You, Me and Summer -completed-

Seven

The next three days of our road trip had been spent driving all day and then sleeping in a cheap and dodgy motel on the side of the road. Every night we'd go out to the closest and cheapest place to eat, discussing our plans and times for the next day. It wasn't long before my parents finally decided to call, not being able to go long without contact.

"How is the car running?" My dad asked when mum handed the phone over to him.

"It's great dad, runs perfectly and lasts a while on the fuel. I've only filled it up twice." I smiled and leaned my head against the headrest as Brysen continued driving, leading the way as usual.

"That's good my sweet buttercup." Even though Brysen couldn't hear a thing I still blushed at my dad's pet name, almost shielding the phone. "We miss you here at home, it's awfully quiet." My dad let out a sigh before a rustling sound invaded my ears. "You're mother is tempted to invite some of your friends over, just to have the presence of young people again." I laughed at this, my dad joining in.

"Sounds pretty miserable over there." I joked, looking at Brysen who had a slight smile on his face.

"It is, but I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." There was a pause before my dad continued, "have you looked at that book I gave you at all?"

"No, I've been so busy and tired I haven't had the chance." I covered my eyes from the sun, cursing myself for not packing sunglasses. I looked to Brysen again who had a pair on, I was tempted to steal them from him.

"Don't read it till a little later alright." I nodded my head, even though as usual, he couldn't see me, "and don't tell your mother you have it."

"Okay dad." I tried not to make my voice so full of boredom but it was a little difficult, seeing as I so desperately wanted to talk with Brysen again.

"I should let you go now Bexley, your mother has lunch ready for me. Not often that I'm home on time for a proper lunch."

"Alright, I'll make sure to ring again soon dad. I know you and mum are struggling." I teased, which caused my dad to chuckle nervously, obviously I had been right and wasn't just teasing afterall.

"Bye beautiful girl. Miss you a lot." I bid my dad farewell and hung up, my eyes trained on the road in front of us.

Brysen cleared his throat awkwardly once I put my phone in the glove box, it was always in the plan for me to avoid using my phone. We had a few polaroid camera's and that is all we would need.

"By the sounds of things you are close to your parents." Brysen commented, switching lanes to pass a car and caravan.

"You could say that, it's improved since the start of Senior year." I don't know what made me say this, but I said it anyway.

"What do you mean?" I looked out the window to avoid seeing Brysen turn his head to look at me, I was way too transparent.

"They were too busy trying to sustain a perfect family life, meanwhile I was trying to get through high school with good grades. That's not what they wanted though." I sighed and leaned my head on the window, despite the constant vibrations.

"Opposite to my parents." Brysen commented, he went quiet before continuing, "my dad has this crazy idea of me becoming a doctor, and my mum wants me to be a lawyer."

"And what do you want?" This time I looked to him, glad we were no longer talking about me.

"Well, I like the arts." I was surprised by this, from memory he hadn't taken any art classes in Junior or Senior year. "My dad despises art, we have no form of it in our house." He confirmed by thoughts when he spoke about not being confident enough to pick an arts subject.

"So, I had to do law and Sciences, and if I got below an eighty they threatened to kick me out." I sucked in a breath at this new found information. "I got over it, but I promised myself I would pursue my arts, writing, photography, even playing piano. My parents thought I was getting further education in Science, when really I was going to piano lessons."

"That's some serious rebelling." I joked, Brysen looked almost thankful for my joke as he let out a breath. "But seriously, go ahead and do what you want to do. Your parents won't be here forever to manage your life." Brysen nodded and laughed, turning quickly to look at me.

"That's what my ex told me." He shook his head and chuckled, clenching his jaw, "the bitch then went ahead and told my parents about what I was doing, they checked my room and found all my paintings and piano sheets. All went in the fire."

"That sucks, how long ago was this?" I picked at a loose thread on my shorts, being careful not to rip it or ruin them.

"Before Junior year, I was planning on telling them. Mia of course had to go ahead and ruin it all." I moved forward in my seat quickly and looked at him, a huge grin on my face.

"Mia, you dated Mia!" I almost laughed at this, but kept myself from doing so.

"Yeah, I don't even know why." He used one hand to take off his sunglasses, placing them beside them gearbox. Instead he flipped the visor down to block out the sun. Jumping at the moment I took the sunglasses as I wasn't tall enough for the visor to do anything for me.

"You get relationships like that. But please do tell me what she was like!" I grinned from ear to ear, I never liked Mia and I was certain she didn't like me. I hated being such a girl but any information about her made me happy.

Brysen went on to tell me as much as he could remember about Mia, dropping the topic of our families. It was obviously a sensitive topic for the both of us.

-

That night we didn't make it to a town, so as a group we decided to park off the road and sleep in our cars. Brysen took the passenger seat and I took the three back seats, my feet just under the reclined seat that Brysen was in. We had talked for several minutes before Brysen dozed off, he was tired after driving for so long. I made myself a promise to drive tomorrow, he had driven four days straight and it was time for a switch over.

I was incredibly thankful for having him, sure there was tension between him and Dimitri, and I was slightly siding with Dimitri but something about Brysen made me feel calm. It possibly could've been the fact that I was blinded by love, or whatever it was that I felt for him. Either way, I didn't want him to go anywhere, and I sure as hell was fine sharing a car with him.

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I think this is my favourite chapter in terms of dialogue, simply because of how much we learn about Bryley!