The older you became, the more clear it became.

Summers were meant for chilling at the Hughes’ lake house in Michigan.

You’d been going there ever since you were a teen, after being classmates and friends with Luke since preschool. As a mere 14-year-old, you spent a whole week there for the first time ever – and now, almost eight years older, you knew there was nothing else better for you than to spend the summers here.

Jack and Quinn had always been like older brothers to you, even though you weren’t actually related to any of the brothers, and their parents always treated you as one of their own (though they didn’t spend nearly as much time at the house as you four). Their friends have since long become your friends, and everything usually works out in harmony.

Well, except for this evening.

Most of you are in the kitchen, preparing for a barbecue, when the conversation suddenly shifts. “How are things with Angelina?” Trevor asks as he grabs a few bottles of water from the fridge, referring to the middle brother’s girlfriend since last year.

The question is innocent enough – the two friends haven’t seen each other in a while due to the NHL playoffs, so it’s natural that they haven’t talked everything through yet – but it still made Jack’s breath hitch in his throat and he stops in the middle of chopping tomatoes.

“They’re, uh, bad,” Jack answers curly. “We broke up. Last week.”