Just For The Summer: Book One

Chapter Thirteen: Elena

My dreams have been getting more and more vivid recently. It's as if my hormones are going crazy over the fact that I've been kissed more times in the last three weeks than the whole almost eighteen years of my life. The first dream shooked me to my core and it happened a few nights ago. I was just chilling in the tipi when Rooben, who was dressed as the Captain from the Sound of Music, burst through the door and started singing the song that goes 'you are sixteen going on seventeen' and it was so full of joy and beauty that I woke up crying tears of pure emotional joy. The dreams got slightly more and more inappropriate and the next dream was so intimate I broke into a cold sweat. This time he burst into my room wearing just dark blue ripped jeans and a union jack top and walked up to my standing figure, which was next to the window, held my hand. Then I woke up. I couldn't deal with my impure thoughts.

I spoke to Mom once more after the phone call the other night and I guess you could say it didn't go very well. I may or may not have snapped at her for basically doing the sin of adultery with some random male man in America and she had the nerve to tell me that I am a loser who hasn't lived her life and is boring. Fuck her. She doesn't know shit. I'm exciting. I do stuff. I read and swim in the pool and... You know what? Sometimes I read s aucy fanfic on Wattpad ;) but she doesn't get it. She's too old to get it. I haven't seen or heard from Rooben for a while now. It's almost been two weeks since he stood me up and basically humpty-dumptied a girl in the swimming pool. I've just been hiding out in the shed for as long as I can before someone actually needs me.

My Nokia buzzes and I look down at the floor where I left it last night and I see an incoming phone call from July. I wait a few seconds before answering.

'Hey girl, are you okay?' I start and July nearly screams down the phone to me

'YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHO WAS ASKING ABOUT YOU TODAY?!'

'Who?' I ask nervously
'Wesley Von Houten,' July squeals and I pause for a second.

'Really? He.... He asked about me?'

'Yeah so you know how my brother Jackson plays lacoste with him on weekends for extra credit for college? Well he was all like,' July begins to imitate Wes' voice, 'hey so your sisters friends with that Elena girl right? And my brother was all like, 'yeah, they're best friends and then Wes was all like 'yeah, she's kinda cute'. Isn't that amazing?!'

Wow, kinda cute. What a compliment. Don't get me wrong. Wesley is gorgeous. He's rich and beautiful and smart and athletic and his family owns the largest moose farm in Toronto making his family, similarly to the Antonopoulos', royalty but he's not who I want right now...

'Wow so... what does that mean... for me?' I ask a little nervous and a little excited.

'Okay, so.... Here's my plan. I'm gonna throw a party on Friday and I'm gonna let Jackson invite some friends and obviously you're gonna be there and he'll be there and OH MY GOD you're gonna get married and have twelve little babies...'

'Woah woah woah, hold your mooses there girl, I don't even know the guy so why would I be marrying him...'

'Just talk to him! It'll be fun and you can help me set up first and then stay round mine after and you know... in case you need a bed....'

I pull the phone from my ear and look at it for a minute just to make sure I was talking to July and not an alien weirdo version of her.

'July,' I begin, getting ready to lay down the law, 'Friday is two days away so I gotta get my shit ready, but I have some ground rules, if I don't like him you're gonna have to back off okay because you know how innocent I am. Rule two, I'm not wearing a short and tight dress okay, it's not my thing and three, I am not gonna drink. At all. I'm gonna stay and calm and free of alcohol okay.. Cool.'

We agree on the rules and we hang up and I stand from the mattress that I am sitting on. A party? I have to be honest, I'm a little excited about this party. I need something, or someone, to take my mind off of him and this might just be it. Wes is one of those guys that you would sell your sibling for a chance to date and he's interested in me? That is crazy to me. He's a year older, like him, he's beautiful, like him, but in a different way. You see, Wes is a clean cut- wealthy- plays piano and eats brunch type of guy with blonde hair and green eyes whereas my Rooben is rough around the edges-dark haired-black clothes wearing bad boy with that sexy accent and stupidly stunning face. Wait a second. My Rooben? For goodness sake. Anyway, he is just the distraction I need from the British bad boy.

After a few moments of full on contemplation on my situation and life when I decide to leave the hut and go for a swim. I grab and put on my blue bikini, the same shade of Rooben's, and a towel and head out of the door. Empty. Thank God. I sit down on a lounger and pop in my earphones and just relax.

I must have dosed off for a few moments because I open my eyes and see Rooben laying down on the lounger next to mine, just staring at me. I start because, holy shit, that scared the blue moon out of me. I gasp and pull out my earbud.

'You're tired,' Rooben whispers softly, 'I haven't been able to sleep recently either...' he confesses.

Without looking at him, I stand, grab my towel and iPod shuffle and start to the shack. I walk quickly when I hear footsteps behind me and I pick up the pace.

'Wait, Elena, please. I just want to talk to you...'

He sounds... different. More... quiet and tame and not like the Rooben I met a few weeks ago.

'Well this isn't about what you want... I don't want to talk to you.' I keep walking and I don't even bother turning to face him as I speak. 'Just leave me alone.'

'GODDAMNIT!' Rooben yells and I turn in complete shock, stunned. He halted a few feet behind me and has his hands around his head and he looks... He looks broken and before I can stop it, a tear rolls down my cheek. He continues speaking, still loudly but not as loud as his outburst.

'I've never, in my whole life, met someone that drives me as crazy as you do. You're just... You're everywhere. I can't stop thinking about you. Dreaming about you. Wanting you beside me. But I can't have you. I can't see you. God, I can't even kiss you but I want to . So fucking bad and I feel so fucking stupid and lost because every morning I want to talk to you and I want you to yell at me and call me an asshole in that cute accent you have and FUCK!' He throws his hands on the air in pure loss and confusion and I keep crying. I just keep crying. 'I just... I don't know what to do Elena, I care so much about you and I can't have you leave. I need you here and you can't go. You can't leave. Okay just... Please. You don't know how much I care for you. God, I wish I could tell you everything but I can't. I can't because I don't want you to go. I don't want you to leave.'

Leave? What is he talking about? I replay his words in my head and I am pissed.

'What the fuck are you talking about Rooben? What the actual fuck?!,' I begin yelling and crying at the same time, 'You can't say that you want me, care about me, wanna kiss me when every single fucking time I try to get close to you, you just keep breaking my heart and hurting me. You don't have the right to say that shit to me. Okay Rooben? You don't get to 'care about me' and keep hurting me. Just keep your distance. Just stay away from me. If you cared you wouldn't have stood me up or fucked Stephanie in the pool. You don't care so fuck off and get the hell out of my life.'

I turn on my heel and walk the final steps to my small home.

'Elena...' Rooben says pleadingly and I slam the front door.