The Summer I Drowned by Taylor Hale

Author:Taylor Hale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wattpad Books
Published: 2020-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

At West’s apartment, he leads me through a door to a cramped, humid staircase. The smell of fish ’n’ chips from upstairs is overpowered by a distinct basement smell, like concrete and wood. I like it. It’s more like home than the wide property of the Hendricks estate. A place like this suits West more than that lonely mansion ever did.

Inside, shoes litter the mat by the door and voices come from around the corner. A buttery popcorn scent hangs in the air, and a tall, skinny girl with ginger hair and huge glasses zips into the den.

“West! There you are!”

“Sandy,” he says, just as Oscar paws his way toward us, his tail wagging. He nudges me with his head until I pet him.

“You’re still fixing that little hole in my room, right?” Sandy asks.

“Yeah, tomorrow cool?” He kicks his boots off.

“Totally, whenever you have time, no rush!” Sandy’s hazel eyes fall on me. “And you must be Olivia!”

“Hi, yes, I am,” I say. West talked about me to his roommate?

“You have no idea how useful West is to have around, girl,” Sandy says. “Punch a hole in the wall? He’ll fix it. Hungry? This boy will literally go out on a boat and catch freakin’ dinner. He is everything.”

Awkwardly, I laugh. Sandy is really nice, but I’m not good at meeting new people.

“Yes, Sandy. I’m a handyman,” West says. “We get it.”

Her giggle is contagious. “Are you ever.”

Sandy isn’t the type of person I would ever expect West to be friends with, let alone live with. But considering there are Nintendo posters all over the walls and not a single piece of West anywhere, this must be Sandy’s place, and he’s just renting a room.

“I’ve got Jen and Davies over,” Sandy says. “Come hang with us!”

The living room is divided from the kitchen by a sectional couch, where a guy in a Walking Dead T-shirt sits with a black-haired girl watching TV. I’ve never seen either of them before. West and I scrunch together on the leather armchair while the others are on the couch. We both fidget. They end up putting on Sixteen Candles, a movie I totally love, but I can’t focus on it with West sitting so close to me.

Partway through the movie, West whispers into my hair, “We should probably shower. I think they’re noticing we stink like a lake. You want to go first?”

“No, you go,” I say. Sitting on the couch, watching this movie with these strangers is somehow a good distraction from how overwhelmed I am. I need to catch my breath before using West’s freaking shower. But my hair is definitely crusty with lake water, so it needs to happen eventually.

“Be right back,” West says.

Fifteen minutes later, he returns to the living room, and he smells really nice. He waves for me to follow him. As I grab my backpack, Sandy and her friends don’t notice me leave. At the end of the hall, the bathroom is still steaming from West’s shower.

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