If Summer Never Ends

Chapter 23

Chapter 23:

 "He did what?" Viola exclaimed from her end on Facetime.

I shrugged. "He gave me his shoes."

Viola stood there on her balcony in Italy with her mouth open. From what I could see through the blurry pixels, Italy was beautiful. There were vines and flowers crawling up the balcony and ancient buildings stood in the background. Of course this sparked my wanderlust, but I had already too many bad experiences travelling.

"Gabby, I know that bonding over boys isn't really our thing and that we try to stay above the patriarchy, but it seems like this guy really likes you. And I think you should go for it."

"But he's my childhood buddy. I can't go from not to existing in his life to a romantic level just like that. Also the last time I talked to him, I was super intoxicated and blabbered about my depressing experiences in life. It's too confusing and my head hurts," I groaned, plopping down on my bed. It bounced a little more than anticipated and I dropped my phone on my face.

Viola sighed. "But you like him, right?"

I was quite for a while. "Yeah, I do. A lot."

"You haven't had great relationships in the past. That whole thing with Darren dumping you for Kayla was messed up, but he's moved on and you deserve to as well. Now this thing with Luke could get messy or it could be something fun. Stop with the self torture already."

I shook my head in frustration. "There's no point of starting something. I'm coming back home in two and a half weeks. Can't you just make a decision for me?"

Viola rolled her eyes. "What kind of person would I be if I told you how to live your life? Besides, that's what your Aunt does and you resent her for that."

"Our relationship is actually improving," I said as I dove into my stories of the summer. It was hard for her and I to chat on Facetime because of the different time zones and reception in Italy isn't great apparently, but in our two hour long conversation, I spilled the beans to her about everything. And I mean everything. I told her about the Dylan disaster and my understanding ending with Hayden and the incident with the dirty frat boy in Tampa. My stories came to her as a shock, for I was not one to be popular with the boys.

Viola asked how my "healing" was going and I told her I was convinced that my therapist shoveled bullshit for a living because I was no different than when I arrived in The Sunshine State. Then the two of us started missing Chicago. Lollapalooza was that weekend and some of our favorite bands were performing so we were a little bummed; but that disappointment faded as we realized that in a few short weeks, our tastebuds could once again dance with a Portillo's Italian beef and cheese fries. And then the inevitable topic came up after a few moments of silence.

"You know today's Benny's birthday?" Viola mentioned in a whisper.

I nodded. "Yeah. I was thinking about him earlier today."

We were quiet for what seemed like a decade. And then I laughed. "Do you remember that once time we went to his stepdad's campground and went paddle boating?"

Viola's eyes lit up as the memory set in. "Oh God. That paddleboat was so broken that we peddled and peddled and just went in circles for hours."

"And then we were stuck in the middle of the lake and it was getting dark and we had no idea how we were going to survive," I chuckled. "Ben got so pissed that he just gave up and swam to shore. Then we were the idiots that followed him."