When Summer Ends

by Isabelle Rae

  Wait, is he talking about an engagement ring? If things were different, he would be giving me an engagement ring? Oh my gosh, what the heck do I say to that? That is so freaking romantic!

  “Really?” I muttered, looking from him to the little diamond ring charm that he put back into the middle of my palm.

  He nodded. “Really,” he confirmed. “Will you wear my ring, Cutie? I just need you to know how serious I am about you. I want to spend my life with you, Chloe, and one day, when you’re least expecting it, I’ll replace this little charm, with a ring that goes on your finger. All I want from you tonight is for you to tell me that if I asked you at some point in our future, that you’d consider making me the luckiest guy in the world.”

  Holy cow, he’s seriously thinking about us getting married at some point in the future! He said ‘our future’; I love those two words together. Not my future, or his future, but ours. My head was spinning a little, my heart crashing against my ribs. My whole body was alight with excitement as I nodded, grinning like an idiot. “I’d love to wear your promise ring,” I accepted, trying not to let the ridiculous happiness that I felt inside, burst from me.

  Before I knew what happened he’d jumped up to his feet and pumped the air above his head with both hands. “Yessssssssssssssss! Score! Come on, get in!” he shouted happily as if this was some sort of football celebration. I was almost expecting him to pull his shirt over his head and run around singing ‘We are the champions’.

  I burst into a fit of giggles at the sight of my supposedly mature teacher, almost dancing on the spot as he grinned like an idiot. He didn’t even look embarrassed to have been caught doing it.

  “You’re a dork,” I teased around my giggles.

  He grinned and nodded, plopping himself back down in front of me, his eyes still dancing with excitement. “Yeah, but this dorky math nerd just got the girl of his dreams,” he replied, smirking at me.

  I literally threw myself at him, wrapping my arms tight around his neck as I pressed my forehead to his. I didn’t know what to say. What words could I use to describe this feeling? I didn’t know enough superlatives to describe it. So I settled for three little words, hoping they would convey my feelings.

  “I love you.”

  He kissed me softly, his hands cupping my face. “I love you too,” he whispered against my lips. I shivered, but it wasn’t from the cool air or the wind that whipped my hair around our faces.

  I pulled back and opened my hand, holding the little charm out to him. “You gonna put it on for me then?” I asked quietly.

  His smile got even bigger as he clipped it onto the opposite side of the bracelet to the little Pi symbol. “You’re mine now,” he bragged, smirking at me.

  I laughed, deciding to steal a line from a movie. “Will, you had me at hello. I’ve always been yours.”

  He sighed happily. “And you always will be.”

  We sat on the cliff top for a while, just talking and sipping champagne. Listening to the little music player that he’d brought up here. As the sun started to go down over the town. I watched in awe as the colours danced in the sky, making everything look beautiful. I kind of wished I’d brought my new camera from the car so I could take a few photos of it.

  Will was still facing me, his back to the sunset. “Why don’t you sit over here next to me, you’re missing the view,” I suggested, patting the blanket next to me.

  He smiled. “I’m looking at the most beautiful thing here. The view can’t get any better than this,” he replied, his eyes raking over my face slowly.

  Oh my days, that was amazing! “Cheesy,” I breathed. My heart was beating way too fast to be healthy.

  “Truthful,” he countered, moving closer to me slowly. He moved so close that I had to lie down onto my back. He hovered above me but didn’t touch me.

  I swallowed loudly. His proximity was making me lose all coherent thoughts. “Corny.”

  A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth that I longed to trace with my fingertip. “Romantic.”

  He was so close now that I could feel the heat of his body coming off of him in waves, my brain was a little fuzzy, I couldn’t think of anything to say at all. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he inched his mouth closer to mine. He was so close that I could almost taste the champagne on his breath as it blew across my lips. He hovered above me, just looking into my eyes as if we were the only two people in the world.

  “You win,” I whispered, guiding his mouth closer to mine.

  He laughed quietly. “Always, because I have you. Therefore I’ll always be the winner.”

  Jeez, can this guy blow my mind anymore? I knew the answer to that question though, and the answer was heck yes he can. I tightened my arms around his neck. “Will, make love to me now.” My voice was breathy and husky because of the emotions and feelings that were crashing through my body.

  He smiled and traced his fingertips across my cheek softly. I knew he would be tracing the line of my blush; he always seemed to take pride in the fact that he caused that reaction in me. “Now that would be my pleasure,” he teased.

  He smiled before he bent his head and captured my lips in the most beautiful kiss I had ever felt in my life. That one kiss conveyed so much feeling, so much love, and so many unspoken words that I could hardly even cope with it. The feel of that kiss almost brought me to tears again. But he didn’t stop there, that one kiss was followed by another, and another as he made love to me. Neither of us paid any attention to what was sure to be a beautiful sunset that was happening behind us.

  Chapter Forty

  As soon as the doorbell rang Amy jumped up, grinning like a fool. She was ridiculously eager for tonight. She was wearing a sexy, yet classy, blood red dress that fitted her perfectly and showed off her long legs to perfection. Her face was alight with excitement, her eyes shining with glee. I smiled too, not because I was looking forward to tonight, but because she looked so happy. Tonight was going to be a long night for me. Tonight was Prom night. It should have been a night for celebration, I should have been bursting with excitement just like Amy, but instead I dreaded it. The reason? Because I couldn’t go with the one I wanted to go with. There was no possible way that I could go to the dance with Will. So instead I was going with his brother. I hadn’t wanted to go at all because I couldn’t go with him, but both Will and Amy had insisted that it was part of the ‘rite of passage into womanhood’ or something, so they were literally forcing me to go.

  Will had volunteered to chaperone the prom. Apparently he said that he wanted to be there for me, even if he couldn’t actually ‘be there for me’. He said he wanted to be part of it in some way even if he just had to stand on the sidelines. Plus he said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see me in my prom dress.

  I forced a smile and stood too, smoothing down the skirt of my knee length, strapless electric blue dress. The black netting that sat over the top of it was soft under my fingertips. I silently wondered what Will would think of my dress, and if he would like it. He would probably like the little black lacy belt that tied just under my cleavage. It did draw the eye to that area.

  “That’ll be Ryan and Nick,” Amy chirped, clapping her hands excitedly.

  I nodded, and we both headed out of the lounge and to the door. Of course, my dad was already there, talking to both boys in hushed whispers. I winced at Amy, praying that my dad wouldn’t scare Ryan away from her by threatening him with disembowelment if he hurt her. Nick was of course used to this kind of thing so he was just smiling at my dad patiently.

  I discreetly waved over my dad’s shoulder, looking at Nick in his tux. He looked incredibly handsome tonight. His date was a lucky girl. He didn’t actually want to come tonight at all, but Amy and I had practically forced him into it - if I had to subject myself to a school dance, then so did he. We’d set him up with Jasmine, a cute little brunette that was a junior instead of a senior. She was adorable, the quiet artsy type.

  Technically, m
y date was Sam tonight, but we had all agreed that because we didn’t want Sam to meet my parents, that Nick would pick me up instead and pretend he was my date. Will approved of the plan because apparently he didn’t want Sam meeting his ‘future in-laws’ before he did and ‘tainting the Morris name’ for him. Sam’s brilliant response to that was that the Morris name would already be tainted when they found out that I’d been ‘banging my teacher for a couple of months’. I smiled as I remembered the conversation; it was actually pretty funny day and took place in front of his parents who found the whole thing rather amusing.

  When my dad stepped back and waved the boys into the hallway, Nick grinned. “Hey, wow, you both look great,” he gushed. I smiled, and before I could answer he held out a large bunch of red tulips to me. I gasped, looking at him with wide eyes. Are they from him? What on earth…

  “Er, thanks,” I muttered, taking them out of his hand and casting an uneasy glance at Amy. She was too busy shooting Ryan the doe eyes to notice my unease though. He stepped closer to me, smiling happily as he held out a box that contained a little white bracelet corsage. My dad had disappeared off to get the camera or something so I took my opportunity to quiz Nick. “Are these from you?”

  He shook his head quickly. “Nope. Will asked me to give them to you. And I’m also supposed to tell you that you look beautiful and that he hopes you have a nice time,” he replied.

  My heart throbbed in my chest. So thoughtful! I sighed dreamily, but before I could respond my dad was back, my mom hot on his heels as she gushed and praised how lovely everyone looked. We had a few photos done and then we finally escaped into the chill night air.

  It was a little early to be picked up, it was only just after seven, but we were going to dinner first apparently. As we stepped out of the door, I looked with wide eyes towards the road. Parked there, all shiny and long, was a black limousine. I looked back at Nick, shocked. I was told Ryan was driving tonight, I wasn’t expecting a limo. “Seriously? A limo?” I gasped. Amy squealed as she saw it too.

  Nick smiled and leant in close to my ear. “Will ordered it,” he whispered.

  Gosh damn, he’s incredible! My eyes prickled with tears because of how much thought had gone into tonight - but yet he wasn’t even the one that was taking me. Amy grabbed my hand, and we both ran across the grass to the waiting limo. A man in a black uniform opened the door for us, smiling happily. As I climbed in, the first thing I spotted was Sam. He was stretched out on the back seat, looking the picture of ease as he sipped orange juice from a champagne flute. He grinned over at me, his eyes raking down my body as I clambered awkwardly into the car and plopped down next to him.

  “Well dang, Foxy by name, Foxy by nature,” he whistled. “Don’t you scrub up nice.”

  I laughed and stole his drink, taking a sip and settling against his side. “You don’t look too bad yourself,” I replied, looking down at him in his black tux.

  Amy and Ryan fell in the door behind me, laughing to themselves. Ryan shook his head and punched Sam in the arm. “No freaking wonder you sent Nick in to collect her, her dad’s a fucking psycho!” he ranted, before turning to me and smiling apologetically. “No offense.”

  I smiled and waved my hand dismissively. “Sam’s too scared to meet him yet,” I lied. Ryan of course didn’t know about Will, so obviously they’d told him that Sam was too scared to come to the door and had sent Nick to fetch me instead.

  “Not surprised. Jeez,” Ryan muttered, blowing out a big breath before he turned to smile at Amy sweetly. “I guess I got off lucky with your parents, huh?” She grinned at him and nodded, moving up and kissing him gently, ending the conversation.

  Nick climbed in too, and then we headed off to Jasmine’s house so he could pick her up too.

  An hour and a half later we’d eaten and were about to leave the restaurant to go to prom. We were already fashionably late, but Sam still insisted that he needed to go and ‘perfect’ his look in the bathroom before we could leave. I took the opportunity to go and check my make-up before we went to the school gym where they were holding the dance tonight. I wanted to look my best for when Will saw me. The other guys all said they would wait in the limo, so I followed Sam towards the bathrooms, frowning when I saw the out of order sign on the ladies restrooms.

  Sam smiled and grabbed my hand. “Come in the guys’, no one will know,” he insisted, dragging me in there behind him before I could protest. I squealed and squeezed my eyes shut, thinking I was going to see a load of guys all standing at the urinals or something. Sam chuckled wickedly. “It’s empty, you’re safe.”

  I cracked my eyes open, risking a glance around only to see he was right, it was empty. I slapped him with my little blue clutch purse and frowned before stalking over to the only mirror in the room. “You could have at least checked it was empty first!” I whined, shaking my head in disbelief.

  He made a scoffing noise. “Like you’ve never seen a guy’s thing before,” he commented. I closed my eyes and shook my head, deciding not to answer, which just made Sam chuckle wickedly behind me. When I heard the sound of a zipper being unfastened, I cringed and whistled a little tune to try and block out the sound of Sam taking a leak behind me. Gross boy! When he was done, he walked to my side. “You know, Will’s jealous he couldn’t bring you to your prom,” Sam he said casually as he washed his hands.

  I frowned and looked at his reflection in the mirror. “He’s jealous? Like proper jealous?” I winced. Maybe I shouldn’t go. Maybe I should just stay home and pretend I’m sick if he doesn’t want me to go.

  Sam shook his head quickly. “Not like that kind of jealous, just that he wants to be the one to take you. He didn’t say in so many words, but I think he feels a little left out. Make sure you make it up to him another night,” he suggested, waggling his eyebrows at me.

  I slapped his arm for being crude. “Shut up,” I muttered, applying another coat of lipstick before blotting it.

  “Okay, want to know something that’ll make you go aww?” He bumped me with his hip to get me out of the way of the mirror as he started messing with his hair. I nodded, waiting for him to say it. “I told him I’d make sure you have the night of your life, and you know what he said to me?” Sam asked, still fussing with his hair.

  “Stop playing with your hair, you girl?” I guessed, smirking at him.

  He rolled his eyes and blew out a dramatic breath. “You’re not even half as funny as you think you are,” he commented. “No, anyway, he said, ‘I don’t want you to give her the night of her life, that’s my job’. Thought you’d appreciate knowing that.”

  My heart melted, and all I wanted to do was call up Will and tell him that he always gave me the night of my life. “Aww,” I mused.

  Sam grinned cockily. “Told ya you’d say that.”

  I sighed dreamily, just wishing I could see him right now, throw my arms around him and just breathe in his smell that was like nothing else in the world.

  By the time we got to the school I was ridiculously eager to see Will. I’d seen him dressed up once before, at his sister’s wedding, and I couldn’t wait to see him all suited and booted again. My guess is that he’d look amazing. I let Sam lead me towards the gym. The thump of music was already reverberating form the walls as the live band covered a Maroon 5 song. People were chatting animatedly as we waited in a messy line in the hallway so that we could enter the gym. Girls everywhere looked elegant and beautiful in their prom dresses of various colours, hair done, make-up applied. The scent of various perfumes all mixed into something that was almost heady as we stood there in line waiting to have our photo taken as we arrived. The guys all essentially looked the same, black tux, white shirt, but they all had different coloured ties on.

  The line moved fairly quickly, and before long Sam and I were at the front. His arm snaked around my waist, pulling me to him as the photographer snapped a couple of pictures before waving us off so he could take the next couple’s portrait. Nick and Jasmine were
laughing and talking off to one side so Sam led me over to them, his arm still around my waist. I cast an excited glance around the room, noticing all the gold and silver balloons and banners that decorated the place. Little round tables with white and silver table cloths had been set up around the gym. The lights had been dulled, and a little candle sat at each table along with a pretty flower arrangement. It looked lovely - but it couldn’t hold my attention. My eyes raked over the sea of people, seeking out one face in particular.

  When my gaze finally found him, I felt myself mentally swoon. He was leaning against the wall opposite me, one leg crossed casually over the other, looking the picture of ease. His hair was styled but messy the same as usual, and the suit… ‘wow’ was all I could think. He was watching me; a little smile graced his full lips as his eyes raked over me slowly as if he didn’t want to miss an inch.

  Before I knew what I was doing, I’d left my friends and was making my way across the room to him. My feet had a mind of their own as I wove past people dancing, drinking, and eating. I needed to get to him and say hi.

  As I walked to him his eyes seemed to darken, his posture changed as he stood up straighter. The look was like he was marvelling over me. I knew then and there that he approved of my choice of dress. Miss Teller was standing and talking to a student not too far away from Will so I knew we needed to be careful.

  As I stopped in front of him, he smiled his heartbreaking smile. My breath caught in my throat as his hand twitched and raised, heading towards my face. Heat filled my cheeks because of how intimately he was gazing at me. I could practically see his love for me shining from his eyes. He seemed to catch himself quickly; dropping is hand back down to his side. I couldn’t help but be disappointed because all I wanted to do was crush myself to him and spend the night dancing in his arms. The way he was looking at me made my heart soar in my chest. I loved the way he looked at me, the look that he gave me showed me that my feelings for him were reciprocated, that everything I felt, he felt too. At least I hoped that was what that look was otherwise I was in some serious trouble.