Tyler POV:
Summer coming to my house was quite unexpected, however, knowing a little more about her, I feel like I should have expected this. "So, why do you want to get this done? Jackson will probably continue to pile on work as we go along. So why bother to do it now? Why not wait until he gives us a date to turn it in?"
"Because," she said while she sat down in a desk chair. "By then we'll be pressed for time, and it may be too late."
I sighed. She's a real piece of work, but at least she's concerned and really engaged in her school work. I sat beside her in the other desk chair and brought out my binder. From my peripheral vision I can see her staring at the doodles I have engraved. "You like them?" She smiles and nods her head.
"My favorite is this French phrase," she says, pointing to the aesthetically cursive print from the hand of a true artist. "Laissez-moi être votre star que vous êtes ma lune. 'Let me be your star as you are my moon.' It's beautiful. Who was this for?" She looks at me with eyes full of wonder, and in this instance, she reminds me of her. Her eyebrows raise, awaiting an answer.
"A girl I used to know." She can't know too much about her. No one can. "She wrote it."
"Oh," she says, her brows now furrowed low in confusion, maybe. "She has very pretty handwriting."
I nod. "She did." I have to change the subject. "Jealous you can't write like that?"
She scoffs. "How do you know I can't write like that? And for your information, I took calligraphy during the summer of my sixth year."
"Oh, yeah? Let's see it." I push a pencil and paper towards her. She looks at it and smiles weirdly, maybe nervously? Her bottom lip is between her teeth, as she stares at the paper. "Well?" I call her out.
After a few seconds she exclaims, "fine, fine! I can't write like that. But, I did take calligraphy! I just never finished it.." I laughed. Overachiever.
"It's okay. Some people got it, some don't." She huffs a small huff and crosses her arms at my comment. "I could do it if I tried," she mumbled.
I chuckled. "Yeah, sure. Okay." Her fist meets my arm lightly in an attempt to punch me, chuckling to herself as she did so. I felt myself smiling a genuine smile, and for a moment I almost forgot that this was Summer I was talking to. Not Caroline Preston.
Anyways.. "Let's get started, yeah? We have a lot to do." She nods and opens her laptop to check her emails. Under the Inbox tab, an email awaits her from Flynnigan Jackson containing the additional requirements for our project. She reads over it, and her fingers begin to type away about how coral reacts to certain creatures on our saved documents. I sit back, with my hands behind my neck, and dancing in the sanctuary behind my eyelids is the girl whom I dared to say I ever loved. She twirls on her tip toes, with her arms poised perfectly as she spirals into passion. "Watch out, Care!" I yell to her, as she wobbles atop the rickety rock. "Don't worry, Tyler. I know what I'm doing." She says with a giggle in her voice. "I just don't want anything bad to happen to you.." I admit. I'm crazy for her, and she knows it. She knows exactly how I feel about her. "Hey," wrapping her arms around my neck in the most delicate way, she captivates my attention. "I love you." Her hazel-brown irises disappear as she leans into me, centimeters away from my lips and-
"Hey, can you take over now?" Summer's voice brings me back to reality, and Caroline fades into a silhouette of beauty.
"What? Uh, yeah. Sure." She slides the laptop to me and I begin typing where she left off. Coral is very boring. I regret not taking anatomy. That shit is actually useful. What am I gonna need marine biology for anyways? I took this class as an easy A, but now I wish I would've stayed with anatomy. Yeah, Care would've liked that. But, that is neither here nor there.
"Alright," I said, pushing away from the desk. "I need a break."
"What? Come on Ty, we just started. Let's just get it over with." Summer whines. Her slender fingers run over her face as she wipes the fatigue from her face.
"I need a break." I look at her and her eyes have exhaustion written all over them. Wait. She just called me "Ty". That is the weirdest shit I've ever heard.
"Don't call me that."
"What? Ty?"
Ugh. That sounds ugly. "Yes," I say while a shiver runs from my eardrum down my spine. "That is the ugliest nickname I've ever heard."
She does that weird giggle-thing again. "Sorry, it just kind of came out."
I roll my eyes. "Sure it did." She gives me a look, communicating that she isn't pleased with my comment. She cracks a smile after five seconds and begins to laugh a little. "Okay, okay. I won't say it again." I roll my eyes. Sure she won't.
"I'm going to get something to eat. Do you want something?"
"Depends. Where are you getting food from?"
"That overrated, high-priced, muffin place that everyone likes."
"Ooh! I'll take," she now pauses to think. "Hmm.. What do I want?"
She's taking forever.
"How about I just go with you?"
What? No. Hell no.
"No, I'm just picking up. Just tell me what you want."
"But I don't know what I want. Why can't I just go with you?"
Because it's weird. And I do not want to be in a car with you. "My car is a mess," I lie. "It isn't very appealing."
"I don't want to stay in your house. Besides, I don't even know what I want to eat yet."
Sucks for you. "I guess you don't eat then," I shrug. I grab my car keys and begin to go out to my car. Before I can blink, she sprints out of the door to the garage, whizzing past me at a surprisingly rapid speed. I bolt after her, slamming the door shut on my way out. She takes a glance back at me, giggles, and runs to the Challenger I drive to school. "Stay away from there, Waters," I call out to her, but she doesn't seem to listen. Her hands slap the window of the passenger door as she says with a shortness of breath, "I beat you!" She smiles a big smile, breathing through her mouth as she does so.
"Fine, fine! Let's go," I surrender to her stupid proposition.
~~
It's been a long day, for the both of us, Summer and I. What with doing the project all day, and all. We went to the muffin place and actually had - dare I say it - an okay time. She's not nearly as unpleasant as she used to be, granted she's still presumptuous and a little flamboyant. She may not be half as bad as I originally thought she was, however, I don't really believe that one small outing with her is enough to convince me of the fresh judgements I have presently imparted towards her character. We talked, laughed, and got back to our work. We finished the new assignments on coral, so at least that is out of the way. After that, she stayed for a movie because it was pouring outside and Martha didn't want to "leave her susceptible to a car accident". I mean, I guess I can see her point, if she lives far away from my house, but that didn't ease my mind about her sitting in such a close proximity to me for something other than school work.
I don't know how much longer I can last with this damn project. Not that I mind spending time with her, I don't care, but I've had more than my share of being with her. This is weird. She probably thinks we're friends or something. To be honest, I know we aren't, but if we aren't then what are we? Strictly lab partners who happen to get along well? Yeah, sure, that's a legitimate label. I just don't know how to process all of this.
I decide to pick up my phone and invite Roman over. He answers saying, and I quote, "sorry bud cant. Maybe some other time". What the hell is that? Bud? Some other time? That does not even sound like him. What could he possibly be doing right now? Granted it started to pour again, but still, what am I supposed to do?
I go upstairs, choose a hoodie that doesn't smell nearly as bad as the others, put on my shoes, and grab my keys to take a drive. A small hand restricts mine from returning to me. Martha.
"Where are you going at this hour?"
"It's only 5 o'clock, Martha. It's not late."
"It's getting really bad out there," she says with a worried voice. And as if the storm was on her side, a loud crash of thunder strikes, and a gasp is the next form of speech that leaves her mouth. "Please don't go."
"I'm just going to check out this cafe that someone told me about. I'm hungry."
"Well, here," she says going to the fridge. "We have- " she stops mid sentence to discover we have no food because she has not gone food shopping.
"Exactly. So, I will be back. I'll bring you something too, don't worry."
"Please be careful, Tyler. Roads are dangerous in weather like this."
I know that.
~~
The cafe that Summer told me about was closed due to "bad weather conditions". Nice. So, in turn, I took the back roads to a little diner that has great food and a fast takeout service. I ordered through the drive-thru, and Roman was the cashier to take my money.
"Rome? You work here?" I laughed. He couldn't be serious. "You got a job?"
"Seems like it."
I couldn't contain myself. My laughter was so loud I'm pretty sure the cars behind heard, but I didn't give a shit. This was frickin hilarious! And he was pissed at me.
"Shut the hell up, man."
"Okay, okay," I said, trying my hardest to stop laughing. "How much is it?"
"$16.39" Rome said with a tone that told me he was trying to control himself. I handed him a 20 and he snatched it from my hand. I laughed again. This isn't happening.
"Your change," he said, handing me my change. "And your food. Have a nice night."
"Oh, it's better now, thanks. See you later, man."
He rolled his eyes as I sped off. What a guy.
As I turned onto my street I texted him, "Hey come by after work so we can hang". I have a feeling he'll say no, but I don't care. Almost immediately I receive the middle finger emoji from him. Cool, he'll be here. I get out of the car, and go inside my house. "Martha," I call out, "Dinner is here!" No reply.
"Martha?" Still silence. That's weird. I go to the living room and there she is, lying on the sofa, sleeping. I shake her shoulder.
"Martha."
"Hmm?" She sits up. "Is everything okay, Tyler?"
"Yeah. Uh, dinner's ready." She nods and sits upright. We go to the dinner table and start eating our food. Just then, the front door opens with such force that it slams against the wall. The storm becomes louder, and then it stops. The door is shut. A figure in blue scrubs, a white coat, and a baseball cap, comes walking in the kitchen.
"Mr. Blackstone, I didn't know you were coming in tonight." Martha rushes up to address him. "I'm sorry, I didn't make dinner. Tyler and I got takeout from- "
"That's okay, Martha," my dad cuts her off. "I already ate. Thank you. Tyler," he looks to me. "How've you been, son?" He comes up to me and gives me a side hug. I return the favor.
"Fine, dad. How was Sioux Falls?"
"It was fantastic. I really wanna take you there sometime before you leave to university."
I nod. "Sounds good. How long you staying?"
"I'm off for a few days," he hands his briefcase and suitcase handle to a waiting Martha. "So, let me know if you have anything in mind that you want to do tomorrow, okay?"
"Yeah.."
He walks up to me, has a good look at my person and says, "I missed you, son."
I nod again. "Same here, dad."
