When Summer Ends (37 page)

“It’s fine, I’ll call Amy to come and get me.” I shrugged.

He sighed and didn’t say anything, just turned and skulked
off towards his car, his shoulders stiff and his body ridged.
Well, Amy will
be pleased now.
Since she’d found out about Will she had convinced herself
that he still liked me still, so wanted me to try for him again. The girl changed
her mind too freaking easy.

I felt an arm sling around my waist so I turned to see Sam
smirking at me. “You can thank me later,” he teased.

I groaned and put my head on his chest. This was going to
make things a little awkward at school for a couple of days; we had two classes
together so that would suck. At least we didn’t really have the same friends so
he would just go back to his group and I would hang out with my usual friends
the same as before this little relationship mishap happened.

“You’re such a jerk, Sam,” I mumbled into his chest. He
laughed and I could feel it rumble in my ears where I was pressed against him.

“Oh come on, I did you a favour. That guy wasn’t right for
you at all, you need someone older. And blonds just don’t suit you at all,” he
teased.

I chuckled weakly. “Someone more like you, perhaps?” I
joked, rolling my eyes and pulling back to look at him.
Stupid flirt.

He looked me over with mock disgust. “No way, you’ve got
Will cooties all over you, I told you that before. My brother, on the other hand,
he suits you perfectly.” He squeezed my waist lightly and started leading me
over to where Will was standing. I laughed humourlessly about the little Will
comment but didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to think about how perfectly he
suited me.

Will was standing there looking a little awkward, but I noticed
the small smile on his face that he was obviously trying to disguise.
“Everything all right?” he asked as we got up to him.

I nodded and shrugged. I felt a little guilty that I didn’t
feel even the slightest bit upset about the breakup, but I couldn’t force
myself to feel something for someone after one week of dating, so I really had
nothing to feel bad about.

Will grinned wickedly. “Well at least you know you’re not
missing out on anything, I mean you saw him in his speedos so it’s no great
loss.”

I burst out laughing and shook my head. “Don’t be mean,” I
scolded playfully.

He smiled happily and dug in his pocket for his keys. “Come
on, I’ll give you a ride home.”

Aww, he is so freaking sweet!
“Yeah? Thanks, that’d
be great. I was just contemplating getting the bus.” I smiled gratefully.

He turned to Sam. “I’ll see you at Mom’s.”

Sam nodded and pulled me into a hug. “Now you two play nice,
I don’t want to hear anymore whining from him about how you made him act like a
jerk to you,” he whispered in my ear.

I pulled back and looked at him, confused.
Will told Sam
that I made him act like a jerk? I didn’t make him do anything; he’s the one
that just jumps on me all the time for nothing.
I sighed and rolled my
eyes. Sam was probably just trying to push my buttons now.

“Whatever, Sam, call me and we can go out.”

“Keep Friday open for me,” he called to my back as Will and
I walked to his jeep.

I waved over my shoulder signalling that I’d heard him. I
smiled gratefully as Will opened my door for me. He always was a gentleman when
we went out; I kind of forgot he liked to do things like that.   

He kept stealing little glances at me as he drove; I smiled
after about the tenth time I had caught him. “What is it, Will? Just spit out
whatever’s on your mind,” I instructed, looking at him expectantly.

He frowned and opened his mouth to say something, but then
just closed it again and looked back at the road. “I wasn’t going to say
anything.” I rolled my eyes.
Does he think I don’t know him at all?
I
raised my eyebrows and just looked at him, waiting for him to man up and say
what he was thinking about. After about a minute he sighed in defeat. “Fine, I
was going to say that I’m glad you broke up with him. He wasn’t good enough for
you and you shouldn’t let a guy dictate to you like that.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah I know.”

“And I loved the whole ‘shove it up your ass’ line. That was
awesome.” He laughed.

I laughed and blushed, embarrassed that I’d said that in
front of him and Sam. In hindsight I really should have taken Olly to one side
and broken it off instead of doing it in front of two other guys.

“Glad I impressed you,” I replied, biting my lip and just
thinking about how his smile lit his whole face and actually made him look
beautiful to me. The drive to my house was way too short and when he pulled up
outside I frowned in disappointment. “Well thanks for bringing me home.”

He smiled. “Anytime.”

I reluctantly opened the car door and forced myself to get
out. “Have a nice dinner.”

He groaned. “Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be great,” he said
sarcastically. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I nodded and shut the car door, waving as I walked up the
driveway to my house. As soon as I was inside I pulled out my cell phone and
called Amy, explaining everything that had happened with Olly, down to the very
last detail.

When Amy and I walked into the school the following day I
felt so awkward that I just wanted to run away. Olly was talking with one of
his friends in the parking lot. I didn’t know what to do so I just blushed and
dropped my eyes to the floor.
Oh man this is awful. At least when Nick and I
broke up it was kind of on nice terms because we still vowed to be friends, but
with Olly it’ll just be downright awkward for a while because we’d broken up on
an argument rather than a mutual parting.

All through first period he seemed to avoid me. Whenever I
looked in his direction he looked away or turned to talk to someone else so I
wouldn’t go up to him, not that I was planning to anyway, but I guess he was
just playing it safe. Maybe it was easier for him just to cut me out and
pretend like nothing had happened, but I would rather be friendly about it at
least.

I was actually so excited about my lunchtime detention that
I could barely think of anything else, that seemed to make the morning fly by.
I grabbed a sandwich and headed to Will’s classroom with a huge smiled on my
face just because I would get to hang out with him for another hour. When I got
to the door I mentally crossed my fingers that we would be the only ones there
again. Suddenly a thought occurred to me;
what if he’s given someone else
detention and I actually have to sit there for an hour and do work? That’ll
suck big time.

I hesitated with my hand raised about to knock. Technically
he’d let me off of the detentions so if there was someone else in there I could
just turn and walk away, I wouldn’t actually have to stay and do work.

Just as I was lost in my thoughts, two hands fell on my shoulders
making me jump and scream a little from the shock. I whipped around to see Will
standing behind me laughing quietly. “You should have seen your face. Wow that
was a picture,” he teased. He nodded to the door that I still hadn’t knocked on
or opened. “Are you going to let us in, or will the rematch be in the hallway
today?” he asked, grinning wickedly.

I bit my lip as my stomach started to flutter. The word
‘rematch’ had to mean we were on our own otherwise he wouldn’t have said it. I
grinned and pushed his door open; almost skipping in there because I was so
happy.

I turned back to him, and he laughed. “I was thinking we
could shoot basketballs instead of Malteasers this time, easier to clean up.”
He shrugged.

I laughed. “Not sure you’ll get a basketball in your mouth,
Will. Then again I guess you didn’t get many Malteasers in your mouth either,”
I joked.

He grinned and pulled out a stack of scrap paper, rolling it
into balls and sitting on the desk next to me. He nodded to a little hoop that was
stuck on the wall, directly over the trashcan. “First person to ten wins.” He
smiled happily and proceeded to aim for a three pointer, and I just laughed. He
was such a kid sometimes, but I actually loved that about him.

The next two weeks passed exactly the same, Olly continued
to just look away with a little hurt expression every time I was near him -
which of course earned me lots of glares from his little fan girls because
precious Olly was upset. By the look of it though, he didn’t waste much time in
replacing me. He had a different girl hanging all over him all the time,
begging for his attention. To be honest, he was probably glad that we’d broken
up; at least he’d probably gotten past first base with a couple of them.

Will continued to be nice to me; it was weird just having a
normal conversation with him about something random and unimportant. Every time
he smiled at me my heart would race, and my palms would get a little sweaty. I
was really enjoying just being able to talk to him occasionally. In his classes
he was a teacher, but if I saw him in the hallway or something, then he was
more like my old Will.

We only ended up doing two detentions, instead of the full
week, because after that, he got roped into helping with the upcoming play by Miss
Teller. He couldn’t exactly refuse to help his girlfriend, so I quite often saw
him lugging costumes around and painting the set for her at lunchtimes. I
couldn’t stop feeling jealous about it. Every time I saw her I just wanted to
punch her in the face for being so freaking perfect. She was utterly flawless,
but yet she was so nice with it too. It really wasn’t fair.

The two weeks passed so fast that I barely knew what
happened, and before I knew it, Saturday arrived, and so did the dreaded
paintball game.

Chapter Twenty-Four

I followed Amy and Nick off of the coach, feeling slightly sick
with nerves.
What if I fall over in the middle of the woods and hurt myself
and no one even notices? What if I’m lying there for hours crying for help?
I
knew I was being more than a little pathetic, but that was the kind of thing
that would happen to me, a really typical Chloe moment.

As we climbed out we were directed towards a pile of jumpsuits.
I grabbed one in my size and pulled it on feeling my heart sink with every
second. This was not my idea of how to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Please, please, please let me get through this unscathed.

We were each handed a safety helmet, a gun and a spare
packet of paintballs, and were herded to a little clearing where the instructor
stood on a little platform ready to address us. He started to go through the
rules; how to reload, where the flags were positioned, what to do if you got
hurt, and all other kinds of things that I just wasn’t interested in. I would
actually rather be anywhere than here at this moment, especially when I looked
up to see Will and Miss Teller standing directly in front of me, listening to
the guy. They looked like the perfect couple, they looked so hot together, and
that made me feel even worse.

I stood there discreetly watching as Miss Teller put her
hand on his arm, smiling seductively. It felt like it was killing me inside.
She laughed at something he’d said - well, giggled really. I immediately
started to envision walking over there, grabbing her perfect natural blonde
hair, and shoving her pretty face into the muddy puddle by her feet. I sighed. Why
was I even here anyway? I should have just said no. I would end up getting hurt
at some point today, so why did I even subject myself to this, knowing that the
newest and hottest couple would be here, together. It was one thing hearing
about it at school and knowing it went on, but seeing it was actually ripping
my heart out.

Why couldn’t I just get over him? What was so special about
him anyway? Sure he was extremely hot, but I didn’t care about that. He was
smart and funny, sweet and thoughtful… but he was a teacher! I needed to just
stop looking at him like that. I needed to just grab someone else and kiss the
life out of them and hope that I felt the butterflies in my stomach like I did
when I kissed Will. Maybe Olly just hadn’t been the right person, maybe if I
tried with someone else then I would feel something, anything, just to take the
pain away and make me feel better.

Will and I had been getting on so well for the last couple
of weeks that I’d kind of pushed the fact that he was dating someone else out
of my head, but seeing it was like torture. It had been over six weeks since we
broke up, and I still couldn’t let go. I was probably bordering on obsessive.
Maybe I should go get myself some therapy or something.

Miss Teller flicked her long, perfect locks over her
shoulder and slapped Will’s arm, laughing. He grinned and shook his head. I
frowned.
What is he saying to her to make her laugh like that? He isn’t that
freaking funny!
They both turned and looked at the guy at the front of the
group, I watched as she inched closer to him, making my fists tighten
unconsciously. I really needed to punch something, something blonde.

“Earth to Chloe.” Amy laughed, elbowing me in the ribs
gently.

I jumped and looked at her. “What?” I asked, blushing.
Jeez,
if people knew what I was thinking!

“You’re off in your own little world again. The instructor said
we had to test our guns. Just squeeze the trigger and if it feels too tight for
you to press then they can adjust it before the game starts,” she explained, rolling
her eyes pumping her trigger.
No doubt she knows I was daydreaming about
Will again, she always knows, freaking psychic best friend.

“Oh right,” I mumbled. I raised my gun and squeezed the
trigger. Instead of just clicking like Amy’s did, my gun kind of jerked a
little in my hand.

“OW! What the hell?” Will shouted from in front of me.