When Summer Ends (61 page)

“Sick? SICK? You’re freaking sick for dating a teacher!” she
shouted.

I laughed at her. She was getting frustrated that this
little plan wasn’t working I could see it in her eyes. “I’m not dating a
freaking teacher. I’m dating his little brother! Haven’t you heard that this
week? Oh wait, of course you wouldn’t have heard that, you were suspended for
making up vicious lies!” I countered, smirking at her.

She stepped towards me, her face like thunder. “Bitch,” she
spat. Her eyes were wild, like a crazed animal or something and actually a
little scary.

I stood my ground though, there was no way I was letting her
intimidate me, if she wanted to hit me then I was giving back as good as I got,
that was for sure. “If you touch me then I’m ripping out that dull blonde hair
of yours,” I stated. Her eyes flashed as a hand instantly flew to her hair,
smoothing it down. “By the way, did you dye it while you were away? If so, then
I’m not too sure the colour works for you,” I teased, trying not to laugh.

She stepped closer to me, her face inches from mine. “You’ll
get yours, Ice Princess. You’d better watch your back because I’ll get even
with you for getting me suspended, I swear,” she growled.

She turned and stalked back to her purse that she’d left on
the side. I pulled out my cell phone from my pocket, praying that my bluff
would work. “Erika, I hope you know that I just recoded that whole
conversation. If one thing happens to me, my friends, or even my boyfriend’s
brother, then I’m taking that threat that you just made, to the Principal. I
don’t think he’d be too happy to hear that you’re continuing your malicious
campaign against me,” I lied. “He’s already told me that if you give me any
problems when you come back then I was to go to him straight away.”

Oh crud, please don’t ask me to play the recording,
please don’t ask me to play the recording! Poker face, Chloe. You can do it,
don’t back down!

Her mouth dropped open in shock as she looked at the phone
in my hand. I gulped, praying that she would believe me. She looked to be
weighing her options, thinking it though, I could see frustration and anger
clear across her face, she looked like she wanted to rip my head off and flush
it down the toilet or something.

“You little-” she started, but I cut her off with a wave of
my hand.

“Now, now, watch your language. Don’t want to get you cussing
on tape too, do we?” I teased as I pushed the phone back into my pocket. I
smiled at her smugly.
This is awesome; she’s totally fallen for it.
I
stepped closer to her. “I’m serious. If you start trying to get me in trouble
again, start picking on me like you used to, or even start hounding Will or my
friends, then I’m taking that threat to the Principal. Then you can say bye-bye
to your education at this school,” I stated, using her words that she’d once
said to me.

Her mouth snapped shut, her shoulders stiffened as she
glowered at me. “I hate you,” she growled.

I nodded. “I know, but you should try not to play the victim
all the time, Erika, it’s not good for you. You know, if you tried a little
harder to be nice to people, your life would change. If you go through life
hating people, then they’re going to hate you back. Try sharing a little
compassion once in a while, you’d be surprised how far it gets you.” I meant it;
I wasn’t teasing her or anything. She made her life into what it was; she was the
one that forced all of the nice people out of her life by picking on them and
being a spiteful jealous bitch. If she was nicer to people then she could have
nice friends, instead of the users that followed her around at the moment.

She grabbed her purse and marched to the door, slamming her
shoulder against mine as she passed me, almost knocking me over. “Just stay the
hell away from me!” she ordered, obviously choosing to ignore my advice.

I shrugged. “My pleasure,” I agreed.

Without another word she unlocked the door and stormed out.
Within seconds the door opened again and both Amy and Nick came in with worried
faces. I smiled weakly and shrugged. “It’s fine,” I reassured them. Amy smiled
and pulled me into a hug. I looked over her shoulder at Nick; he was standing
there with a smile on his face, his eyes flicking around the bathroom. I
laughed and rolled my eyes. “As good as you remembered?” I asked him.

He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Last
time I was in here it was definitely pretty magical,” he stated, winking at me
teasingly. I blushed and shook my head, knowing that the last time he was in
here with me we’d had a pretty intense make out session. That was not too long
before we broke up. He grinned and nodded back towards the door. “Come on then
let’s get out of here before I get the snot beaten out of me by Will and Ryan
for being in the bathrooms with their bitches,” he joked, winking at us
teasingly.

We all burst out laughing at his comment, Nick always did
know how to lighten the mood and cheer me up. Amy slapped him on the back of
the head as we all walked out of the door; I ignored people looking at me
curiously. I bit my lip worriedly.
Did Erika said anything when she came
out? Oh please don’t let her have said anything!

I turned to Donna, the nearest girl who was looking at me.
“What’s up with everyone?” I asked, praying it would be anything other than me
and Will.

She shrugged. “Did she tell you why she was suspended? What
did she want?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me curiously.

I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. She hadn’t said
anything, we were safe. “We were just talking about our History project. She
wanted to know how we got on with it because she missed last week so she didn’t
know where we were or anything. And no, she didn’t say what she got suspended
for,” I lied, crossing my fingers that I sounded convincing.

Donna seemed to buy it; she frowned, looking a little
disappointed as she nodded. “Oh well, I guess we’ll find out sooner or later,” she
said easily as she turned and headed over to her friends who were also eagerly
awaiting the Erika gossip.

I gulped, silently hoping that no one ever found out. With
the threats of the Principal hanging over her head, she wasn’t allowed to say
anything to anyone, so as long as Will and I didn’t slip up and admit anything,
then we were practically home free. Just a few more months and then my school
career would be over and we could put this whole mess behind us. All I would
need to worry about then would be telling Amy that I couldn’t go to college in New
York with her as planned.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“Cutie, just apply for your dream school!” Will ordered,
looking at me sternly, using the teacher voice that he had.

I sighed and put my head in my hands. We were currently lying
on his bed, my college applications scattered all over the place. We were right
in the middle of having the painful conversation of which school I would
choose. It wasn’t an easy conversation at all. Will was seriously pissed off
with me.

I shook my head, not looking at him and buried my face in
his sheets. “No,” I muttered.

He groaned in frustration. “Chloe, for pity sake, don’t do
this! You’ve had your heart set on that school forever, you said so yourself,
so just apply to it! What harm will it do?” he asked, wrapping his arm around
my waist and pulling me closer to him.

I sighed dramatically; he just wasn’t listening to me at
all. What was the point in me applying to go there if I had no intention of
accepting even if I did get a place? There was no way in hell I was leaving him
to go study in New York, it was hours away, and I just couldn’t be away from
him for that long. I’d hardly ever get to see him; weekends just weren’t enough
for me.

“What’s the point? I don’t want to go there anymore; I want
to stay here so I’ll be closer to you!” I moaned, burying my face in his chest.
I didn’t want to look at him, I knew the face he would be pulling right now,
the cute puppy dog face with the begging eyes, and I couldn’t see it because I
needed to stay strong. Sure, that school had been important to me before, but
now that I had him, everything just seemed less important. Why would I go there
and make myself unhappy? But he just wasn’t getting my point.

“Chloe, just apply to go there, if it’s something that you
want then-” he started, but I interrupted before he could finish.

“It’s not,” I stated confidently.

He stroked the back of my head softly, his body tight with
stress. He obviously didn’t like this conversation either. “Cutie, will you look
at me?” he asked, quietly.

“No.”

He laughed. “And why’s that?”

I sighed. “Because you’ll do that thing with your eyes and
convince me to do something that I don’t want to do,” I whined, my voice still
muffled because my face was pressed against his T-shirt.

“Cutie, just look at me! I don’t want to have this
conversation with the top of your head!” he cried, pulling on my arms to get me
to move.

I groaned in frustration and sat up next to him, reluctantly
dragging my eyes to his face, seeing the expression that I knew would be there.
“See, there’s the face. I knew it!” I stated, waving my hand at his face in
example.

He smiled at me and we both burst into laughter. “You’re
silly sometimes, Miss Henderson,” he teased, gripping my waist and pulling me
down so I was now lying on top of him.

I rested my forearms either side of his head and smiled. He
was so incredible, and I loved him so much - a little sacrifice over the
destination of my schooling was nothing when you considered I would get him in
exchange. I’d been thinking about it for the last two months, and I was totally
sure this was what I wanted. I would go to a local school, but still do the
same course. Sure, I’d miss Amy like crazy, but I’d still get to see Nick all
the time so I’d still have a great friend nearby. And of course I would get to
see the man of my dreams every day, which was the deciding factor here.

Everything had been perfect for the last two months. Erika
had backed off completely; she didn’t even speak to me. Sure, she still hated
me, that much was obvious by the way she looked at me, but she hadn’t said
anything to anyone. Sam and I had kept up the act of dating. He picked me up a
couple of times a week and drove me to Will’s place, then he would either hang out
with us, or leave us so we could have private time. Sam was incredible, still a
slutty whore, but that made him all the more special to me.

Will was just being Will: sweet, thoughtful, generous,
loving, he was just being the incredible boyfriend that he always was. We
hadn’t been out much, not even to the next town, because we didn’t want to risk
anything. The only places we hung out were his place, his parents’ house, or if
we went to one of his friends’ parties, but then only if Sam was going too so if
we saw anyone we knew then I could pretend to be with him instead. But just
spending time with Will made my heart soar in my chest. It didn’t matter what
we did or where we went, I loved every single second of being with my
boyfriend. We avoided each other like the plague in school, not even speaking
unless it was about his class, and other people were around. We were leaving
nothing to chance, and it was paying off. Two months had passed since the Erika
incident and the Principal hadn’t even looked twice at us since then.

We were on easy street; this was the home stretch now. Just
three more months left of school and then it wouldn’t even be illegal anymore
for us to date. I was even turning eighteen in a couple of weeks so he wouldn’t
have to feel guilty about me being a minor. He was looking forward to that
apparently.

The latest hurdle to be overcome: finish this stupid
conversation about long distance relationships.

For the last half an hour he’d been listing ways that we
would make it work, how there was always Skype, texting, phone calls, emails,
and everything else that he’d thrown at me to try and convince me. None of that
was enough for me though; I wanted to be able to touch him whenever I felt like
it. I wanted to be able to fall asleep in his arms and hug him tight after a
hard day. I wanted to look into the eyes of the man that I loved when we spoke,
not into a stupid webcam.

“Can we please stop talking about this now?” I begged,
pouting at him.

He frowned and shook his head. “Look, just apply for the
school. Do it for me. If you get accepted then we’ll talk about it some more
then. Let’s just not make the decision right now, okay? If you apply then that
just gives you another option in a couple of months. You might decide you’ve
had enough of me by then, and you might have thrown your dream school away for
nothing,” he stated, looking right into my eyes, his hands cupping my face so I
couldn’t look away.

I felt my heart rate increase. Was he getting me to apply
there because he wanted me to leave? Was he hoping I’d leave so we’d have time
apart? Maybe he wanted to break it off with me and just thought it would be
easier to let us simply drift apart because of the distance.

“Will, is that really it? You don’t just want me to go, do
you? Because… you know,” I shrugged, not wanting to know the answer.

He looked at me curiously. “You know,
what?
”

I sighed. “That you just want me to go so we won’t be
together all the time. Am I crowding you or something? Is this a subtle way of
telling me tha-” He cut me off by kissing me. I kissed him back, pressing my
body to his, loving the feel of his lips on mine.

He broke the kiss and frowned at me, shaking his head. “Are
you actually crazy, Cutie? Should I be worried that you’ve lost your mind?” he
teased playfully. I looked at him curiously, not knowing what he was talking
about. He laughed and brushed his hand down the side of my face. “Stop that
thought right now, okay? If you left I’d miss you more than anything, I’m not
even sure how I’d cope. I’d definitely need to start working at the club again
so I could pay the phone bill I’d run up from calling you all the time. I just
want you to go to your dream school; I don’t want to take that away from you.
If you hadn’t met me then you’d go there and do what you always planned to do
with your best friend.”