summer boy ~ tal fishman ✓

~39~

Meredith is standing in front of me with her giant suitcase behind her. Then she gives me a giant hug. 'Good luck with your boy problems. I'll be in France!' Then she laughs.

'Yes, I know you're going to France. You've told me about five hundred times. In the last two hours. You go have fun!' 'I definitely will! And I'll send you lots of pics of the hot French guys there. You won't need them though, you've got yourself your own man.' She winks and I roll my eyes. I hug her again.

'Don't make a new BFF while I'm gone', she whispers into my ear. 'How could I when you're the best? Plus, I can't even say hello in Italian properly', I whisper back. I feel her smile in my shoulder. Then she lets go and walks away towards her parents. She turns around and waves one last time before she walks into the doors of the airport and disappears.

I grab my phone and text her 'Miss u already.' Well, that sounded desperate. She probably won't read it before tomorrow, but oh well. I sigh and walk back to the bus stop. I decide to text Tal. We made up about three days ago and my parents are finally back. My mom couldn't stop talking about the trip so I let her. My dad asked me a few things about what happened here, so I told him a few stories leaving out all the drama and especially leaving out the part with me and Tal dating.

I love my parents and all, but I'm not in the mood to talk a lot. Or tell them about my love life. Knowing my mom, she'll fangirl very hard and then ship us even harder. She'll want to do this official meet-the-parents dinner thing and I'm not looking forward to that. So let's hope she won't find out anytime soon.

I decide I will go to Tal's house. I'll let my parent unpack their bags and clean the house and stuff like that. I message him; 'R u home? You better be, I'm coming to your house'

He replies a few seconds later. 'Someone's aggressive today :P But I'm home, so come over if you want, girlfriend ;)'

I smile at my screen. My heart warmed up because of the word girlfriend. I'm such a softie. It's just one word. Chill, Julia. The bus finally arrives and I step in.

About half an hour later, I step out of the bus. It's about a fifteen-minute walk to my house from here and I think twenty minutes to Tal's house. If I believe my Google Maps. I look up the weather forecast. I hope it won't rain, I'm just wearing a huge sweater and some comfortable jeans. Not very waterproof.

Well, the route was pretty okay. It didn't rain, thankfully. That would have been weird, coming to his house soaking wet. I arrived in about twenty-five minutes instead of twenty. You think I know the neighborhood a bit after a year, but still not.

I walk up to his house and ring the doorbell. And of course, since I have already used my luck for today with it not raining, Adi opens the door. He looks terrible. Huge bags under his eyes, pale skin, overall body posture; it's all not quite right. I don't like seeing him like that. I mean, I still care about him. As a friend, though. I scrunch my eyebrows.

'Are you alright?' He mumbles something like 'yeah' while he scratches his neck. He doesn't make eye contact, as if he's afraid of me or something. I send him a weak smile and he gives me one back, while he looks at the ground.

Then he shouts Tal's name. Even by hearing his name I feel my stomach doing weird stuff. Great. If Tal decides to drop me, I'm so screwed. I hate being dependant on someone else this much. It didn't work out that well last time.

I forget all of those thoughts the second I see Tal's pretty smile. I'm in even deeper than I thought.

I don't miss Tal's glare at Adi, though. Adi seems to get it and he walks away from the hallway. With his head low. 'Let's go to the park', he suggests. I just nod. He grabs my hand, which makes me smile and blush slightly but that's beside the point. Then we head towards the park.

'Are you alright? You're quiet' he notices, concerned. 'Why did you glare at Adi? Did you do something to him? Please tell me you didn't', I say, straight to the point. 'Well, um, we did have a little talk.' A little talk? I feel like he's not telling me everything. I stop walking. He notices and does so too, makes eye contact with me all while looking confused.

I raise one eyebrow at him. He sighs and looks at the ground. 'Well, maybe I got slightly mad at him?' I shake my head and start walking again. Our hands are still intertwined, so he follows.

'Come on Julia, you can't blame me! What would you do if your sibling would go around and kiss the girl you like behind your back?' I look up to him and into his beautiful eyes. 'I don't have a sibling.' 'Well, what if Mouse went and kissed me behind your back, how would you feel?'

I forget about our little argument and laugh loudly at this comparison. 'Didn't know I liked you. New information for me. Or you could compare a sibling to a cat. Isn't really that usual.' He smiles back. 'You're impossible.' 'But you love it', I respond still laughing. 'Hell yeah, I do.'

Okay, change of plans. That was stupid to say and I didn't expect that answer. Now instead of giving a sassy remark back, which was the original plan, I start blushing.

'Stop it.' 'Stop what?' I ask him. What is he talking about? Hé should stop, not me. He is not following the script I totally didn't have in my head.

'Being so cute. You make me want to kiss you.' His eyes flicker towards my lips. And then I realize how much I've missed him. Like, I knew I missed him, but then I really realize it. I can't explain myself. So I wrap my arms around his neck and lean in. When we're really close, I look him in his eyes. 'Then do.'

I see him smirking just before I close my eyes and a few seconds later, our lips touch. Yep, I missed him very much for that whole day, I decide then. His lips are so soft. I wrap my arms around his neck tighter and he cups my cheek with one hand. So cliche, but it feels so damn good.

After a few seconds, I pull back. I still leave my arms around his neck, though. Our faces are just a few centimeters apart. 'I missed you', I whisper. 'I missed you more.' Gladly, the awkward tension has died down a bit from our fight. Well, fight, more like me being stupid and ignoring him while he was trying to protect me. Well, and him being stupid in general. But it's not just his fault, we were both being dumb. I tell my brain to stop overthinking and just enjoy the moment, so I try to.

I lay my head on his shoulder and try to relax more. Which isn't really something I can do on command. He gently places his head on my head. I close my eyes and focus on Tal's breathing. It's very calming. I feel myself relaxing.

And then, our happy little moment was interrupted. 'Well, miss Julia Dale. Get away from my man.' I let Tal go and look at the person who said it. It's a girl, about my age. Middle-length, blond and slightly wavy hair. Brown eyes. Maybe she's even a bit younger, I don't know. What I do know is that there is a girl in front of me right now, looking very mad. Tal looks confused as well. He doesn't seem to know her.

And then I realize it and I stiffen. She is holding a gun. And pointing it at me.

~*~

Muahahaha cliffhangerr... You guuuyysss! 9K! OMGGGG! *cringe at self* By the way, I'm literally going to bake a cake if we hit 10K. I'm not kidding. I'll virtually send a piece to each and every one of you who's reading, commenting and voting. 

I love you so much!

-Im

Ps: I literally just realized I didn't give Julia a surname so here it is ❤️😂