Lorelie vs the Life of Summer Rose

Chapter 13

If I map out everything that's happened since I've arrived, it lines up in chronological order like this: I wake up in a field, I get indirectly adopted by the Inoues, I sneak out with a typically delinquent duo of twins, I hang out with Summer, I get ditched by Summer, I hang out with the twins again. And then I get grounded.

And all of this has happened in less than twenty-four hours. When I put it like that, what feels like years is torturously rebranded as just a few moments. The unknown continues to encroach on my life and every second is busy with another something I can't prepare for. Every. Second.

For example, like Summer glaring at me in the backseat of the car.

"I can't believe you snitched on me to my mum," she hisses at me. I shoot her a look.

"I can't believe you ditched me!"

"It wasn't ditching!"

"Then why are you mad, huh?" I cross my arms. "You tell her that. I actually tried to defend you, I'll have you know. But your mum's really angry about this. It makes me feel like you actually did ditch me."

Which, when I really think about it, she did. She left me for a guy. A guy I'm well aware that she's in love with but am also well-aware she's awkward with, too. The longer I sit with her the more I realise that I actually am upset. I'm upset that she left me, and I'm upset because I thought we were having a good time and being tossed to the side like that made me feel like it was my fault that it wasn't good enough for her to stay.

"Weren't we having fun?" I ask her. "Why'd you go along with him?"

Summer falters. Her fingers lock together in her lap and she sighs, her entire body drooping towards the ground. "I'm sorry. You're right— I was stupid."

"That wasn't my question, Summer."
Her lips thin into a hard line. "I guess I just thought—"

"You thought?"

"I thought that I could make things go back in time," she whispers, airless like the confession suffocates her. "He was my best friend, Lorelie. My only friend. We've known each other since we were kids."

My heart squeezes in my chest. I wish I didn't understand, and maybe I wouldn't have if I didn't know. But I do know. I know how she's loved him since before she had a word for it, how she used to climb over the fence to chase him in the fields. How they used to ride his family horses together and cuddle with cows to make the time go by together. How they had weekly movie nights and were each other's emergency contact. It kills me inside to see her like this, so dejected and defeated. I don't need a book to tell me how that conversation went. "I get it."

"You do?"

"I do," I say, and reach over to squeeze her hand. "You guys must mean a lot to each other."
"Yeah."

"But—" I narrow my eyes. " — don't ditch me again. Not cool."

She cringes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I won't do it ever again."

"You better not."

"Were the Lynch twins okay, though?" She flips her hand around to seize my wrist, trapping me where I am leaning over the middle-seat. I glance up at Mrs Inoue staring at us through the rearview mirror, our whispers seeming louder now that she's looking. I swallow.

"Of course they were okay. I told you we're best friends now. But that doesn't mean—"

"I know, I know." Summer cocks her head. "That doesn't make ditching you okay. But I wasn't talking about that— 'best friends' is a generous word for what I saw."