Summer's Last Breath

Part 29

Practice makes perfect and in the weeks following that horribly embarrassing night, we practiced just like I'd promised. Perfect was how I would describe it. Jamie was perfect and he'd convinced me I was too. If it weren't for school and Jamie's training, we would have been inseparable. We spent all our spare time together—late nights, early mornings.

If I hadn't been so happy, I might have noticed sooner. Considering what we spent most of our time doing, I should have been more aware. We were careful most of the time. Twice the wanting had been too much and though we weren't prepared, we'd done it anyway, because that's the way it was with Jamie. I wanted him so badly sometimes it didn't matter.

I figured it out the hard way at school during lunch. Cinnamon rolls were on the menu, freshly baked, and about as big as my fist, and smeared with gooey icing. I was drooling over the one on my tray.

"You shouldn't eat that," Ally said. She sat beside me, her tray piled with a green salad dribbled with a minimal amount of dressing.

I picked up the roll, looked her right in the eye, and sank my teeth into its deliciousness, rolling my eyes in ecstasy.

"It's not fair. If I ate like you did, I'd still weigh two hundred pounds."

"Give me a break. It's not like I eat like this every day. Nothing else looked good." Or smelled good or looked the least bit appetizing. I wiped my mouth with my napkin and dove in for another bite. I'd eaten a salad yesterday and the day before that and today I was craving sugar. "Besides, I've been running with Jamie on the beach after school, so I need the extra carbs," I said, knowing there weren't enough carbs in the world to give me enough energy to keep up with Jamie.

"So that's where you've been since the season ended," she said, cutting her eyes at me. "Working out with Jamie."

"I know, I'm breaking the code," I admitted. We'd decided at the start of our high school careers that we wouldn't be like those girls who ditched her friends the second they got a boyfriend. Little had I known how easy it would be to do just that. In a matter of weeks, Jamie had taken up all the space in my life, every crook and corner. As if to make up for the weeks I'd been ignoring her I said, "We should hang out this weekend."

"I have a date this weekend," she said, her tone smug.

"With who?"

"Jax." The bud of her smile bloomed like a flower in sunshine. "He's taking me to Edmonds and then a movie."

Edmonds was one of the nicest restaurants on the coast, five star, white tablecloths. Just the kind of place that would appeal to Ally. I preferred picnics on the beach with a box of pizza, like Jamie and I had done last night.

"Wow. Dinner and a movie." It was hard to be happy for her.

Since Jamie and I had gone public, certain people now looked at me with a level of disdain, and Jax was one of those people. Nothing was verbalized, at least not to my face, but I knew they were talking about me. I knew they were looking down their nose at me. We lived in a small community. Most of the locals knew each other, and while things like interracial relationships were no longer a big deal, inter-species relationships evidently were.

"That's great, Ally," I said unenthusiastically.

"I don't know why you don't like him. We're perfect for each other." She dug her fork into her mountain of salad.

"It's not that I don't like him. I just think you can do better."

"Better than Jax?" She looked at me skeptically. "It doesn't get any better than Jax."

I supposed that was true if you were into the indecently rich, relatively hot, douchy, frat boy kind of guys.

"Come on, Erin. Be happy for me," she whined. "Jamie isn't exactly who I would pick for you either."