That Summer - Jure Maček

Trip

3 days later...

I'm sitting on my bed, it's 7AM and I'm writing up a list of things I'll need for our trip. I couldn't really sleep last night, which is why I'm up so early. Hopefully my concealer can cover that...

And I can barely believe I will be seeing Jure again in an hour.

They're picking me up at 8 in the morning, which is kind of early, even they could admit that. He called me yesterday to let me know all of the info, and when he told me they were coming so early in the morning I could clearly hear Bojan complain in the background.

 But of course if we want to go for just 1 day we'll need plenty of time to be there. The longer I can be with them, the better honestly.

I haven't had any contact with Vic anymore these last days, and I can't complain about it. I genuinely hope he stays out of my life for now. What we did was obviously a mistake, and it feels as if God is giving me a second chance by letting me meet up with Jure again. 

I'm trying to stuff my extra bikini in the tote bag I'm taking, when my mom knocks on my door.

"I have to go to work, so I'll see you later tonight?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure when we'll be back yet," she slowly nods.

"So, am I going to meet him?" I look at her confused. I haven't even told her who's coming on this trip.

"What do you mean?" I avert my eyes.

"Nothing. Just some mothers' intuition, I guess," she smiles.

My mom is the most caring person I know, and I would honestly love to tell her about Jure. Just not now. It still feels like he's just some silly crush, and it's probably not reciprocated. And with that, she knows how hurt I was after my relationship with Vic, which is embarrassingly, the only relationship I've ever had.

I've had plenty of random hookups, but after Vic my standards rose to the ceiling. I will never let someone hurt me like that again, so whenever someone tries to ask me out or take the next step I shut down.

"Alright, bye then," she closes the door behind her, and I can feel my nerves rising. My stomach starts to tingle that same way it did when I was about to jump off that cliff. But this time it's something else than fear that I'm feeling...

I'm sitting on the couch when I hear a car approach the driveway. I rush towards the hallway where I've placed my bag and breathe in and out a couple times, before opening the door.

A grey, shiny car pulls up in front of me, with 3 people sitting in it. Jure's in the passenger's seat and Bojan is driving. He waves at me, and I smile and wave back. 

As soon as the car comes to a halt, Jure jumps out to hug me.

"How are you?" he pulls back and smiles at me warmly. Oh, how I've missed that smile. I've seen it on his Instagram more than a few times while we were apart, but the digital photo's really don't do him justice.

"I'm good, how are you?" 

"I'm great, let me get that for you,' he takes my bag and puts it in the back of the car, before opening up the back door, where I find Jan sitting in the other seat.

"Hey," I say happily, but a little confused.

The boys greet me back, and while I buckle up we pull out of the driveway.

"I thought you and Bojan were going to go with more friends?" I ask Jure.

"Am I not enough for you?" Jan raises his eyebrows at me.

"No! No that's not what I-"

"I'm kidding," of course he was. I laugh carefully.

"Ignore Jan, he's not a morning person," Jure rolls his eyes at him.

"The others are taking a different route than us since we're picking you up, so we'll meet them there," he explains.

Ah, that makes sense.

There's soft music playing in the background, and Bojan is navigating the almost-nonexistent road outside my house pretty well.

"So, what have you been up to?" Jure asks.

"Uhh, not much really. I've been working and enjoying my few last days off from school," 

"Where do you work again?" Bojan asks.

"A bar,"

"Right, right," 

"It doesn't get very busy though. Mostly locals. But I enjoy it," I elaborate, mostly to try and fill a silence that isn't even really there. One thing you must know about these guys is that they are talkative as fuck, like they just don't shut up sometimes. But I like that in people. 

"Yeah, I like that kind of work too," Bojan agrees.

"Well, if your singing career fails I'm sure we need another employee," 

He laughs. "Don't count on my singing career failing, sweetheart. I'll sing for as long as I can," 

"I believe that," I chuckle because of his very southern pronunciation of the word "sweetheart". And him even saying it at all.

"You still need to come to one of our gigs," Jure says, almost strictly.

"I know! I would love to come to one, but you said there weren't any until November,"

"No, not in Croatia. But we're performing in Ljubljana next week as part of a bigger program. We'll only do a couple songs though," he explains.

"Oh, seriously? I might be able to make that," I say nonchalantly, even though I know I'll do literally anything to be there.

"That would be great. We're performing at a square close to the center with some other bands. It will be fun, and we'll probably all go do something after,"

Jure is such a venturous person, which takes some time to get used to. Here I was, thinking I was crazy for having a crush on him, but he's invited me today and now to the concert. I literally have no idea what kind of signals these are, I'm so bad at this kind of stuff having had only 1 boyfriend. And Vic told me straight up that he liked me, which made stuff a lot easier.

Easier at least than this weird situation, where we drunkenly kissed one night, and after that the scarce amount of "signals" have been confusing the shit out of me.

We get onto the highway, and Maps instructs us to drive straight ahead for at least 60 kilometres. Plenty of time to talk some more, and maybe find out whether I'm crazy or not...

A/N

Hey everyone 🌞! Quick little check-in from me since I haven't been writing a lot recently since my exams are coming up 💀. 

Are we all still alive after Stozice???? I know I'm not.

I hope everyone's still enjoying this story, I'm not always sure what to write in it and what I want to do with it so any suggestions are welcome of course! I would love to hear what you want to read.

Writing about Jure makes me so happy regardless, I remember meeting him in London and he's just such a cheerful person (and his smile really is perfect), like a bundle of joy in human form. Seriously, I cannot shut up about it 🥹.

Anywayyy bye and enjoy your day ❤️.