That Summer

Chapter Thirteen - Second Chances

During my first month at school, I could only see James on weekends and maybe once throughout the week after school. He didn't like this one bit.

On a Tuesday in the first week of October, after sex, we were in my room arguing about it.

"James, we're not a couple, I thought we understood that?" I huffed. "Besides, I have a lot of assignments to do. It's usually at least three to five a week, which have to be done for the following week."

"I understand that, but I thought you could handle seeing me and school work. It doesn't seem to be that much," he grumbled.

I sighed and grabbed my agenda from my bedside table, where I opened it and showed him. "Look. Two essays done by next Wednesday, a slide show due by Monday, a couple of handouts to do by Friday, and a quiz on Tuesday. It's something I really have to keep up my game on, I don't want to fall behind because I'm too busy having sex to do assignments."

James grumbled some more but eventually shut up about it. He left shortly after, disgruntled, and I got to work on my assignments, forgetting about the argument. He was starting to get on my nerves, quite frankly, and I was done with it. He'd been pushy with texting me and messaging me on Facebook all the time, even during classroom hours. Sure, I did look forward to seeing him on weekends, because it took my mind off school, but it was the times I couldn't see him that he pissed me off. Like, seriously, I couldn't spend every waking hour with him and I couldn't text him during class. Sometimes when I didn't answer for a bit, because I was doing work or listening to the teacher, James would send me multiple texts demanding to know where I was, who I was with, and why I wasn't answering. It was getting to be overbearing. This had only gotten worse in the past two weeks or so, as I was seeing him less and less. For a twenty-six-year-old, he was acting more like a high school boy with a serious crush.

Speaking of age, my twenty-sixth birthday was coming up in the middle of October, it was on October seventeenth. I was getting a bit excited, but unsure what I was going to do. Probably invite Nessa to do something, because we always invited each other to each other's birthdays, every year since we'd first become friends. I was unsure about inviting James, but I'd thought about it. I also had the thought that if Adam and I were together he might have something planned for me, or we might have gone and done something romantic. The thought made me sad.

I decided to creep him, as I hadn't done that since I'd unfollowed him. Surprisingly, there hadn't been a picture posted of him and Rachel in about a few weeks The last one was back in the beginning of September, when they were at some party. Since then, he'd only posted a few selfies, and a new car he'd bought. I wondered if it was with his own money, or the money his mother passed on to him.

I still did think about that. The moment his mother died in front of me. How one minute she was talking, and the next her body was still, her lifeless eyes staring at Adam. I tried to keep pushing it out of my mind, because it bothered me too much. I supposed sex with James was mostly a distraction from the traumatic events in the summer. At least, school was helping with distractions, too. I couldn't linger in my mind too long when I had to concentrate on work.

So, the lack of photos of him and Rachel together meant that possibly they were broken up. Or just hadn't done anything worth posting a photo of, but that wouldn't make sense, cause Rachel had just taken random selfies of them all the time.

Even if he wanted me back, would I take him? I shook my head to clear the thought. Probably not after what he'd done. Taking him back would just give him a free pass to do it again. Unless he proved to me he'd changed, I wouldn't be bothered. But he hadn't messaged me in a long time, so I shoved that thought aside anyway.