Know You Again

(12)

Chapter 12:

     July arrived with a sweltering heat that had everyone scrambling indoors or to the pools. For Mindy and her friends, this meant the air conditioned public library. July not only meant the peak of the summer heat but also the incoming influx of entrance exams. While Mindy didn't want to head off to college, she decided to accompany her friends to prepare. They studied both past and new lessons of math, english and science. Mindy was better at the former than Chloe and Hadley so she was there to guide her friends.

July meant Victoria's release from the hospital. While her ribs were fully healed, her legs still had a long way to go. The doctor said that it would be completely healed by August and she would have to undergo physical therapy to regain the strength of muscles, weakened from disuse. After around one and half week staying at the Emersons, Mindy thanked them for everything before making her way home with a bag of her stuff. During her time there, she has healed both physically and mentally. Their company has kept her sane during her lowest and even allowed her to patch things up between her and her childhood best friend.

Despite her moving back in her own home, she found herself staying over at the Emersons' place nearly every day. She would go to the library with her friends from 10 till noon then would have lunch with her mother. Her mother, assigned to work at home, would be busy until dinner so Mindy would hang out with Alfie when both of them weren't busy, then she would return home to prepare dinner. Sometimes Pete, Oliver and Danny would come over. She and Danny had developed a flirty friendship but remained platonic. She got to know Pete and Oliver better as well, and soon enough she felt as comfortable with them as she was with Hadley and Chloe.

Speaking of the two girls, they had been spending a lot of time alone. Mindy didn't know if she was imagining the looks the two gave each other. Sometimes she would catch Hadley absentmindedly stroking Chloe's face intimately, or Chloe wrapping her arms around Hadley almost too comfortably. She felt a bit weird seeing her friends so touchy, simply because their behavior in the last month was strangely cold. Now, they were closer than ever. She had a feeling the two weren't telling her something, but she let them be. She would let them open up in their own time and as long as they were happy, she was okay with it.

Mindy also wanted to spend more time with Sebastian but he was away for three weeks in India with his parents. By the time he's back, he'll be busy packing up for college. He promised however that before he left they would go out and have fun in the End-of-the-Summer Fundraiser Carnival held on the last weekend of May.

Compared to June, July was lazy without anything to really do. She and her friends would sometimes hit the pools, but it was too crowded. They had a water gun fight on one extremely hot Thursday afternoon in Chloe's large yard and it resulted in them getting the grass muddy. Her mother wasn't pleased at all. Once or twice they went to the movies but mostly lounged around the house. Sometimes they would go to Chloe's or Oliver's, since they had a large living room, but they tend to hangout at Alfie's place, simply because it was a very cozy house despite its need of refurbishing.

The only thing large upcoming in her schedule was The Arrows' concert. It was on the 20th of July and she knew who to ask to accompany her.

"You want me to go with you?" Alfie gaped at her as she held up the two tickets in her hands. They were alone that afternoon and had been sharing a large tub of ice cream as they were watching The Dark Knight. Mindy smiled at him. "You're the only person I know who's heard of them really."

Alfie wasn't as big of a fan as Mindy was, but then again who would beat Mindy in that aspect? Still, he loved listening to the band, even more so now that he had Mindy to rock along with it to. "It's just an hour away from Juliet's. Perfect timing"