for?"

    "Honestly, nothing. My mom loves to make my life complicated for absolutely no reason."

    Jeremiah laughed a little before widening the door. "Do you wanna come in?"

    "Uh," Jasper turned to Constance, "maybe next time. But I won't be empty-handed when I come back."

    "No, you should stay, kiddo," Constance urged, "get to know some kids your own age."

    "Yeah, and I can do that later. Mom, come on, he's letting all the cool air out."

    "I don't mind, really," Jeremiah butted in, "I'm sure my mom would love the extra company."

    Jasper groaned in jest. "Alright, fine. Mom, I will see you later when I change for the bonfire."

    "Oh shit you're going to the bonfire?" Jeremiah perked at the information, "You can hang and drive up with us!"

    Jasper nodded, excited for what was to come.