For the Summer by S.L. Valentine

Author:S.L. Valentine [Valentine, S.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-03T05:00:00+00:00

As things turned out, I still didn’t like cherries, and Jake thought it was really funny how I wrinkled my nose after jamming the whole cherry in my mouth like an idiot. I threw the stem at him and it landed in his milkshake, which shut him up.

“You’re vile,” he said, fishing around with his straw in an attempt to get it out.

“Love you too.”

I had to stop about halfway through my milkshake because it was really sugary and I was an old lady when it came to stuff like this. So I stirred it around and busied myself poking at Jake's toes under the table, which he tolerated.

“What time do you have to be home by ?” he asked. He’d gotten significantly further in his milkshake than I had, and he showed no signs of stopping soon.

“9:30, courtesy of Grandma,” I said.

“What happened to midnight ?” he asked.

“Hell if I know."

“I thought she liked me,” he said.

“She does,” I said, a little vindictively. “She just likes to keep me on a short leash.”

Jake’s mouth twisted, and he poked at his cup with his straw. “I can tell it bothers you,” he said.

“How’d you guess?” I tried not to sound sullen but failed.

“‘Cause I’ve known you for thousands of years,” he said. He thought for a moment. “But I can tell you get embarrassed when they’re around or your Grandma gives you a curfew like that.”

Damn him and his emotional intelligence. “I mean, yeah,” I said, deciding on honesty, rather than skirting the issue. “It’s like… I’m sixteen, you know? And I feel like they’re breathing down my neck all the time.”

Jake folded his hands and rested his chin on them, just letting me talk.

I hadn’t expressed this in any meaningful capacity, and I found once I did it rushed out of me in relief that I finally had someone to listen to me. “And, you know I had a job lined up and a crappy little car if I would have stayed home. And it wouldn’t be as great as this, ‘cause it’s a great vacation and I met you and… I don’t know.” I opened my hands lamely on the table. “It’s like I’m watched all the time. I hate it. Even though I'm supposed to be

“I get it,” Jake said simply.

“I know I’m spoiled,” I said, poking around with my straw.

“I didn’t say that.” Jake shrugged. “I mean I know. I’m lucky, like, I just bought my car and got my hardware store job. And Dad’s putting in sixty hour weeks so he doesn’t care too much what I do as long as I’m not being a delinquent. But that was how it was for me last summer. He was paying me to work with him and it felt like I never got a moment where someone wasn’t watching me.”

“So what did you do?”

Jake chuckled. “Honestly?” he said. “Snuck out a lot. Rode my bike around. Surfed at night. Smoked weed one time and got so nervous I threw up.

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