Summer After High School

Chapter 3- Confrontations and a Letter

Chapter 3- Confrontations and a Letter

Monday was a cleanup day. My attempts at lessening the job by having garbage bags everywhere had been futile, and I knew there was really no hope for a hundred teens to be clean and orderly, but honestly, I was kind of disappointed. There were people I had gone to school with for four years; how could I not have noticed how crazy they were? Someone had managed to spill Sprite on the wall, and cake was smeared on one of our family photos.

It was a good thing I had managed to end the night without talking to Michael again. But I knew it was inevitable that he would ask me what was going on. How obvious could I have been? Clearly my acting skills were not up to par.

Frowning slightly, I wiped off some food from a table. Everything was such a mess.

I sighed, wondering what I would tell him. The guilt had kept me up all night, weighing me down. I guessed the only thing I could tell him was the truth. I couldn’t go on spreading more and more lies. That would be like adding gasoline to a wildfire. And honestly, I didn’t want to get on his bad side. He was popular, and when we went to USC next year, I didn’t want him to make me have a bad start.

As I was taking out the trash, a familiar black Mercedes pulled up. Speak of the devil, I thought. Now Michael was probably going to ask me what was going on with the road trip, and I had no backup from Lissa. I slammed the garbage lid shut and turned to face Michael.

He looked at me seriously. “What’s going on, Sophie?”

What should I say? “Well um, Lissa just called and told me the trip’s not cancelled!” I said, putting on a bright smile. I slapped myself mentally for making up another lie. Gosh, it was really becoming a bad habit, wasn’t it?

He studied me. “Right,” he said after a pause, scoffing. “I get that you don’t like me, but you don’t have to lie to my face, you know.”

My smile fell. Oh, great. Now I felt really bad. I wiped my hands nervously on my jeans. “Michael, I just-“

He cut me off with a wave of his hand. “Whatever, Sophie. See you around, I guess.” With that, he slammed the car door and started the engine. “Have a nice trip!” I could hear disgust creep into his voice. He started blaring the radio, which was playing “Love the Way You Lie”.

I grimaced. He looked so confused, so hurt, so upset. I just didn’t get it. He’d never really liked me in the first place; shouldn’t he be happy that he didn’t have to spend more time with me now? A little voice in the back of my head nagged at me that maybe Michael did like me. Maybe he really wanted to spend time with me. But then I remembered the grad party and the girl he’d been with. She was obviously way more in his league than I was. But I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he was trying to give me a sign.

But all was forgotten when I dragged myself back into the house stomped up the stairs to my room, earning a sharp reprimand from my mom. I remembered she hadn’t had to go to work today because the realtor’s office was closed for renovation. Instead, she had to work from home.

“Sorry!” I stage whispered.

“Wait!”

I clomped back down the stairs again. “What?”

“You’ve got a letter. All the way from Massachusetts, from a…Jason Wright?” she looked confused as she handed it over. “Do I kn-,“ her eyes got wide. “Jason? As in prom date Jason?”

I rolled my eyes and she bristled. “Yes, Mom. Prom date Jason.”

She glanced a little bit too curiously at the letter now. “I didn’t know you guys were keeping in touch.” Folding her arms, she looked over to me for an explanation.