When Summer Ends

by Isabelle Rae

  “Whatever, Sam, call me and we can go out.”

  “Keep Friday open for me,” he called to my back as Will and I walked to his jeep.

  I waved over my shoulder signalling that I’d heard him. I smiled gratefully as Will opened my door for me. He always was a gentleman when we went out; I kind of forgot he liked to do things like that.

  He kept stealing little glances at me as he drove; I smiled after about the tenth time I had caught him. “What is it, Will? Just spit out whatever’s on your mind,” I instructed, looking at him expectantly.

  He frowned and opened his mouth to say something, but then just closed it again and looked back at the road. “I wasn’t going to say anything.” I rolled my eyes. Does he think I don’t know him at all? I raised my eyebrows and just looked at him, waiting for him to man up and say what he was thinking about. After about a minute he sighed in defeat. “Fine, I was going to say that I’m glad you broke up with him. He wasn’t good enough for you and you shouldn’t let a guy dictate to you like that.”

  I nodded in agreement. “Yeah I know.”

  “And I loved the whole ‘shove it up your ass’ line. That was awesome.” He laughed.

  I laughed and blushed, embarrassed that I’d said that in front of him and Sam. In hindsight I really should have taken Olly to one side and broken it off instead of doing it in front of two other guys.

  “Glad I impressed you,” I replied, biting my lip and just thinking about how his smile lit his whole face and actually made him look beautiful to me. The drive to my house was way too short and when he pulled up outside I frowned in disappointment. “Well thanks for bringing me home.”

  He smiled. “Anytime.”

  I reluctantly opened the car door and forced myself to get out. “Have a nice dinner.”

  He groaned. “Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be great,” he said sarcastically. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I nodded and shut the car door, waving as I walked up the driveway to my house. As soon as I was inside I pulled out my cell phone and called Amy, explaining everything that had happened with Olly, down to the very last detail.

  When Amy and I walked into the school the following day I felt so awkward that I just wanted to run away. Olly was talking with one of his friends in the parking lot. I didn’t know what to do so I just blushed and dropped my eyes to the floor. Oh man this is awful. At least when Nick and I broke up it was kind of on nice terms because we still vowed to be friends, but with Olly it’ll just be downright awkward for a while because we’d broken up on an argument rather than a mutual parting.

  All through first period he seemed to avoid me. Whenever I looked in his direction he looked away or turned to talk to someone else so I wouldn’t go up to him, not that I was planning to anyway, but I guess he was just playing it safe. Maybe it was easier for him just to cut me out and pretend like nothing had happened, but I would rather be friendly about it at least.

  I was actually so excited about my lunchtime detention that I could barely think of anything else, that seemed to make the morning fly by. I grabbed a sandwich and headed to Will’s classroom with a huge smiled on my face just because I would get to hang out with him for another hour. When I got to the door I mentally crossed my fingers that we would be the only ones there again. Suddenly a thought occurred to me; what if he’s given someone else detention and I actually have to sit there for an hour and do work? That’ll suck big time.

  I hesitated with my hand raised about to knock. Technically he’d let me off of the detentions so if there was someone else in there I could just turn and walk away, I wouldn’t actually have to stay and do work.

  Just as I was lost in my thoughts, two hands fell on my shoulders making me jump and scream a little from the shock. I whipped around to see Will standing behind me laughing quietly. “You should have seen your face. Wow that was a picture,” he teased. He nodded to the door that I still hadn’t knocked on or opened. “Are you going to let us in, or will the rematch be in the hallway today?” he asked, grinning wickedly.

  I bit my lip as my stomach started to flutter. The word ‘rematch’ had to mean we were on our own otherwise he wouldn’t have said it. I grinned and pushed his door open; almost skipping in there because I was so happy.

  I turned back to him, and he laughed. “I was thinking we could shoot basketballs instead of Malteasers this time, easier to clean up.” He shrugged.

  I laughed. “Not sure you’ll get a basketball in your mouth, Will. Then again I guess you didn’t get many Malteasers in your mouth either,” I joked.

  He grinned and pulled out a stack of scrap paper, rolling it into balls and sitting on the desk next to me. He nodded to a little hoop that was stuck on the wall, directly over the trashcan. “First person to ten wins.” He smiled happily and proceeded to aim for a three pointer, and I just laughed. He was such a kid sometimes, but I actually loved that about him.

  The next two weeks passed exactly the same, Olly continued to just look away with a little hurt expression every time I was near him - which of course earned me lots of glares from his little fan girls because precious Olly was upset. By the look of it though, he didn’t waste much time in replacing me. He had a different girl hanging all over him all the time, begging for his attention. To be honest, he was probably glad that we’d broken up; at least he’d probably gotten past first base with a couple of them.

  Will continued to be nice to me; it was weird just having a normal conversation with him about something random and unimportant. Every time he smiled at me my heart would race, and my palms would get a little sweaty. I was really enjoying just being able to talk to him occasionally. In his classes he was a teacher, but if I saw him in the hallway or something, then he was more like my old Will.

  We only ended up doing two detentions, instead of the full week, because after that, he got roped into helping with the upcoming play by Miss Teller. He couldn’t exactly refuse to help his girlfriend, so I quite often saw him lugging costumes around and painting the set for her at lunchtimes. I couldn’t stop feeling jealous about it. Every time I saw her I just wanted to punch her in the face for being so freaking perfect. She was utterly flawless, but yet she was so nice with it too. It really wasn’t fair.

  The two weeks passed so fast that I barely knew what happened, and before I knew it, Saturday arrived, and so did the dreaded paintball game.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I followed Amy and Nick off of the coach, feeling slightly sick with nerves. What if I fall over in the middle of the woods and hurt myself and no one even notices? What if I’m lying there for hours crying for help? I knew I was being more than a little pathetic, but that was the kind of thing that would happen to me, a really typical Chloe moment.

  As we climbed out we were directed towards a pile of jumpsuits. I grabbed one in my size and pulled it on feeling my heart sink with every second. This was not my idea of how to spend a Saturday afternoon.

  Please, please, please let me get through this unscathed.

  We were each handed a safety helmet, a gun and a spare packet of paintballs, and were herded to a little clearing where the instructor stood on a little platform ready to address us. He started to go through the rules; how to reload, where the flags were positioned, what to do if you got hurt, and all other kinds of things that I just wasn’t interested in. I would actually rather be anywhere than here at this moment, especially when I looked up to see Will and Miss Teller standing directly in front of me, listening to the guy. They looked like the perfect couple, they looked so hot together, and that made me feel even worse.

  I stood there discreetly watching as Miss Teller put her hand on his arm, smiling seductively. It felt like it was killing me inside. She laughed at something he’d said - well, giggled really. I immediately started to envision walking over there, grabbing her perfect natural blonde hair, and shoving her pretty face into the muddy puddle by her feet. I sighed. Why was I even here anyway? I should have just said no. I would e
nd up getting hurt at some point today, so why did I even subject myself to this, knowing that the newest and hottest couple would be here, together. It was one thing hearing about it at school and knowing it went on, but seeing it was actually ripping my heart out.

  Why couldn’t I just get over him? What was so special about him anyway? Sure he was extremely hot, but I didn’t care about that. He was smart and funny, sweet and thoughtful… but he was a teacher! I needed to just stop looking at him like that. I needed to just grab someone else and kiss the life out of them and hope that I felt the butterflies in my stomach like I did when I kissed Will. Maybe Olly just hadn’t been the right person, maybe if I tried with someone else then I would feel something, anything, just to take the pain away and make me feel better.

  Will and I had been getting on so well for the last couple of weeks that I’d kind of pushed the fact that he was dating someone else out of my head, but seeing it was like torture. It had been over six weeks since we broke up, and I still couldn’t let go. I was probably bordering on obsessive. Maybe I should go get myself some therapy or something.

  Miss Teller flicked her long, perfect locks over her shoulder and slapped Will’s arm, laughing. He grinned and shook his head. I frowned. What is he saying to her to make her laugh like that? He isn’t that freaking funny! They both turned and looked at the guy at the front of the group, I watched as she inched closer to him, making my fists tighten unconsciously. I really needed to punch something, something blonde.

  “Earth to Chloe.” Amy laughed, elbowing me in the ribs gently.

  I jumped and looked at her. “What?” I asked, blushing. Jeez, if people knew what I was thinking!

  “You’re off in your own little world again. The instructor said we had to test our guns. Just squeeze the trigger and if it feels too tight for you to press then they can adjust it before the game starts,” she explained, rolling her eyes pumping her trigger. No doubt she knows I was daydreaming about Will again, she always knows, freaking psychic best friend.

  “Oh right,” I mumbled. I raised my gun and squeezed the trigger. Instead of just clicking like Amy’s did, my gun kind of jerked a little in my hand.

  “OW! What the hell?” Will shouted from in front of me.

  I looked up to see he had a large orange paint splatter on his shoulder. Oh my God, did I do that? I looked at it shocked.

  “You should have put on the safety!” The instructor shouted angrily, glaring at me.

  What? Put on the safety, where the heck is that? “No one told me to put the safety on! I just squeezed it!” I gasped, still in shock that I’d shot Will in the arm. I could hear everyone laughing quietly around me but obviously trying to hold it in. I looked at Will apologetically. Miss Teller was fussing over him with apparent concern, but he was looking at me with a small smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. “I’m sorry, it just went off. I didn’t know I had to put the safety on,” I apologised, blushing like crazy.

  He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry about it, Miss Henderson, accidents happen.”

  I turned back to the guy at the front who was finally done glaring at me like I was some sort of serial killer. He was giving us instructions on what to do once we grabbed the other team’s flag and what to do once we were shot. We had three yellow bands on our arm, and when you were shot you took one off before resuming play.

  Apparently we had already been split into two teams upon arrival which was why some of us had on black jumpsuits and some had green. I looked around to see who was on my team; lucky for me, I had Amy and Nick with me. I noticed that Will and Miss Teller were on the black team. I pouted. Why couldn’t the stupid guy have split them up?

  Once we were finally done, Nick and Amy went over to get their triggers tightened slightly, so I picked up my helmet, twirling it around in my hands as I walked off towards the starting position. As I was walking something hit me in the ass, hard. I yelped at the sudden pain and span around see what had hit me. I rubbed the spot, wincing. Wet slime slid through my fingers. I frowned and looked down at my behind to see that I had sky blue paint all over my butt and hand.

  Soft chuckling caught my attention so I looked up to see Will smirking at me. “Sorry, it just went off.” He laughed, shrugging.

  Oh my freaking goodness, did he just shoot me on purpose? “You’re such a freaking child!” I cried, laughing.

  He walked closer to me and grinned that boyish grin that I loved to death. Everyone had already run off, hiding or getting to the starting positions already, so we were on our own. “Payback’s a bitch huh?” he breathed in my ear making me shiver lightly.

  “You are so in for it after that! I did mine by accident,” I replied breathlessly. I could smell his aftershave and his shampoo. My goodness he smells amazing today. I’d forgotten how intoxicating he was when he was this close. My heart was crashing in my chest; it was beating so loud I was surprised he couldn’t hear it.

  “Oh you bring it, Cutie,” he challenged, laughing as he pulled back and ran off into the woods leaving me on my own.

  What the hell was that? He’s with someone else, yet chooses today to call me Cutie again? He hasn’t called me that for over a month and suddenly comes out with it like that? Damn, that boy’s confusing!

  I walked to the starting position finding half of my team there huddling and planning. “Where were you?” Nick asked. His eyes flicked down to my butt. “You got shot already? We haven’t even started!” He laughed, shaking his head.

  “I know, I know. I’m a dead weight on the team, so don’t count on me for any help or anything,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  I listened to their plan. We were to split up into pairs and try to get as close to the flag as possible. If we got close enough, one of the two would draw fire and cover the other person, allowing them to run and capture the flag. It seemed remarkably easy while the boys were talking about it, but in reality, I knew it wouldn’t be like that.

  “Okay, Chloe, you’re with me.” Nick grinned.

  Oh no! That means he’s going to be making me run and play properly and get all into it and stuff! Why can’t I be paired with another girl who doesn’t really want to try that hard? “Why can’t I be paired with Amy?” I whined as he gripped my jumpsuit and pulled me closer to him.

  He grinned and nodded his head in Amy’s direction. She was talking to Ryan, flirting her ass off, and by the looks of it, she was doing well too. He was definitely interested. “Because Amy’s paired with Ryan, as per her request,” Nick explained, waggling his eyebrows at me. “Is it that bad being paired with me?” He pouted teasingly.

  I smiled and nodded. “Heck yeah, you’re gonna make me run and stuff and you know what happens when I try to play games. I get hurt!” I winced and gave him my puppy dog face.

  “Okay fine, we won’t go crazy, and you can be the cover fire if we have to go for the flag, how’s that?” he offered. I smiled gratefully and opened my mouth to say thanks when a shrill blast of an air horn filled the air, signalling the start of the game.

  Nick grabbed my hand, and we jogged off through the woods, both slipping on our heavy helmets. It was actually quite fun hiding behind trees and jumping out trying to shoot people. I wasn’t very good at it though. I’d used up two of my three lives within an hour. Nick hadn’t even been shot once.

  I winced and rubbed my stomach where the latest bullet had hit me less than ten minutes ago. Nick stopped suddenly, causing me to walk into him. “Ow, damn it,” I mumbled as my nose collided with the inside of my helmet where I walked smack into his back.

  “Shh, someone’s coming. Hide,” he hissed. He immediately ran off into the woods leaving me standing there on my own.

  Crud, what the hell? I crouched down and looked longingly at the trees as a couple of guys walked past. Oh man, I should have run after him instead of crouching. I totally suck at this game!

  “I swear I heard something,” one of the two guys said, lifting his helmet and looking around
cautiously.

  “You didn’t! Come on, they’re nowhere near here,” the other guy dismissed. I held my breath as they walked past. I didn’t want to lose my last life because then I’d have to go back to the hut and wait for the other hour to be finished. That would be totally boring because I’d probably be the only one out already.

  After a couple of minutes, I tentatively stood up again. Nothing shot me so I walked off in the direction that Nick ran in to find him and tell him we were safe. After a couple of minutes of searching, I hadn’t found him.

  “Nick!” I whisper yelled, looking around cautiously as I pulled of my helmet so I could see clearer.

  I searched for him for a full ten minutes but didn’t actually find anyone at all. Damn it, stupid paintballing! Why couldn’t people have voted for the other freaking option, either of the other two would be better than this. Heck, even pulling my nails off with rusty pliers would be better than this.

  I groaned and just decided to give up; I wouldn’t be able to do anything on my own anyway. Out of nowhere someone grabbed me from behind and dragged me behind a huge tree. I screamed, but a hand clamped over my mouth. “Shh, Cutie,” Will hissed in my ear.

  My heart started to beat double time as I realised that my back was pressed against Will’s hard chest, a chest that I had run my hands and mouth over many times. I heard a couple of voices heading in the other direction. After a minute of silence, he let me go, and I felt a blush creep up onto my face.

  I turned around to look at him. He’d taken off his helmet too; it was hanging from his arm carelessly. His hair was a mess, all flattened and sweaty from wearing the protective headgear. He looked good though, as always. I immediately wondered what on earth my hair looked like where I’d been wearing mine. I cocked my head to the side, confused when he didn’t make any moves to shoot me even though he’d blatantly caught me.