Another City Of Lights.

Chapter 35.

                    July, New York.

'Hey, Sam.
Hope everything went well with your exams. How much break do you get?
Dash and I get summers off, surprisingly. But it's not exactly a vacation because we're working for extra credit, and the heat is even much more worse now.
How are you spending your summer?
I guess that's two questions so I should probably stop asking any more, because you might not reply.
But, did you talk to your parents? You should.
Also, you never really told me where you live.
Reply soon.
~A'.

Samantha's POV:-

My favourite place to read had become the lone bench outside of the building where my Fiction-Writing class was held. So every Tuesday and Thursday, I got there early in the morning and sat in my spot and read. Sometimes the book I was currently into, sometimes the paper I had to submit, and sometimes Aaron's emails.

I had become accustomed to receiving really long emails from him twice in a week now, not daily. For reasons I didn't know, he was a bit closed off than before. And I had only just begun to get to know that new Aaron. But the old one was back, and now all I did was to try and write to him more than usual, leaving out all the important pieces of my life out. I knew it was crazy, maybe a bit hypocritical, but I wasn't ready for that kind of conversation with him. I needed more time.

It was Tuesday, and I was seated on my bench, with my legs tucked underneath it, and my phone in my hand.

It was warm out, finally, after a very long winter. And I welcomed this summer with immense happiness. I was so used to the the heat of Karachi, that I actually missed it. And I took opportunity of every day of the summer here, as long as it would last.

Tomorrow was the fourth of July, and the most dreaded day of the week for me. It was exciting, because I hadn't exactly spent a fourth of July weekend with anyone ever, so I was looking forward to it. But it was also Remy's birthday, and since we were already having a barbecue down at the beach tomorrow, Jade had convinced me to turn it in to a birthday party for him.
And that was the most difficult task I had ever been assigned to do.

After wasting a day or two doing nothing about it, Jade had realised that I literally sucked at planning parties, and had taken the job upon herself, telling me that I owed her for eternity.

We weren't planning anything big, just a normal barbecue with a couple of friends. And since it was Remy's birthday, that meant we would need to invite his friends as well. His friends who gave me weird vibes, and who made me want to sink in to the ground. And that was the part that I was literally dreading. I didn't know how I was going to manage everything with them being there, silently judging me, waiting for me to break.

I was trying to convince myself to calm down. That this was for Remy, and I should just suck up my pride and get over it.

I met up with Jade at the diner. She had promised to help me bake a cake, or maybe let me watch her bake a cake, for tomorrow, after our shifts ended. We would just use the oven in the back, because I didn't own one, and she said it would be easier not to get caught here.
She was well aware of my non-existent cooking skills, and I was really terrified to try. I would just ruin it, I couldn't even make frosting properly.

But Jade wasn't having any of the lies and excuses I fed her to get out of it. When we closed down the diner for the night, she took out all of the equipment, and set it out neatly infront of me.

Turns out that Jade was an exceptionally good teacher, even though I was exceptionally untalented in the field of baking. In the end, it turned out to be an okay-sort of cake. It looked fine, and Jade did a good job of icing it all red and blue and white. And she let me do the honors of scribbling Remy's name on top of it. I was happy, I was satisfied. Maybe I could do good, and it wouldn't be a disaster after all.