Her Name Was Summer

Poison

"My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words
Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound:
Art thou not Romeo and a Montague?"

"Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike."

I flicked on the house lights and spoke from a microphone, "Hey guys, we are gonna have to call it for the night, we only have the auditorium till 6 on Fridays. So take the weekend to memorize lines for all of Act 2, and let's try to be off book for the first two acts by the end of next week. Great job today, and don't forget to let Miss Thompson know your measurements so she can order your costumes as soon as possible." I turned off my mic and headed to the stage to start putting things away.

Elena eventually joined me in packing up the props, "You're kinda great at this." She states and I chuckle.

"I don't know about that but I'm having a lot of fun."

"I don't know if now's a good time to tell you this but Andy's been asking about you." She says and my stomach begins to flip inside out.

"I told you what happened at the apartment..." I stated and closed the prop chest.

"That was two weeks ago and he was drunk. No excuse for hitting Jack, but he'd like to be able to talk about it with you. We've all been friends for so long Summer, he's going through a tough time and it's obvious he's not himself." She says and I nodded.

"I understand that, but having this space these past two weeks has been really good for me. I've hung out with the guys again, made plans for thanksgiving, I've handed in submissions for work before deadline and I've been having a blast with you in this building. It's the first time in awhile that it doesn't seem like the end of the world... and I'm not blaming Andy for anything I've been going through, but having that stress off my plate has been really good for me."

She nodded, "He's coming over to my place for dinner tonight, what should I tell him if he asks about you?"

"Tell him that I forgive him, that I'm doing okay, and that I'll reach out when I'm ready to."

Elena dropped me off at home and I immediately went through my emails to once again get ahead of work. I got through reviewing and revising a song I had been working on with an artist when my phone began to buzz. I looked down to see that it was a text from Alex.

Alex: Hey I was able to talk to Lisa... she's letting me take her out to brunch on Sunday. I just wanted to say thank you for knocking some sense into me. It didn't quite hit me how much I missed her until I saw her today.

Summer: I'm glad that you reached out to her. Hopefully I'll get the chance to apologize to her in person as well.

Alex: It seems like you might. Has Zach called you about the final details for tomorrow?

Summer: I was the first call lol. Don't forget everyone has to be there to set things up at 5pm.

Alex: Do you need me to come pick you up?

Summer: That's okay, Jack said that he would.

Alex: Sounds good, cya tomorrow.

The proposal was finally happening tomorrow night and Elena truly has no clue. I mean, yes she knew that it was coming but she has no idea where and when. Zach really has put a lot of thought into his proposal, he's always been the romantic type.

There was a small knock on my door, I placed my laptop aside to answer it.

"Hey, I thought you had a dinner tonight. Shouldn't you be at home with Elena?" I asked.

Zach stormed into my apartment, it looked as if his head was about to explode. Jack followed in behind him looking uneasy. "I don't think I can propose tomorrow."

"Wait, why?" I said in a panic.

"Andy showed up to dinner drunk, and so now Elena is at home looking after him. She asked if he needed a place to stay and offered our place." Zach stated.

"I was then texted that the proposal will be postponed and thought I'd bring Zach to you to talk him out of it." Jack chimed in.

"I can't risk Andy ruining my proposal." Zach added.

"You've put too much work into it already, no more delaying. I'll talk to Andy." I stated.

Jack motioned to me, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's time. Let's go." I grabbed my jacket and we headed back to Zach's house.

When we arrived Andy was spread out on the couch, clearly drunk out of his mind. There were empty beer cans on the coffee table and a full water bottle next to his head. He was rambling to Elena, who was busy cleaning a broken bottle of scotch on the floor. Zach ran to her side to help her with the glass. I pushed some of the cans aside and sat down on the coffee table. Andy quickly sat up in my presence.

"How many drinks have you had?" I asked and he smirked.

"What, no small talk?" He chuckled. I remained composed, and crossed my arms. "... I don't know." He answered.

"Grab your things, you're coming with me." I stated. He got up from the couch and went to grab his belongings from the guest bedroom.

Elena began to quietly weep. "I don't know how to help him." She cried. Zach helped her up and brought her to their bedroom to calm down.

Jack whispered to me, "You don't plan on bringing him home with you, do you?"

I shook my head, "I need you to drive us to Luxe Recovery, he needs to go to rehab." I whispered back.

It took us ten minutes of convincing and a loaf of garlic bread to get Andy into the car but it worked. When we arrived, Jack went inside to make the arrangements as I sat in the car with Andy.

"I don't have a problem Summer, I'm fine." Andy slurred.

"If you were fine then I wouldn't have had my ex boyfriend drive you to rehab. You haven't been fine for awhile and you've been using alcohol and me to cope. You need to face this thing head on." I stated, only making eye contact through the side door mirror.

"Maybe I can't get past that you're a liar! You claim to have no feelings for me, but all the moments we shared says otherwise. You and me, it's the real deal. One day you'll wake up next to Jack and realize that." He said and I rolled my eyes.

"You don't love me, not like that. You're drunk and confused. You can lash out at me all you want, but if you truly care for me then you'll get out of the car with me and walk into that building."

"I'm not going in there. Zach proposes tomorrow, I have to be there for Elena."

"Zach won't propose if you're there." I stated and got out of the car.

To my surprise, moments later he got out of the car and walked into the building with me. We got him registered and he was brought to his room. Jack took my hand as we walked back to his car. He opened the passenger door for me. "He'll forgive you, ya know." He said and I nodded.

"I know, I just hate that this is happening in the first place. It feels like it's all my fault." I sighed.

Jack brushed the hair out of my face, "His actions are not your fault."

"No but if I wasn't so focused on myself than I wouldn't noticed what was happening to my friend." I said and got into the car. Jack made his way to the drivers seat.

"You both were in a bad place, but you're away from that now and you're helping him now. Don't be so hard on yourself, you are a good person Summer. You're the best person I know."