Summer

Chapter 2: The Talk

We pull up to the beach house and it looks the same as the last time I saw it.

When I was eight.

I flick my eyes over to Summer. 

She looks longingly at the water. The way she looks at it, it's almost like she wants to get in a boat and drive away as far as she can.

 Like the world is just a temporary  place and as long as she's here she wants to see as much of it as she can before it's too late.

I guess she could feel my gaze on her because she turned her head to see me looking at her and smiles. 

"Are you going to keep staring at me or are you going to unlock the car so we can get out?" She say laughing softly.

It was a nervous type laughter. What did she have to be nervous about?

I'm the one who should be nervous and I am.

I have a very beautiful girl beside me and all I can think about is how easy it would be to lean in to kiss her. She's only two feet away.

I hear someone clear their throat and turn around to see Axel in the back looking at me. He nods his head toward the door like "Well?"

"Oh. Right. Got it." I hit the unlock button on the door and step out of the car.

I see Noah, Oliver, Melanie and Scarlett on the porch looking at us.

"Finally, you guys just sat in the car for like a full five minutes. We were starting to wonder what you guys were doing." Noah says.

Noah is dark skinned and has the best hair I've ever seen. He has nice edges and his hair is very curly. The girls at school are all over him.

  Axel looks at me with a knowing look and then back at Noah. I think he's going to say something about my staring but he just says "Yeah, his car is a worthless piece of s**t so I had to work extra hard to contain myself not to just hop back in the car and tell Liam to leave it there. The homeless might like a car anyway."

He shoots me a mischievous smile. I keep my mouth shut but raise an eyebrow  and shake my head.

"Right. Well, we were just heading down to the beach. You guys coming?" Noah asks.

I look back to my car and shake my head turning back to him. "I can't but I'll come meet you guys later."

I then turn my attention towards Axel. "Before you go can you help unhook my car?" I ask.

Axel looks at me with a guilty expression and right away I know that he can't.

"I'm really sorry man, you know that I would but I was supposed to meet Tammy at eleven and it's..." He holds up his wrist to check his watch. "11:10. So, I'm late. I'm gonna call an uber but I'll see you guys around six?" He asks.

We all nod our heads.

"I'll just figure it out myself, It shouldn't be that hard." I say looking him in the eyes so he knows that I'm okay with it. 

Suddenly, Summer speaks up.

"I can help." She says looking sure of it.

I hesitate. As much as I would love to have Summer around me, I also would like to have someone who knows what they're doing.

"Are you-" I start to ask but I'm cut off.

"Yes, I'm sure. I used to work in my dad's car garage before he..." She squeezes her eyes shut, realizing she said too much again.

There's obviously a story that goes with that but again, it isn't my place to ask.

"Okay, thank you." I say running my hand through my hair.

Apparently Axel had left somewhere in our conversation.

The other's just stood there watching us.

"Alrighty then." Oliver says squinting at the two of us suspiciously. Then he blinks and says "C'mon guys" to the others.

After they left I walked back towards both of the cars and started figuring out how to do this.

"So... Who's Tammy?" Summer asks.

I sigh, this is always a difficult subject.

"I usually wouldn't say any of this but you'll find out anyway." I pause. "Do you know if you could teach me how to do this while we're talking?" I ask.

"Yeah, Sorry." She says.

Summer pulls a hair tie off her wrist and puts her hair in a ponytail. A piece of hair falls over her eyes and all I want to do is tuck it behind her ear.

Would it be too cheesy if I did that?

I decide to try and not overthink it.

I tuck the strands of hair behind her ear and she freezes but then smiles.

I quickly turn away to hide my grin.

"Tammy is Axel's girlfriend and the mother of his daughter, Nevaeh." I say waiting for the "but he's so young" that always seems to come next.

   "That's incredibly mature and responsible of him to stay with Tammy after she became pregnant. Most guys would break up with her when they found out they're going to be a dad." She sighs. "Or they'd just pressure her into having an abortion even though she doesn't want to but the stress becomes to much and she finally gives in." She says a faraway look in her eyes.

I had a feeling we weren't talking about Tammy anymore.

There's silence for about thirty seconds until I break it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask softly.

She's silent for a few more seconds.

   "My ex-boyfriend, Mateo, got me pregnant a year and a half ago. He's an asshole but I still stayed with him, I don't know, I guess I figured I could change him. But of course I couldn't. I told him I was pregnant, he flipped. He said that having a kid would 'ruin his life'. He got into quite a few colleges for football and he didn't want to mess that up." She paused. "So, he wanted me to get an abortion." She says her voice cracking.

  I see tears glistening on her cheeks and I hadn't even noticed I had balled my fists. That Mateo guy is an i***t and I would love to hurt him if I just knew where he lived.

Summer's crying hard now and I pull her into my arms.

"I swear I didn't want to, I swear." She says sobbing. 

It seemed important to her for me to understand that.

"Shhh... I know you didn't Summer, I know." I reassure her gently.

I flatten her hair and run my fingers through it.

Summer takes the edge of her sleeve and wipes the tears from her eyes and cheeks. Taking a step back she says softly "Sorry for being a mess."

I chuckle and say "You're not a mess. You're actually very strong, you know that right?"

She looks me in the eyes to see if I really mean it. She must be satisfied with the answer because she quietly says "Thank you."

***

By the time we finish detaching the cars we've gotten to know each other better.

  Not a whole lot, just the basics; but every little detail was precious. It's like I'm a puzzle collector and each detail about Summer that I learn is a puzzle piece. In the end all I want to do is put the puzzle pieces together so it'll create a work of art.

Her favorite color is coral.

She's seventeen but her birthday is July 31st.

We have the same birthday.

Her favorite food is cheeseburgers.

She's an only child.

She loves kids.

And already I'm falling for her and I've known her for *Checks watch* an hour and forty-seven minutes.