When Summer Ends (43 page)

On Sunday, I had to go and meet Amy so we could go shopping
for her date with Ryan. She was ridiculously eager about it, so happy that I
didn’t even get a word in for almost an hour as we marched around the mall,
trying on every single cute dress they had there. I just smiled knowingly and
let her ramble on about him; she’d liked him for so long that I didn’t want to
interrupt her with my happy news.

After answering my twelfth text from Will, Amy frowned and
looked at my phone. “Who do you keep texting? Nick?” she asked, holding up a
short blue skirt inspecting every inch of it before putting it back on the
rack, shaking her head.

I smiled and took a deep breath. “Will,” I corrected,
watching her mouth drop open in shock.

She grabbed my arm and yanked me closer to her. “Will? As
in, Mr Hottie teacher who you used to go out with?” she hissed with wide eyes.

I laughed. “You know any other Wills?”

Her nails dug into my forearm, making me wince. “Oh my God,
you… he… what?”

I smiled and pried her death grip off of my arm. “We got
back together. But you can’t say anything to anyone!” I said sternly.

She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, and I
laughed at how silly she looked. I blushed and looked around the store quickly
to make sure no one was in here that I knew because she was going to have a
squealing fit in exactly five… four… three… two…

“OH MY GOD, CHLOE!” she shouted as she gripped my shoulders
and shook me a little in excitement.

I giggled and shook my head, putting my finger to my lips.
“Shhh!” I instructed. “You need to chill, Amy! We need to keep it quiet, so shush!”
I winced as a lady next to us looked at us curiously before turning and walking
out of the shop, muttering under her breath about us being ‘up to no good’.

Amy clamped her hand over her mouth, still looking extremely
excited as she nodded. “Tell me!” she mumbled, the words were barely discernible
through her hand.

I sighed dreamily and checked to make sure no one was
listening again before launching into everything. I told her about the
paintballing and how he had chased me because he wanted to shoot me in the ass.
I told her about what he said about trying to stay away from me; how he told me
he loved me and then kissed me. I told her how I went to his place last night, and
that we talked and watched a movie. I told her how we agreed to carry on seeing
each other but how we were going to keep it quiet until after I graduated.

The whole time I was talking she just listened with wide
eyes and her hand clamped tightly over her mouth, making little squeaking
noises every now and again. When I was finally done telling her, I felt as if a
weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. I didn’t realise how good that
would feel to say the words to someone else, to have someone else know that
Will loved me made it seem a little more real.

Her hand slowly came off of her mouth, she looked so happy
for me that her whole face was alight. “Oh, Chloe, I told you he still liked
you! I freaking told you! Didn’t I tell you?” she chirped excitedly.

I laughed and nodded. “Yeah go on, rub it in, and get all of
your ‘I told you so’ comments out now!” I joked, laughing.

She laughed and pulled me into a hug. “I’m so happy for you,
but man you need to be careful! If anyone finds out…” she trailed off,
cringing. I winced thinking about how much trouble he would be in, even I would
get expelled, not that I was bothered because it would be totally worth it, but
I couldn’t stand the thought of him being in trouble because of me.

“I know. Please don’t say anything, okay?” I asked, giving
her my begging face.

“Of course not, did you really need to ask?” she scoffed,
waving her hand dismissively.

I laughed and linked my arm through hers. “Come on then,
let’s get you a knockout dress for your date, and then we’ll both have our
dream men.”

For the rest of the afternoon we shopped, talking in hushed
whispers about Will, how hot and sweet he was, and how adorable he was buying
me flowers last night. She smirked at me when I told her there was nothing going
on between Miss Teller and him, and when I mentioned that he was jealous of
Olly, she shot me the ‘I told you so’ look again.

By the time we had found the perfect dress, it was almost
five o’clock, so we headed over to her place to get her ready for her date. I
skipped back to my house once she’d been picked up, and found Nick sitting on
my sofa, chatting easily to my parents.

I plopped down next to him and smiled. “You do know you
don’t live here, right?” I teased, nudging his shoulder with mine.

“Yeah, but your mom is cooking for me tonight,” he chirped,
grinning happily. “I brought my calculus books, thought we could make a start
ready for next week?”

I groaned loudly. The subject was getting easier, but the
thought of doing it on a Sunday night wasn’t a particularly appealing prospect
to me. I already knew I wasn’t seeing Will tonight; he was working at the club
to pay for the tickets that he got for me.

I sighed and nodded. “Yeah I guess. Want to listen to some
music for a while or something? We can study after dinner,” I offered, nodding
towards the stairs.

My dad cleared his throat. “You two are still broken up?” he
questioned, looking at Nick sternly.

I laughed and nodded. “Yeah, Dad. We’re just friends, you
can like Nick still, don’t worry,” I answered, kissing the top of his head as I
made my way past.

“Okay good. Let me know if I have to switch back into
overprotective dad mode, pumpkin,” he called, grinning and winking at me.

I rolled my eyes; I wanted desperately to tell him about
Will. I would love to bring Will home to meet my parents, but it was probable
that my dad would scare him away from me; he did get pretty intense when it
came to new boyfriends. He liked to test them, to see how much they liked me
and pushed them to their limits. If they passed the test, then he went easy on
them – like Nick. If they didn’t do so well on the test, then he would keep up
the tough act until they ran – like Olly would have probably done eventually, if
we hadn’t already broken up.

I grabbed Nick’s hand and pulled him towards the stairs,
just wanting to have a normal conversation about anything that wasn’t Will or
dating. The more I thought about Will the more I missed him. I needed a
distraction and Nick would fit that perfectly.

He flopped on my bed while I walked over to my collection of
DVDs. “Want to watch a movie instead of listening to music?” I asked, thumbing
through the titles, going for anything non-romantic so my mind wouldn’t wander
to Will again. I settled on Transformers, Nick liked that one. Well, he liked
Megan Fox anyway, and I wasn’t opposed to a little Shia LeBeouf so it was a perfect
choice.

I settled on my bed next to him, putting my head on his
chest, using him like a pillow as we started watching. About half way through
my cell phone started ringing. I lazily pointed to it on the side next to Nick.
“Answer that for me?” I asked. I was half asleep because of how long I had been
thinking about Will last night before finally dozing off. “Tell them I’ll call
them back, whoever it is,” I mumbled, waving dismissively.

Nick smiled and picked up my vibrating phone, answering it
for me. “Hello? Er, can she call you back? She’s a little busy right now… yeah
okay, I’ll tell her.” Nick closed my phone and put it back on the side. I
yawned and pulled the blanket up over my feet, just deciding to tap a nap
before dinner, when Nick spoke again, “It was some dude called Will, he sounded
pretty pissed about something. I said you’d call him back.”

I jerked up.
Will? What is he doing calling me, he should
be at work! Pissed? Why would he sound annoyed?
I grabbed my phone, making
Nick laugh as I practically fell on top of him in my eagerness. My heart was
beating out of my chest. Was something wrong? Was he not working and he wanted
to see me or something? The last thought made a smile tug at the corners of my
mouth as I dialled his number, ignoring Nick looking at me curiously. He
obviously wanted to know who Will was, I didn’t know any other Will’s so he
probably didn’t either.

Will answered almost immediately. Nick was right, he did
sound a little angry as he growled a “Hey.”

“Hey you, what’s up? I thought you were working tonight.” I chewed
on my lip.

“I am, I just thought I’d call and say hi. I haven’t spoken
to you all day, but you’re obviously too busy to talk to me though, so it’s
cool,” he answered a little too quickly.

“I’m not busy; Nick and I are just watching a movie before
we study. I didn’t really want to talk to anyone. I didn’t realise it would be
you though; otherwise I would have answered the call myself,” I said, frowning
a little. Was he jealous of Nick? I prayed with every bone in my body that he
wasn’t, I couldn’t stand possessive or controlling guys, and I would hate it if
he was like that.

“Oh. Okay, yeah good. I thought you just didn’t want to talk
to me,” Will muttered. I could just imagine the face he would be pulling right
now, the little lost boy look with the slightly pouty lip.

I smiled. “Of course I want to talk to you, silly boy. I
just thought that it wouldn’t be you. Are you not working?” I asked, settling
back against the headboard.

“Yeah I am. I just missed you. I’m on my break so I wanted
to say hi,” he answered, sounding happier now. I breathed a sigh of relief that
he wasn’t jealous, just annoyed because he thought I didn’t want to talk to
him.

“Well then, hi,” I replied, grinning happily now. He
laughed. I sighed contentedly at the sound, closing my eyes as I talked quietly
to him for about ten minutes, keeping him amused while he was on his break.
Nick just sat there, watching the movie and texting on his cell until I was
done.

When I hung up the phone, he looked at me curiously. “New
boyfriend?”

I nodded and bit my lip. “Yeah. It’s early days though so I
don’t want to talk about it and jinx anything,” I lied, squirming a little
uncomfortably. I didn’t want to lie to Nick, but I also couldn’t have another
person knowing the truth.

He nodded, seeming satisfied with my answer; we settled back
to watch the end of the movie until my mom called us both down to dinner.

The next few weeks went to fast I could barely keep up with
them. Amy and I went to see Daniel Masters. We were both still gushing about it
weeks later. I owed Will a serious thank you for that one; I was gradually
paying it off with kisses though, like we’d agreed.

He was the most adorable boyfriend anyone ever had. So sweet
at times that I’m surprised I had any teeth left. I saw him every Saturday and
Sunday. He slipped back into the inventive date mode that we had before, but now
we were just a little more careful with where we went. The best date we’d been
on recently was what he called ‘blind croquet’, we played it in a field with a
flashlight each. It was almost impossible to play the game in the dark, but it
was the most I had laughed in a long time, especially when he slipped over,
dragging me down with him and then we had a kind of rolling in the mud make out
session. I saw him a couple of nights during the week too, but those were
usually limited to a takeout and DVD at his place. Because of my parents
imposed curfew, we didn’t have time to drive to the next town to go to the
movies or dinner and get back before eleven.

Everything was working out perfectly. During school hours he
was no more than a teacher to me, not singling me out at all, maybe smiling at
me a little more than necessary, but the damn boy didn’t let me out of my
homework or anything which was a bummer. I was at least hoping to get
preferential treatment, but he had made it that clear that wasn’t happening.
Will and his damn morals!

Physically he wouldn’t let us do anything other than kissing
and the occasional fumble over clothes. I could see how much it pained him to
stop me when I got a little carried away, so I tried really hard to stick to
his boundaries, but it was hard. We were managing, but I felt a little happier
at the end of each day, because with the passing of each day, meant one less
day I had to wait to get my hands on his body.

Every day I felt my love for him grow a little more. The
more time I spent with him, the more I wanted. I felt like I couldn’t get enough
of his time and attention - thankfully it seemed like he felt the same. I would
often catch him just staring at me while I watched a movie, thinking I didn’t
know he was doing it. We would just lie there side by side sometimes, not
speaking, with him just playing with a strand of my hair, a smile satisfied
smile on his face. It was sweet, easy, and so darned romantic that it made my
heart race in my chest.

I couldn’t be happier that he was mine, sure it was hard
being with him whilst keeping it quiet from everyone when all I wanted to do
was shout it from the rooftops that I was in love, but the time was passing,
slowly, but it was passing.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

On Thursday morning Will picked me up for school. He’d been
doing it every day for the last five weeks; he’d made some excuse to Miss
Teller that he needed to drive his mom to work so he couldn’t give her a ride
anymore. He still took her home, but the mornings were mine - at least for the
fifteen minute journey anyway. Every day picked me up and then dropped me off
at the end of the street from the school just so we could spend a few minutes
together before the school day started.

As I climbed in his jeep, he groaned and looked at me
pleadingly. “Cutie, please stop wearing skirts to school,” he begged, his eyes
raking down my legs, a pained expression on his face.

I giggled and rolled my eyes. I hardly ever wore skirts, but
on the days where I knew I was seeing him after school, I went for one in the
hopes that I might be able to seduce him a little more than normal. Not that it
ever worked, but you never know, one day maybe the sight of a little skin would
push him over the edge.