Undying Summer

Rory

I was at me and Ly's favorite coffee shop sitting at our usual table. The sun was glimmering high in the sky down by the beach, causing beautiful rays of sunshine to pour into the coffee shop. I had my favorite drink set next to me, a cookie crumble frappe with whipped cream, and my phone in my hand. I was scrolling through the drunken texts I had sent to Noah last night. God last night. Every time I think about how Noah came and picked me up, or the way he was holding me this morning I get the most random feelings fluttering in my stomach. Why was Noah being so nice, and why was I feeling.. weird... whenever I thought about him? I'm supposed to hate him for goodness sakes. Noah Smith proved to me a long time ago that he was and never will be interested in me.

"Well, well, what did you do last night?" Lila said peering over my shoulder with a sly smirk. She had obviously read the texts over my shoulder.

"I don't know Ly it's all just so messed up," I said, gently hitting my head on the table to portray my stress as she took her usual seat across from me.

"Yeah, I see that, I can't believe you texted him last night and then started grinding all over Jason, like seriously Rory I thought you hated that skunk."

"I do, you know I do. I just drank a little too much last night. I was trying to take the edge off you know how stressed I am. There's provincials coming up soon and I seriously got to impress the scouts if I want to play for UCLA in the fall. And now on top off that there's this whole weird tension thing between me and Noah ever since I comforted him after his grandpas' funeral. So I thought I would just take the edge off last night, I did not think about the consequences." I say while staring down at my converse.

"Yeah I know how much pressure you've been under, everything will be fine. Jason will continue being a slug and you and Noah will be back to hating each other before you know it," Lila said with her comforting motherly voice she always used on me when I was overthinking.

" Yeah but I don't know if it can actually go back to normal now with Noah, at least not after what I said last night..." I said sheepishly, not wanting to finish that sentence.

"What do you mean by that,"Lila said side eyeing me.

"I mean I might have said something very dumb last night to Noah." Ly just stared at me while she waited for me to continue my explanation. "Ly I'm pretty sure I told him that I wished we weren't enemies, or something like that. I don't exactly remember because everything's still a bit foggy but I do know I said something." I told her while hiding my face in my hands.

"Hmmmm," she said. "HMMM!" WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN. "Well what did he say back?" She questioned.

"I don't know because I passed out into a coma right after. So I don't even know if he heard me or had a reaction or even responded to me."

"Hmmmm."

"STOP HMMMING ME! What do I do! I can never drink again!" I said throwing my hands up with agony in my tone.

"Alright, Alright, calm down Rory, don't go into full blown panic mode yet I have a theory," she said in that motherly tone again. I stared at her in disbelief waiting for her to continue. "What if and hear me out, you never actually said anything to Noah, I mean you were drunk out of your mind and you don't remember how he responded. So what if your mind had just thought this up while you were sleeping. Kinda like self sabotage." I mulled over her theory and it did make some sense, I mean crazier things have happened, right?

"But I swear I can remember saying it to him," I said still on edge.

"Come on Ro, remember last time you got this drunk, you SWORE you had saw Chad Michael Murray, but it was actually just a very mannish looking women." All right I guess she had a point there. I suppose there was a good possibility that this was just another one of those weird realistic dreams.

"Yeah I guess you could be right, I just wish I knew for sure if I had said that or not."

After a few seconds of silence Lila said "Actually I think I could solve that problem for you too. The whole gang is heading to the beach tonight at sunset for some surfing and then a bonfire, you should come and talk to Noah, see if he's acting any differently than usual." I mulled over what she said. It honestly did seem like a good idea, I mean I was planning to go to the bonfire anyways so why not do some experimenting.

"All right I'll go. But I've got to head out now I'm supposed to babysit the neighbors kids in a hour." I said while grabbing my bag, "See you tonight Ly," I said shouting over my shoulder as I walked outside into the cool summer breeze. Well at least I've got a few hours to think before I have to see Noah again.