Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)

by Abby Jimenez

I clicked on it and a survey popped up titled “Your Date With Justin.”

He's so cute!

The next morning I woke up to an Evite invitation.

Stoppp omg 😍

The moment Emma came into view, my entire world slipped into slow motion. My brain took a screenshot. I felt the moment freeze and save. She was beautiful.

He's got it BAD!!!

I wasn’t standing by my car, waiting for my date. I was in the middle of a road, watching the headlights of a Mack truck coming right at me.

Hit by a truck awwwh 😍

I gave Maddy a wave over Emma’s shoulder and the woman’s smile vanished. Then she dragged a finger across her neck in the universal sign for I’ll kill you.

Omg 😂😂😂

I picked up her salted caramel cold foam to hand it to her—and dropped it.

Ahhh he's so nervous. It's so cute!

I leaned over and opened the door and she gasped. “Kittens?” She beamed. “Yup.” The five six-week-old kittens Jane was fostering came mewing up to us, tails in the air. We shuffled in and I shut the door behind us before any escaped.

Stfu!! Cutest date idea EVER!!!

Cooter 😂😂😂

Cooter.

“One time when I was eight, my mom left for the weekend, but she didn’t come back. She’d left me twenty dollars, and there was some food in the pantry. But a week went by. Then another week. Then three and the food ran out. When she did this in the winter or the fall, I’d eat at school. I’d always save some of my lunch and take it home so I had something to eat on the weekend, but this time it was the summer. The neighbor had this garden in her yard and I was so hungry that I couldn’t sleep and I went over there in the middle of the night and I dug up her carrots. All of them. I took them home and I ate them for days. I turned orange.” She laughed. “The beta-carotene gave me carotenemia. I thought I was dying. I went to the neighbors and they called 911. That’s how I ended up in foster care the first time. That’s also why I hate carrots.”

Ok well now I understand why Maddy hates her. So sad...

“Why not forgive? In a world where you can choose anger or empathy, always choose empathy, Justin.

She's better than me. I could never forgive my parent for that...

Sometimes the best way to show love or be kind to someone is to meet them where they are.” “Literally? Or figuratively?” She paused with the spoon in her hand. “Both.”

“Do you run on the fasty-fast moving sidewalks at the airport?” I slid my bishop over. “I walk fast on the fasty-fast moving sidewalks. Do you run on the fasty-fast sidewalks?” “No. Why? Did someone say something?”

Please. He's so funny 😂

I think sometimes the key to happiness is framing those things in a different way.”

I wish I could be this optimistic.

“So I won’t be able to see you at all? Can I have lunch with you maybe?”

Oh god. He is down bad!!!

A long, disbelieving pause. “That’s my mom.”

Holy shit! l was not expecting that!

Do well in school. Do my own laundry. Make my own food. Don’t ask for anything. Don’t need anything. Clean up after myself. Then after her. Be helpful. Be invisible. Be small.

💔💔💔

It was like there was no peaceful place to exist, no emotional safe space. I could have chaos, or I could have worry. I could be in the tornado, or I could be in the eye. But I could never be out of the storm. It was so, so exhausting to live this way and I had always lived this way because when it came to my mother, I didn’t know how to not care. I never felt calm except for the fleeting time her perfume was strong and I knew she was okay.

Oh Emma...

Mom turned and made her way back drinking his Bloody Mary. Justin plucked the carrot out of my glass and tossed it in a bush.

Omg 💜😭

He peered over at her. “You said you haven’t seen her in almost two years?” “Yeah.” “Weird she isn’t spending more time with you.”

“So you and I are never going to bullshit each other. The stone-cold truth, on demand, no filter, whenever we want it. That’s what we’re agreeing on?”

Love this!

I’m thinking your bathing suit looks too tight and it looks uncomfortable like it’s going to leave lines on your skin. I’m thinking about what those lines would look like when you take it off—not in a sexual way, but also sort of in a sexual way.”

I’m thinking that you do smell a little like sweat, but that I like it for some reason.

“You like the way I smell?” I grinned.

“I’ve never kissed someone for the sake of breaking a curse before,” I said. “Me either.” “Good. We’ll be unencumbered by technique.”

“There are only two types of relationships my mom gets into. The ones where they ruin her life and the ones where she ruins theirs.”

“You know, if you would have told me yesterday that today I’d be sitting half naked in a million-dollar yacht with you, I wouldn’t have believed it,”

“Maybe home isn’t a place. Maybe it’s a person.”

“Did you really threaten to kill him?” “It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise.”

What a good bestfriend!

unalive

Ew cringe.

“I went to therapy. For four years. Your parents made me go all through high school. I have resolved trauma, there is nothing wrong with me.”

Oh honey...

“Justin sent me an exit interview.”

Of course he did 😂

He took another bite, leaning on the counter. “How was it? Do you like her?” “I don’t think ‘like’ covers it,” I said, petting my dog.

😍😍😍😍😍

“I’m playing nice,” I said. “I do what she needs me to do. I’m polite and I’m speaking to her. And frankly that’s more than she deserves.”

What did she do?!

Neil was making his way down the hall.

OH MY FUCKING GOD!! PLOT TWIST!!

I had this sinking, sickly feeling of being out of control. A gnawing anxiety of what was to come. Mom always made me feel like this, I realized. When she was here, when she wasn’t here. A gaping, bottomless impending feeling of doom.

😭😭😭

“What’s-her-face is supposed to be putting them in vases, but I swear to God that woman moves like she’s being paid by the hour.”

Ooof...

Enhance the love energy and improve the qi—it is way off in this place. I mean, he’s a Taurus with Mercury in Aries, so it all makes sense looking around here, but still.”

Oh god...

He swallowed. “No, I get it. I get the full Amber/Neil/Maddy death-threat submersion experience and you just get to vibe.”

😂😂😂

I looked at the sink as I scrubbed it out. “I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of the foster care system, Justin. And there’s definitely all three. Maddy’s parents were the good. I got really lucky with them.”

💔💔💔

“So what do you want to watch?” I asked, hoping she couldn’t feel my heart racing, though I was pretty sure she could.

She’d miss our lives. And I was angry.

💔💔💔

Being broken is not an excuse for bad behavior, you still have to make good choices and do the right thing. But it can be the reason. And sometimes understanding the reason can be what helps you heal.”

But I was not ready to end the night, by any stretch. Something told me I wouldn’t be ready for her contract to end either.

“Uh, I promise you I can outmaneuver a zombie, Justin.” “Well, if you can’t, I promise to run slower than you.”

How sweet 😂

“I do love Trader Joe’s,” I said, smiling at the bag. “Nothing like a grocery store that makes you have to visit another grocery store right after.”

This is so real 😂

“Oh, well there you go,” Brad said. “She doesn’t know what she’s missing if she leaves. You gotta give her the magic peen.”

🙄😂💀

“Dude. You’re fucking sprung.”

Yes, yes he is...

“We want to fix it up for you,” Benny said. “When I got sick and I had to move back into my mom’s place, the worst part was how old everything was. We want to replace the blinds, paint.” “We could pull up that old carpet too. Retile the bathroom,” Brad said. “Really do it up nice.”

Oh my god that is so tucking sweet 😭

I did like him though. I’d been thinking a lot about the docking station. Then I’d been thinking about why I was thinking about it. Maybe it was because I didn’t usually cuddle with anyone? I couldn’t actually remember the last time I did. It was really addictive—and I had a feeling I wouldn’t like it with any man but him.