The End of Summer

Chapter 2

~Summer's POV~

I couldn't say it. Not to him. Not about everything I've been through. I simply try to curl my mouth into a smile, but after all that happened between us, I can't even do that. I just start crying. He pulls me into his chest, his warm arms keeping me close. I don't hug him back. I don't say anything. I just cry into his shirt like an idiot. My life's been nothing but hell since I started dating him, but I absolutely could not ever let him go.

So why is this so hard for me?

Owen releases his hold on me, and I lean away from him, trying to stop the tears and knowing at every second that I must look like a disgusting freak to him. I just need to say it. It shouldn't be this hard. Just open your stupid mouth, you freak! I open my mouth, waiting for the words to come pouring out of it. Instead I choke on the air for a minute and just grab my purse and run away. What a bitch move. How could I ever tell him that, though?

I sprint down the path to my house at inhuman speeds. He knows why I prefer to go out at night, but he also knows I could never resist a chance to see him. Despite my best efforts, I still cry as I run. He knows everything about me except this.

Suddenly, I feel a moment of clarity and pause. It's happening again - the visions. I look all around me and find myself in an alleyway. There's a shadowed figure lurking about, as well as a very frightened feminine figure huddled behind a dumpster. I can't see their faces, but for some reason I feel a sense of connection with the girlish one. She was crying, like me.

And then the darkened figure emerged from his position, and all I heard was a gunshot. A few seconds later I was back in the center of the street, but this time covered in cuts and bruises and being loaded into an ambulance. I must've tripped while I was having a vision, passed out, and someone called them.

I wonder, momentarily, whether or not Owen is here. I call out for his name, but the paramedics quickly hush me. There's a crowd just outside of the ambulance, that much I can see before they close the doors behind me. Suddenly I realize that my adrenaline had hidden the pain... But now I could barely register anything but the searing pain.

I scream. A warm, familiar voice fills my ears and instantly I relax. "Owen," I squeak, barely able to form words.

"No one else is here, miss." I hear one of the men say. Now I'm more afraid than ever.