When Summer Ends (22 page)

She nodded and carried on walking out of the room; I stopped
and dropped my bag on the nearest desk before turning to Will.
Hmm, maybe I
should apologise for that. That was way over the top. But was it though? He
dumped me, not the other way around; I shouldn’t have to be mindful of his
feelings. He’s the one that has already arranged a date with the hot teacher;
I’m just following his lead and moving on like everyone suggested I should.

“What the hell was that?” he snapped, frowning angrily.

I took a deep breath; I was just about to apologise when
Miss Teller sauntered back into the room, smiling happily. “Hey, Chloe,” she greeted
as she spotted me.

“Hi. How are you today?” I asked, faking friendliness. I
willed myself not to cry as she walked over to Will’s side. He smiled at her,
still looking tense and angry but obviously trying to hide it.

“I’m good. You’re not taking drama this year?” she asked,
perching sexily on one of the desks making her skirt rise a little.

“Not this year, unless I can trade for calculus,” I
suggested, shrugging.
Actually I would trade anything for calculus right now;
I honestly never wanted to come to this class again.

She laughed. “I don’t think they do trades.”

I didn’t want to stand here and listen to them flirting; I
looked longingly at the door. “Are we done now, Mr Morris? Can I be excused?” I
asked hopefully, knowing he wouldn’t want to talk about this with her sitting
there.

He looked at me for a few seconds before he sighed and nodded.
“Yeah, we’re done, you can go.”

I practically ran out of the room and down to my locker in a
bid to be away from them both. Amy stood there waiting for me; she was watching
me expectantly.

Why is she looking at me like that?
“What?”

She made a scoffing noise and looked at me like I was
stupid. “What did he want? Did you get into trouble or something?”

Eek, what do I say to that?
I shook my head. “No he
was just offering help in case Tricia and I needed it, because she was off
yesterday,” I lied. I winced, hating the fact that I was lying to my best
friend - but I couldn’t tell her the truth because I couldn’t let anyone know
about Will. I didn’t want him in trouble for this.

“That’s nice of him. You two seem to be getting on better
now, not clashing as much as last week.” She shrugged, closing her locker.

“Yeah I guess.” I sighed and followed her to the car.
Another
day down, only another ten and a half months to go, then I’ll leave school and will
never have to see Will’s handsome face again.

Chapter Fourteen

The rest of the school week passed without event. Will barely
even looked at me except when he needed to in a teacher way, and even that
wasn’t very often. In a way I was grateful because I didn’t want to talk to
him. Especially after half of the school had witnessed him pull into the
parking lot on Tuesday morning with Miss Teller in the passenger seat of his
car.

After going out with him on Monday after school it was
pretty obvious that she stayed at his place with him. It honestly made me feel
sick but I tried my hardest not to let it affect me, well, I tried not to show
that it affected me is more like the truth.

The rumour mill started immediately. Talk of the new hot
teacher couple was all around school within minutes. Every time it was
mentioned my stomach would start to ache but I worked hard on not showing it. Instead,
I flirted with Olly and pretended I was looking forward to seeing him on
Saturday.

After school was really busy all week, so that helped to
keep my mind off of my calculus teacher. On Wednesday and Thursday I went home
with Nick, and we studied. Though to be honest he didn’t need to help me too
much this week, Will’s notes and his help on Monday had made everything pretty
clear. It also helped that Tricia happened to like calculus, so she was leading
the project during class. So after Nick and I studied for a little while, we
watched a movie or something before eating.

Nick was fun to be around. He was totally avoiding the
subject of his mom, we both were. The anniversary of her death was Sunday so we
were going there early in the morning so he could pay his respects, and then we’d
planned to hang out afterwards so I could cheer him up a little and take his
mind off of it.

On Friday night I went out for dinner with Sam. It was good;
as usual Sam didn’t fail to make me laugh with tales of disastrous dates and
his all-time best successes. He’d suggested we go out on Saturday next week
instead of Friday. A friend of his, one that I had already met through Will,
was throwing a party, and Sam wanted me to go with him. He said Amy could go
too which I knew she would love to do. So, after making him promise me five
times that Will wouldn’t be there, I’d eventually agreed to it. It sounded like
fun though so the party would probably be good.

Today was Saturday and I was sitting watching the clock tick
round way too fast. For the hundredth time I looked at my cell phone, willing
it to ring and for it to be Olly cancelling the date or something.
A nasty
case of food poisoning would go down a treat right now. Maybe I could call him
and tell him I have food poisoning…
When I heard a car pull up outside, I
let out a long groan of frustration. He was right on time. Seven pm on the dot,
I had to give the boy points for punctuality. I was really going to try on this
date. Olly was a nice guy, and he was good-looking too, I was going to give
moving on my best effort.

I headed downstairs slowly, letting my dad answer the door.
Maybe
he’ll scare Olly away for me then I won’t even need to go!
I walked up
behind my dad who was standing there, glaring. His posture wasn’t very
welcoming as he blocked the doorway, leaving Olly outside.

“I’m serious, I know you father and if I hear one thing
about her being mistreated tonight then I’ll be speaking to him before I come
looking for you,” Dad warned.

Wow, poor Olly, he hasn’t even stepped through the door,
and he’s getting it already.
I smiled apologetically as I tapped my dad’s
arm, letting him know I was there. He turned slightly to look at me, still
frowning. He had always been protective of me; I was an only child so he went
completely over the top. It was almost funny in an embarrassing as heck kind of
way.

“I understand, and I wouldn’t even dream of mistreating her,
I promise,” Olly vowed, looking like he wanted to run away from the door
screaming.
Run, please run away
. He didn’t run though. My heart sank as my
dad waved him inside the house.

“Hey, Olly.” I forced a smile and turned to my dad. “We’ll
be going, Dad, I won’t be late,” I promised as I grabbed my jacket from the
coat rack and headed towards the door quickly before he could hassle Olly
anymore.

“Okay, pumpkin, have fun.” My dad smiled at me before
turning to Olly and giving him one last warning look.

I gripped Olly’s arm and almost pushed him out of the door,
closing it behind me. He blew out a big breath before turning to me with wide
eyes. “Damn, Chloe, your dad’s scary!” he mumbled, shaking his head.

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “He’s a pussycat, unless you
hurt me in which case he’ll hunt you down,” I teased, smirking at him.

He laughed quietly, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
“You look great, by the way,” he complimented, raking his eyes down my body
slowly. I felt self-conscious even though I wasn’t wearing anything revealing -
just black pants and a green shirt; nothing special because I didn’t want to
give him the wrong impression. Though maybe flirting with him all week had kind
of given him the wrong impression already. But I’d vowed to really try tonight.
Maybe he’d sweep my off of my feet, and I wouldn’t have given him a false
impression after all. I guess we’d see as the night progressed.

“Thanks, you do too.” He did look good, his blond hair was
styled nicely, he was wearing jeans and a nice blue button down shirt.
That shirt
would look ten times better on Will. Oh for goodness sake, I need to stop
thinking about my stupid teacher!

“You ready to go?” he asked, looking towards his car. I
nodded and followed him over to it, getting in and hating just how wrong this
felt. Even his nice, clean car seemed wrong somehow. “So I was thinking we
could go to Zac’s?” he suggested, making it sound more like a question.

“Sure, I love Zac’s.” That was good because the place wasn’t
too romantic either, just a nice little place that did really great burgers.
Olly smiled and started the car, pulling out of my drive. We rode in awkward
silence for most of the journey, making small talk about school and the movie
we were seeing tonight. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when we pulled
into the parking lot of the restaurant because at least we would have something
to distract from the awkwardness now.

I felt uncomfortable and weird the whole time we were in the
restaurant. I honestly tried my hardest to like him. He was sweet and quite
funny in a nervous kind of way, but we had nothing in common so a lot of the
time was spent thinking of something else to talk about while we ate.

Deep down I knew that although I was trying to give him a
chance, my heart just refused to even think about him that way. Throughout the
date I kept comparing it to dates I had spent with Will, laughing easily and
always having something to talk about. Maybe it was because Will was older or
something, more experienced, so he knew how to make a girl feel comfortable. I
really couldn’t pin point exactly what it was, all I knew was that there was no
spark between me and Olly.

After we had finished eating we decided to head to the movie
theatre where we were meeting the rest of my friends. I silently hoped that once
we were around other people that we would both relax, and maybe we’d be able to
salvage the rest of the night.

Olly refused to let me pay for the food. As we walked out to
the car I felt his hand brush against mine. Instinctively I jerked it away and
pretended to look through my purse for my cell phone, just in case he was
trying to hold my hand or something. I secretly wished I hadn’t suggested this
little private dinner in the first place. The only reason I did was to try and
make Will jealous and get some payback, but even that didn’t work out how I’d
planned.

We talked about music on the way there, and luckily, by the
time we pulled into the parking lot, there were only a few minutes until we were
supposed to be meeting up with everyone. I felt myself relaxing because the
alone part of the date was over with, well, until he drove me home anyway.

Amy smirked at me as we walked in the door. I resisted the
urge to roll my eyes at her obviousness. I knew that she would immediately drag
me to the bathrooms to get the gossip on the dinner. I wasn’t wrong. As soon as
we got over to where her, Nick, and five of our other friends were, she grabbed
my hand and nodded towards the restrooms.

“Let’s go pee before the movie, Chloe,” she chirped happily.
I sighed dejectedly, knowing there was no point in arguing, and just allowed
her to lead me to the ladies bathrooms. As soon as the door closed she rounded
on me, looking at me expectantly. “So?”

I sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know, he’s a nice guy it’s
just…” I trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

“It’s just that you’re still hung up on the asshole,” she finished,
putting her hand on her hip with apparent disapproval.

“Amy, I’m trying, honestly I am, but I just keep thinking
about Will all the time. This is too early for me to be out on a date with
someone else. Olly’s sweet, and funny, and hot, but I just couldn’t stop
thinking about Will all night.” I pouted and sat on the counter next to the
sink, waiting for her to scold me again for not moving on.

She didn’t though; instead she sat next to me and wrapped
her arm around my shoulder. “I know what it’s like to have feelings for someone
and not be able to do anything about it. Just look at me and Ryan, I’ve been
crazy about him forever, and I’ve barely even spoken to him. It could be worse
you know, you could have Will shoved in your face every day, because trust me,
that’s hard!” She looked at me knowingly.

I nodded and didn’t say that I had Will in my face all the time;
I wished I could just tell her and then she’d understand more about why I was
upset and was struggling to move on.

“Give Olly a chance,” she implored. “Hold his hand, kiss
him, see if there’s something there that you can build on. All you need to do
is find him attractive. The other stuff might come along after. He’s a nice
guy. He’d make a great boyfriend I bet.” She looked at me pleadingly as she
squeezed my shoulder. “If you give him a shot and it doesn’t work out, I
promise to eat ice cream with you until it comes out of our ears.” She crossed
her heart and nodded.

I laughed at her solemn vow and nodded in acceptance. “Okay,
you’re right. Let’s go watch the movie.” I put on a fake smile and stood up.
I
just need to try harder, that’s all.
She smiled, and we walked out of the
toilets, heading to where they were standing chatting in the foyer.

Olly smiled at me as we walked up so I smiled back and went
to stand next to him. I gulped and let my hand brush against his on purpose. He
looked down quickly, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth as he traced
one finger along the back of my hand. I held my breath and looked at him; his
eyes were glimmering with hope, as if he was waiting for my permission or something.
I smiled and turned my hand over so our palms were facing each other, silently
giving him the go ahead; he grinned and took my hand holding it tightly.

Wrong. Feels wrong. I shouldn’t be holding his hand!
But
I let it happen anyway.