Always Summer (21 page)

“Ah,
well...” I started.
 
He had absolutely no
shame!
 
I just needed to run with it.

“Well
what?” Blake quizzed.

“I had
blood tests today too, to make sure I was clean.” I explained.

“Did you
have unprotected sex with Jordan?” Blake gasped.

“No!
 
She just said it was wise to do it... to be
sure!”
 
I replied.

“Oh, okay!”
Blake mumbled.

“Blake?
 
Have you had unprotected sex before?”
 
I suddenly voiced, scared of the answer.

“No!” he
answered.

“How many
partners have you had?”
 
I asked
nervously.

He
groaned... I could tell he didn’t want to answer this.

“Blake?” I
asked again.

“Fourteen.”
He said sheepishly.

“Fourteen?”
I growled... major jealousy!

Blake
sighed, “Most of them were one night stands.” He softly said.

At least he
was being honest... I didn’t want to know, but this was the first and last time
we would EVER talk about this!

“Fourteen?
Why so many?”
I asked, flabbergasted.
 
“And how is it I had no idea of them all?”

“It wasn’t
a topic for conversation between us... especially now!”
 
Blake said.

“I assure
you, it’s not something I really wanted to find out!” I fumed... I was trying
to calm down... I really was!

“Look...
after you lost your virginity to Jordan, he bragged about it!
 
I lost my senses, and went out and screwed
around!
 
I was angry!”
 
Blake explained.

Now my
anger had changed, it was now directed at me.
 

“After
doing that for a while, I tried to maintain a few girlfriends... but every time
you broke up with Jordan, well... I broke up with them, so... Look... there’s
no excuse.
 
I wasn’t doing anything wrong
regarding you at the time.
 
If anything,
I was being untrue to them, because I only ever wanted you!” he clarified.

I was
silent... it was true.
 
He hadn’t been my
boyfriend, and I was having sex with Jordan... so why would I believe he wasn’t
allowed to have sex too?
 
But he’d fucked
fourteen girls in twelve months!
 
I felt
a little bit sick.

“Summer?
 
I’ll go get tested too... just to be sure.”
Blake assured me.

“Okay.” I
said quietly.

“Can we
never talk about our past sexual encounters again please?
 
I don’t want to tell you about mine, and I
sure as hell don’t want to know about yours... there’s a very strong
possibility I’d get violent with Jordan if I knew anything.” He
explained,
distress obvious in his tone.

He felt
upset about me with Jordan... who he had always known about!
 
I could only imagine how it would feel to
know he was off having sex with someone every other night... I could get
through this... funnily enough; this knowledge calmed me down in record time.

“Deal!”
I
answered.

Blake let
out a breath.

“So... how
long does it take for the pill to start working?” Blake asked.

“We’ll be
all good to go when we get to Hackettstown.” I said bashfully.

Blake
laughed... loudly!

“She’ll be
right mate!” he said in a bad Australian accent.
 
It made me laugh too.

We
sobered...

“Now look,”
Blake began, “I don’t want you falling for any hot modeling guys you see
tomorrow!” he told me.

“I’ve
already fallen for a hot modeling type guy.” I assured him.

“He must be
gay!” he replied.

“He assures
me he isn’t... and from what I’ve experienced thus far, I’m fairly confident
that he was telling me the truth!”
 
I
smugly said.

“Damn
straight!” he said in another Aussie accent.

Blake.

My girl...
she was my girl now.

I wanted to
tattoo my mark on her to warn off everyone else.

I also
wanted to buy some new furniture for our place.
 
The apartment wasn’t furnished, except for a fridge, washing machine and
dryer, and of course the stove.
 
Thus far
we had been pooling our resources regarding the lounge room stuff.
 
Kitchen stuff too!

I knew she
was supplying a single bed for her room, and I had decided on a basic queen
ensemble... I was too tall for anything else.
 
Now I wanted something a little nicer than just a basic bed... So, I
went online to look at furniture before I went to bed for the night.

*

I wasn’t
kidding about not telling anyone other than Julie about
Summer
and I.
 
Jordan had been over fairly
regularly to ask me how Summer was going... what she was up to... and how he
could get her back.

I had the
same standard answers:

Good...

Shopping (just check her updates on facebook
man!)...

Don’t think
it’s
gonna
happen!

He’d get
all frustrated...

“I do look at facebook, but it’s all so...
uninformative...! But I love her man... I don’t think I could ever handle
someone else even touching her, you know?”
 
He’d
say.

Boy, I
knew... and if he knew what I’d already managed to achieve with her... then it
would be ‘Game On!’

Julie was
over the moon... jumping up and down and squealing and shit!
 
Geez... she was such a weird lesbian... so
not stereotypical!
 
Mom and Dad didn’t
even know about her yet... she had plans to tell them after the first semester
of college.
 
As if the distance would
give her courage.

Blake.

Moving day
was swiftly approaching.
 

Summer’s
test shots were apparently amazing...that’s my girl! She’d been involved in
some workshops to learn some skills for the catwalk, and she had already been
taken on a couple of photo shoots to get an idea of how they did things.
 
Apparently her management was so keen on her,
they offered her a contract; and they were all for her education to come first
and were willing to fit work around it, which was just as well, since Summer
explained to them, that college was more important to her.

But more
importantly for me,
Summer
was returning home today at
lunchtime to begin packing her stuff for our move in eight days.
 
I was so keen on seeing her that it was
painful!

The front
door bell rang.
 
It was, as usual, only
Julie and I home (our parents both worked).

“I’ll get
it.” I shouted out to Julie.

Opening it,
Jordan was standing there; I went to say hi...

“Motherfucker!”
he shouted.

I don’t
remember after that... at all!

*

Where was I?
 
Oh... I felt sick!
 
I couldn’t
see... I could hear though.

“Why would
he do this?” my Mom asked.

“Julie? Why
do you think this happened to Blake?
 
They’ve been friends for years!” my Dad asked my sister.

“How the
fuck should I know!” Julie was lamenting.

‘Language!”
Mom roused.

“Julie... I
want to know what you think happened!” my Dad demanded.

“It’ll be
over
Summer
!” she gave in.

“What about
Summer
?” my Mom asked.
 
She was always so naive.

“Ella...
really?” my Dad asked my Mom.

“What?
They’ve been friends for... oh!” Mom replied.

Obviously a
look was given that said it all.

I slipped back into sleep...

*

“I came
here as fast as I could…” Summer’s alarmed voice entered the room.

“Blake!”
she voiced.

“It’ll be
okay honey… They’re keeping him in a sleeping state for a while to make sure
his brain’s okay.” My Mom explained.

That
sounded awful to me.

“Is
something wrong with his brain?
 
Why is
he on a respirator?” Summer choked.

“He has some
swelling,” my Dad explained, “He was king hit just behind his right ear… and he
landed awkwardly on the tiles in the entranceway of our house.
 
The respirator is because the drugs he is on
interfere with his ability to breathe effectively, and he needs maximum oxygen
perfusion to accelerate his healing
Summer
.”
 
Dad said.

“Oh my God,
oh my God… this is
all my
fault!” Summer wailed.

“Don’t be
stupid!” Julie said, “Jordan is a loose cannon… he has been for months!”

“But Blake
warned me not to tell anyone…” Summer was crying.

“What? Tell
people?” my Mom questioned…
oh please!

“About us!”
she was really crying now.
 
“I was just
so excited to be coming home and seeing him… I just sort of posted that I was
on my way home to pack for college with my man!” she was inconsolable.

“Shit!”
Julie said.

No-one
corrected her.

I slept…

*

“It’s not
your fault you know.” My Dad said.

“I feel
like it is.” Summer replied, softly now... she was no longer crying.

“You know,
when I was just a little bit older than you... I was in college... and I sat
down in a communications lecture one day, and across the aisle, I spotted this
absolutely gorgeous young lady.
 
I was so
taken by her, that I followed her after class.” He explained.

“That’s
called stalking.” Summer gave a little laugh.

My Dad
chuckled.
 
“Well, she had a
boyfriend...
 
And, to cut a really long
story short... I stole her away from that boyfriend, and when he asked her why
she was breaking up with him... she told him about me.”

“Oh dear!”
Summer said.

“Oh dear, indeed.”
My Dad laughed.
 
“His friends all
descended on my dorm, called me out, and proceeded to beat the crap out of me!”
Dad announced.

Summer took
a huge intake of breath.
 
“What did you
do?”

“I never
blamed the girl... and I married her at the end of the semester!” he
replied.
 
“It wasn’t her fault he was
such a sore loser... and if he wanted her that much, he should’ve been trying
harder! She was quite the catch... still is!”

Summer
giggled.
 
Then she sighed.
 
“Jordan and I broke up three months ago.
 
Blake and I only started a relationship once
I went to stay with my sister.
 
There was
no overlap... not even a little bit.” She explained.

“I realize
that Jordan is hot headed... it suits him on the field, but not so much off of
it.” Dad offered.

“Agreed.
 
He was becoming scarily controlling in my
life!
 
Right down to my
friendships and miscellaneous acquaintances.”
Summer said, sighing.
 
“He wasn’t always like that... he used be
really lovely!”

“You’re a
good girl
Summer
... I really like you!” Dad said.

“I like you
too, Mr. Austen.” Summer replied.

I slept...

*

‘Hello?’
I tried to say... but my throat was blocked
and I was struggling to form words, then I realised I had no control over my
breathing, and I began to panic.

“Hello!!!”
a cheery female voice stated in a singsong voice, as she reached over and
pushed a button on the wall beside me.
 
“You’re back with us!”

Another
nurse and a doctor arrived.
 

They
removed the tube remaining in my throat, and bustled around me for a while,
checking monitors, tubes and my catheter...