{WATTYS 2021/2022 SHORTLIST}{Editor's Pick} {Featured Story}
One girl. Two boys. An impossible choice.
Stella LaFever, a theatre student from California, can't wait to spend a summer in Newport, Rhode Island, with her best friend. She is in despera...
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Chapter Song: Nasty by Ariana Grande
The following week and a half passed in a blur. My mornings were spent dancing and singing onstage with West and the rest of the cast, while my evenings were spent with Spencer.
We did everything together. He took me to art galleries and showed me his amazing work. Graphite and charcoal sketches. Delicate watercolors. A mural inside a library in Providence. He might have a kink with my fingers, but it was his hands that held all the talent.
We also had more sex than I'd ever had in my entire life.
I couldn't get enough of him, and it was pretty clear he felt the same way.
Laying beside him one night, our hands entwined, I told Spencer I wished this summer could stretch on forever.
"Well," he said, kissing each one of my fingers. "What if you stayed?"
"Stay here? In Newport?"
"Newport doesn't have to be your summer vacation. You could stay here with me. I'll warn you that it gets cold, but," he said coyly, "I think we could find ways to keep each other warm."
In the darkened room, with shadows wrapped around us, his whispered invitation buried deep inside me. Spencer wanted me to stay with him. The kiss that followed was sensual and filled with emotions I'd only ever acted out on stage.
Spencer hadn't told me he loved me again—not since the night on the rooftop—but I could feel it every time he looked at me.
I knew he was waiting for my feelings to catch up with his, and with each passing day, Spencer was teaching me how to float.
***
The Fourth of July is celebrated differently in Newport than back home in San Diego. I think it must be a New England thing. Parades and parties and tiny American flags lining every yard. Spencer's family invited me out on their yacht for a party on the water.
Every yacht in their club was bobbing in the harbor, tiny speed boats zipping in between. Music floating in the salty breeze.
Spencer and I hopped over to party on Graham's yacht for most of the day. Me and Leona drinking tequila sunrises and dancing in string bikinis. The guys casually trying to ignore us.
As the sun began to sink into steely blue water, Spencer scooped me up and carried me down to our speedboat so we could get changed for dinner with his parents onboard Nordic Storm.
