Summer

I walk around aimlessly until I find myself in front of a familiar tree and slump down, sitting in silence for awhile before I break down, crying my eyes out. How could things get so complicated? She liked me... past tense. And like her. Like, current tense. And we're kissing a the time and...

I hear footsteps approaching moments later. I breifly look up from the comforting space between my arms to see Vic standing above me. "Whats wrong?" He asks. I put my head back down and ignore him. I here footsteps again, then hes sitting next to me. "Did something happen with you and you're girlfriend?" He asks.

"She's not my girlfriend." I groan. He doesnt ask anymore questions so we just sit together in silence.

And him. She likes him. And he obviously likes her. And I can't do anything about. Even if I could somehow stop her from liking him, I can't even imagine her forgiving me for yelling at her the way I did. And leaving her like that all broken. I can't be surprised if she never forgives me for making her feel the way she did.

"Do you wanna go somewhere?" He asks. I nod silently. He stands up and offers his hand to me, pulling me up with him. We walk in silence and he leads me to a cabin, and as soon as we're inside he offers me a drink. "Yeah, okay." I murmer. He goes into the kitchen and pulls a bottle of Apple Ciroc from under the sink. I look around. It's simple enough. Similiar to me and Rileys, excpet more decor.

"Alcohol. You're an angel." I sigh, sitting down on his couch. He chuckles and brings over two glasses and the entire bottle. The first cup goes down hard, but it just get easier from there.

***

The first thing I notice when I open my eyes is how dark it is out. I stretch a bit, and reach over for my phone. I cringe and groan at the brightness and immediately turn it down. The next thing I notice is my notifications. 3 voicemais and 12 text messages, all from Riley. I press play on the first one and press my phone to my ear. Rileys trembling voice fils my head, apologizing through sniffles and hiccups. I end it before it finished and delete the rest. I never wanna hear her like that again, and I definitely never want to be the cause of it again.

The third thing I notice is my lack of clothes. I shoot up in the forgein bed and take a look around the room. My clothes are in a messy pile in the corner, and I'm only wearing my bra and underwear. And next to me is definitely an underdressed Vic. I leap out of bed and immediately redress, frantically throwing cothes over my body. In the process I find a marker on the floor and quickly draw a mustache on Vic's face. Even in crisis I'm funny.

I check my phone for the time when I'm halfway out the door. 3 am, of course. I turn on the light on my phone to light my path and carefully treck back to Riley and I's shared cabin, all while trying to remember everything that happened before I woke up, with no luck. When I find mysef outside of our door, I take a breathe before stepping in.

It's completely dark and quiet, and I start to worry Riley isn't even here, until I hear a small sound from the bedroom. I tiptoe down the hall to see she's curled into a ball in the center of the bed, laying restlessly. She looks like she cried herself to sleep, and my heart breaks at the sight. I slip off my shoes and crawl into the bed with her without a word. She immediately relaxes under my touch, and sighs contently.

I hold her as she sleeps until the sun starts to rise, and I notice a change in her breathing.

"When did you wake up?" I whisper onto her ear. She moves closer to me and sighs.

"I never went to sleep. I was too worried about you, and when you came back, I didn't want to."

SHe moves to get up but I tighten my hold on her, and she stills again.

"Please don't." I whisper. If she gets up, we have to continue fighting. And I really don't want to fight with her like that ever again. She settles back into my loving arms, and we lay together in silence. My hand rest across her chest and I notice the careful beating of her heart. It's relaxing. She feels like home. And I want to feel like this forever.

"I'm so sorry." Riley pleads quietly after awhile. She turns in my arms so she's facing me now.

"I should've told you... But I was afraid you would react the way you did. I'm sorry." She moves forward so her face is buried in my chest and I protectively pull her closer.

"I'm sorry too." I murmur into her hair.

"I never wanted to make you feel that way. And I'm sorry if I made you feel like I don't like the fact that you like girls. I promise you I don't have a problem with it." I pull her hair slightly so she leans back and looks at me.

"I love you, whether you like girls or not."

Tears start to form in her eyes and I kissed her nose, forehead, and both her cheeks, while whispering comforting words to her, and she says "I love you too." into my chest.

"I'll never make you feel like that again, I promise."

When we do get around to moving its only because Rileys phone buzzes.

"It's Vic. He says you left something in his cabin." Rileys says, raising an eyebrow.

"You were with him last night?" She asks, and moves to stand.

"Umm, I was there for a few hours." I say vaguely. She glances at me as she starts to strip herself of yesterday outfit, but doesn't say anything else.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go get whatever that is." I stutter, and get ready to leave again.

"I'll be back soon, promise."

***

"You left this." Vic says, handing me a sharpie. I grin slightly when I see my artwork is still there, but remembering how I woke up this morning makes my smile fall.

"Funny. So why am I really here?" I ask, pushing past him and inside the cabin.

"I thought we should talk about last night." He closes the door behind himself and directs me toward the couch.

"What about it?" I groan, taking a seat. He told his eyes and sits next to me, but keeping his distance.

"Well, you were really upset and-"

"Yeah, I honestly don't care that we hooked up, it's not important, and you don't tell Riley." I demand, cutting him off. His eyes immediately go wide and he's lost for words, until he starts to laugh.

"Are you insane? I would never hook up with a drunk chick. I just made you go to sleep here because we were both too drunk to get you to your cabin safely. Alcohol doesn't remove my morals." She says. I shake my head in disbelief.

"Yeah. You're right. I'm sorry, I just woke up and assumed-"

"Assuming isn't good, which is why I have you here, to explain what made you so upset. When you were drunk you have me bits and pieces but I can't figure out for the life of me who Luther is, why you're giving him head, and how Riley isn't actually your girlfriend. I tried, but I couldn't come up with anything good."

He leans back and gives me an expecting look.

"And you think I'm just going to tell you everything?" I say, crossing my arms defensively. He shrugs.

"Yeah, why not? I'm a good listener, promise." He smiles and I almost trust him.

"None of this goes to Riley?" I ask quietly. He crosses his heart with his finger.

"You have my word."

***

"We gotta tell Riley." He says as soon as I'm finished. I'm sure to tell him every detail, about the bet, Riley hiding her sexuality, and even my dream.

"What, no! Why on earth would we do that?" I declare.

"Because you're clearly in love with each other, and you should be together. Like, right now!"

I almost wanna slap this guy.

"You crazy or something? She doesn't like me like that." He rolls his eyes.

"You're blind. She thinks she's over but she's totally not. She loves you like crazy. If she was over you, she would've have had any problem telling you she was into girls in the first place." He deduces. I try my best to hide my surprise at the logic in his statement.

"Well, even if that's true, what if she doesn't want to risk our friendship?" I cross my arms and await his answer.

"She was willing to make out with you or a summer."

This guy makes some really good points.

"Yeah, okay. So, I have a shot." I nod. I take a moment to process, and a large smile grows on my face. Yeah. It's possible I could end up with Riley.

"But we can't just run over there. This had gotta be big." I add. Vic nods.

"How big we talking?" He asks.

"We're talking huge." I grin. I grab my phone to send Riley a quick text telling her I'm fine, and put it away again.

"We've got a lot of work to do."