Authors: Olivia Lynde
I take the call.
"Good
evening, ma'am."
"Summer, I
haven't heard a word from you in weeks!" says Ms. Walker. "Why
haven't you called me?"
"I thought you'd be busy,
ma'am."
"I'm always busy. That
doesn't mean that you shouldn't show a little courtesy and call to tell me that
you're still alive!"
Meekly, I say, "I'm sorry,
ma'am."
A drawn-out pause.
"And how have you been,
Summer? Have you met with any tribulations yet?"
I fall into a
coughing fit. "There's been no trouble at all, ma'am," I tell her
after I recover. "I've been very good."
"Yes, as
good as a regular little church mouse, I expect." Her voice is, as always,
hard to read, but the tinge of irony is pretty much unmistakable this time.
"Yes,
ma'am," I squeak.
"I, on the
other hand, have been subjected to quite an ordeal today. You see, I've had a
very disagreeable phone conversation." On a murmur, she adds, "But
very enlightening."
"I'm...
sorry, ma'am?"
"You
shouldn't be sorry, Summer. I'm certain that it was all lies. What an utterly
vile girl is this foster sister of yours!"
Oh. Dear. Merciful.
God!
"You've
talked to Jessica Anderson, ma'am?"
"Indeed I have,
and more's the pity. She found my number amongst her father's papers, she said.
She called my office and insisted quite vocally on speaking to me."
"And what
did she tell you, ma'am?" I whisper, heart in my throat.
"It's
hardly worth repeating, Summer, especially for ears as tender as yours." She's
only being half-ironical, I know. She's aware that I've never acted out
sexually, and so she really has a bit of a tendency sometimes to overprotect me
as if I'm some eighteenth-century sheltered virgin.
"But maybe
my tender ears could withstand a sanitized summary?"
She laughs.
"Indeed. Basically, this foster sister of yours found highly creative ways
to besmirch your character and conduct. Mostly, she seemed concerned with your
lack of morals as evidenced by your... indiscretions with a number of very
inappropriate men."
"More than
one man, ma'am?"
"Oh, yes,
of course. But one man in particular, it seems, much older than you and a very
suspect character all-around. A man who had lured your innocent self into entering
a scandalous living arrangement with him. A man, most importantly, that your
foster sister insisted I should protect you from."
"But if I
lacked morals in the first place, how could I be an innocent of whom someone had
taken advantage?"
"Good
point. In fact, this Jessica couldn't seem to decide in her recounting whether
you were a Jezebel or an innocent twit. You switched between the two with
astonishing speed, as was most convenient at each particular point during her
tale. And it
was
all a tale, wasn't it Summer?"
"I'm
neither a Jezebel nor an innocent twit, ma'am," I tell her most
truthfully.
Very somberly,
she says, "No, you are certainly neither of those." She sighs.
"You should take care with this girl, Summer. She's very fierce in her
hatred of you. Maybe you'd prefer that I find you another place to—"
"No! Please
no, Ms. Walker, I don't want to be moved somewhere else! I'm fine where I am
now."
"Nevertheless—"
"Ms.
Walker, please let me stay!" I hesitate... and tell her the one fact that
would really carry weight with her. "I... I'm sleeping through the night
again."
A long silence
stretches out. Finally, she says, "Are you now?" But there's none of
the disbelief or even surprise that I would have expected to hear in her voice.
No, it's almost like she
expected
me to tell her something like that.
"All right,
Summer," she continues. "I'll trust your judgment on this one. But do
take care of yourself."
"I will,
ma'am." I dash the big tear of relief slipping down my face. "Thank
you."
*
* *
It's a couple of weeks after my
conversation with Ms. Walker, and it's one of those days when Seth has a free
period and weight training before lunch, so I'm walking alone to the cafeteria.
"Hey, Summer, wait up!"
I freeze in my tracks on a creepy sense
of déjà vu, but I shake it off and look back. It's just Dana, hurrying to catch
up with me.
"Hey," she says again and we
start walking together. "You and Seth are sitting with us today?"
"Yes."
She smiles. "Well, I better tell
you something quick before your ü
ber-
possessive hottie shows up and you two
lovebirds completely forget about the rest of us."
"Pfft! You're just jealous." I
give her a huge grin.
She winks. "Damn right I am. If
someone had told me two months ago that Seth Lewis could ever be so into a
girl, I would've called bullshit so fast it would've made your head spin. But
seriously, the two of you are so wrapped up in each other you're not fit for
society yet!"
"Hey! We do well enough!"
She snorts. "But anyways, I have to
tell you something, and Seth can't hear it because he'll really kill the Bitch
this time."
I sigh. "Jessica tried to spread
another nasty rumor about me?"
"Obviously."
"So that would make it... her tenth
attempt maybe?"
Dana snorts again. "Seriously,
who's keeping count? Every couple of days, she comes up with another tale or
two about you, each crappier than the other. But really, she's like social
plague these days, so what else better has she got to do?"
"Maybe she thinks that one of her rumors
will catch on eventually."
"Please! Everyone hates her and
everyone knows she hates you. As much as some of her former posse would love a juicy
tale so they can sling mud at you, everyone knows Jessica's just talking crap
because her life is crap."
"So what's the latest story?"
"Oh, just that you were seen at the
family planning clinic downtown because you went to have an abortion. Wasn't
Seth's baby, obviously."
My feet stop abruptly and refuse to move
for long seconds.
Dana takes another couple of steps
before she realizes she's lost me and returns to me. "Summer, you all right?"
"I don't think so," I murmur. Jeez,
of all the bad luck in the world! Someone had to recognize me at the clinic and
tell freaking Jessica about it!
I didn't go to have an abortion, of
course. Seth and I haven't even had sex yet. But I'm finding it harder and
harder not to. We
will
make love at some point in the future, I know
that, and I want to be prepared when the time comes. So I went to the clinic
and got a prescription for the pill. Then I started taking it when I got my
period a few days ago. I haven't told Seth any of this yet. I don't know how to
tell him, and I don't want him to think that my going on the pill is a green
light for us to have sex right away. I still need more time.
"Seriously, Summer, no one believed
Jessica. You don't have to worry."
I lick my dry lips and start moving
again, tugging Dana along. "I'm okay now," I tell her. "You just
took me by surprise."
* * *
The following week I'm in a bathroom
stall, having just used the facilities. I'm in the process of refastening my jeans
when the bathroom door slams open and I hear a furious voice:
"Swear to God, that slut branded
him! When Seth took his jacket off, I saw it clear as day—a freaking hickey on
his neck!"
Gosh, this is embarrassing. First
because I'm stuck in the bathroom stall now, forced to listen to a conversation
I most definitely do not want to hear. Second because that conversation happens
to reference my monumental dorkiness in giving Seth a hickey... again.
But really, it was an accident! Last
night was... Well, it was
Intense
—yes, with a capital
I
. I loved
all of it, of course, but now I have love bites and stubble marks practically
all over my body (excluding the bikini areas)—and that's not even a one-time
occurrence. In fact, I haven't been able to wear anything with a low neckline (without
a scarf) since I moved in with Seth. He, on the other hand, never bothers to
hide whatever marks I may leave him with. Rather, whenever I happen to—accidentally!—give
him a love bite, he takes great pleasure in showing it off, the beast!
"Really, Kristie, chill out,"
says a second, calmer voice.
One of the girls enters a bathroom stall
located a couple of feet to my right. Then I hear the telltale sound of someone
relieving their bladder.
"I just don't get it, Helen!"
says Kristie from inside the stall. "When he was with me, if he got even a
hint that I wanted to leave him with a hickey or, freak's sake, even hold his
hand, he'd get colder than freaking Alaska! So why is he so different with her?!"
The other girl sighs gustily. "How
should I know? Maybe this Summer gal really does it for him in bed."
"Please! She's not even that
pretty!"
A scoff. "Kristie, that girl's not just
pretty, she's gorgeous. She has perfect features and the curves of a porn star,
according to Mickey. And he says that, because she's so small, she makes the
guys feel all big and manly when they're around her. Which is pretty heady
stuff, I suppose."
"Mickey's an idiot."
"Mickey's a guy and that's the least
of what the guys are saying about her." Helen laughs. "But not in
Seth's hearing anymore—not since he heard Austin talking trash about her, and knocked
him out with one single blow."
I hear the sound of a flushing toilet
and then of Kristie leaving her stall. "You see!" she explodes. "It's
like Seth's been possessed, for freak's sake! When did you ever know him to be
the jealous type?"
"Yeah, well, maybe he's
changed."
A water faucet is turned on. "But
why should he change for her, of all people? What's so freaking special about
her?"
"I told you. Maybe she's good in
bed."
"Please! No one's that good in bed.
He's Seth Lewis, for freak's sake! When's he ever stayed so long with one girl?
He must be getting bored out of his skull."
"Didn't seem that bored to me when
I saw him all wrapped around her just this morning," mutters Helen.
The water faucet is turned off and an
electrifying silence fills the bathroom. "Or maybe that's not it at
all," says Kristie in a tone of revelation. "Maybe she's playing hard
to get. Maybe she's withholding sex to make him more interested. Wow, that'd be
a first for Seth!"
"Uh, Kristie, no girl's that
stupid. There's no way that girl doesn't know she has to give it to him if she
wants to keep him."
Over the scrunch of paper towels, Kristie
says excitedly, "Maybe she is that freaking stupid and he's deprived, or
maybe they've been having sex all this time and he's gotten bored, then. Either
way, right about now he should be ready to move on to a new girl!"
The bathroom door slams shut over the
sound of her giddy laughter.
That evening around 9 P.M., I'm sitting
curled on the couch in the apartment, holding volume 1 of
Tom Jones
on
my lap. I've been staring at the same page for the past half-hour. I'm alone,
as I always am on Wednesday evenings, because that's when Seth goes to train
with Klaus in Grand Rapids.
In fact, this is one of a very small
number of rare occasions when Seth and I aren't together.
Should I be worried about that—about
Seth and I spending so much time together? We wake up to each other and get
ready for school together. In school, 99% of the time spent outside class we
spend together. On the afternoons when I'm working, he picks me up from the
book shop after work and then we spend the evenings together (except on
Wednesdays). On Friday afternoons, I go with him to the Garage. The same on
Saturdays when he's working. The rest of the time on weekends we're together as
well. Each night, we sleep in the same bed.
Am I suffocating him?
I mean, I don't think that I am. It's
not me who's always looking for him in school, or saying he should pick me up
from work, or saying that I should go with him to Joe's and read something
there while he's working. It's not me saying no to more than half the party
invitations we get, because "it's more fun if we stay in, just the two of
us".
No, it's mostly him doing all that.
And spending all this time together
feels so right to me—and necessary, even—that it never occurred to me to
question it. I sure as heck would never feel bored in his company, so I never
thought to ask myself if maybe
he
is getting bored. But no, if he didn't
want to be with me just as much as I do with him, he wouldn't arrange it so
that we never have to spend a lot of time apart.