𝐒𝐎 𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 | school of rock

♡

The late summer breeze brought in the salty air of the beach, where the rusted door of Summer Hathaway's home was. Her lips were currently kiss-swollen, his hands were tangled in her hair...she never needed anything more.

She pulled away from the kiss with the largest smile on her face, taking a moment to slow her breath. "Are you sure? I've never done this before."

Instead of speaking, he nodded as his lips moved to her neck and his hands began to unbutton the clasp on her bra.

-

As they lay, twisted up in sweat and bedsheets later, she looked over at his bare back beneath the afternoon sun, wishing she could write her name on it. However, she knew better than to wish for anything more than having him just for the summer; when he was back at school, he wouldn't call; instead, he would have his on-and-off ex-girlfriend on his arm. She thought back to how this goddamn thing had even begun in the first place;

-

It was early August when she saw him ride up to her front porch on that stupid skateboard, the one he had been toting around since middle school. He still hadn't gotten a new one; the lovesick schoolgirl crush inside her imagined it was to impress her, but the more realistic part knew that he never even looked in her direction.

"Freddy." She smiled at the sight of him. He was the girls' dream boy, the one Summer had been pining for since the beginning of sixth grade. Ever since he'd winked at her from that stunt on that stupid skateboard of his, she was a goner. Sure, there had been attempts to have a conversation with him on her part, maybe even go out and eat sometime, but she was the girl he never noticed.

In high school, she watched him fall head-over-heels for Kale, the popular, ever-lovely jewel of an upperclassman. Sure, hating her if she was a shitty person would've been easy. Yet, she was so sweet and pretty, no wonder Freddy liked her, which was why she felt like a terrible person.

Silent pining had ensued for the next years, and finally, it led to him coming into her house for refuge from the rain. They spent the night cuddled on the couch, binging some horror movies and occasionally making out, but it didn't go any further than that.

When she woke up the next morning, she found a note in his messy handwriting on the coffee table; Meet me behind the mall.

-

The mall was a drive away, where Freddy worked his shifts at the food court. On another rainy August afternoon, not dissimilar to the encounter on her front porch, she spotted him walking home on the broken cobblestones and pulled her car up next to him. "Freddy, get in."

She handed him a bottle of wine, and they finally stopped at his house, drinking on his front porch and talking about their futures, and that was when Summer realized that she had never laughed this much in her entire life. She was never a natural, all she did was try over and over again. Summer was a girl of sixteen, she was young and naive to love. She didn't know whether he'd call when he was back at school or if he'd be on Kale's arm again. Everyone at school knew they were an on-again, off-again item; but Summer could only live for the hope that please, Freddy, don't be in love with someone else.

She wished with all her heart that she wasn't just another one of Freddy's summer flings, that maybe...possibly...they had something more. Wanting was enough, wasn't it? To live for the hope of it all.

-

In early September, Summer arrived at school wearing those high heels, the perfume, and that dark lipstick shade he liked. Her starry eyes lit up when she saw him by his locker, his hair slicked back and his eyes looking toward her, smiling and gesturing for her to come.

Summer eagerly approached him, her heels sharply clicking on the marble floor, but her heartbeat stopped in her chest when she saw someone had already beaten her to the chase. Her.

Kale, once again, walked up to Freddy and flirtatiously placed her lips on his. Summer felt her heartbeat stop and her jaw go slack as she looked at them, wondering if this was all a cruel dream. After about two minutes of PDA in the halls and being admonished by the teachers walking by, Freddy finally noticed the younger blonde standing in front of him and Kale.

"Hey, Summer," he said, wrapping his arm around Kale's waist. He was so casually cruel in the name of being honest, acting like nothing had happened between them that August. "What's up?"

Summer's mouth went dry, and for a moment, she only wanted to break into a godforsaken mess, the mess that he had made her. However, she managed to hold them back, and it took all of her strength to utter the words, "Freddy, can we talk?"

"About?"

"I was just wondering... about this new unit project thing. Yeah, teachers gave it like, way before school started, so I need some help for this part."

She mentally chided herself for being so lame. Seriously, Summer, a school project?!

"Um, sure. I'll be right back, darling." Planting a chaste kiss to Kale's lips, he followed Summer under the stairwell.

"What did you think, that I'd break off things with Kale entirely to be with you?" Freddy scoffed once he made sure they were both out of earshot. "It's always been Kale, alright?"

Somehow, Summer hadn't let her heart believe that. Spending the summer sipping on wine, saying "us," meeting in parking lots, cancelling all her plans just in case he would call, taking the road always less traveled by. She thought they had something more than what she knew in her head was true, but in the end...

Wanting was enough until it wasn't, and Summer was taken from the salty air of August to the September chill, growing colder and colder with every word that came from his lips. The past month they had spent together was nothing more than a moment in time, slipping through her fingers so quickly. It was never hers; merely a bottle of wine that sipped away so rapidly.

"It was just a summer thing, Summer," he said. "It was never even meant to last in the first place."

"Alright, then," she finally answered, struggling to hold back tears. "I guess...you were never mine to lose, anyway. So much for summer love, am I right?"

He watched her leave out the side and mumbled, "Yeah. It was just a summer thing."

When he turned around, he was faced with Kale, the tears running down her cheeks ruining her makeup. "You slept with her?!"

-

Thoughts?

-V