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

by Abby Jimenez

“I’ll send you a lunch survey next time so you can pick your sides.” He put a muscular arm behind his head and smiled into the camera. “I want to be clear on your lunch expectations.”

I gazed at him through the phone. “You know what?” I said. “I will go over there.” His face broke into a grin. “Tonight?” I was already getting up. “Yeah. I’ll have to be back in the morning, but—” Thunder cracked overhead and I froze.

NOOOOO 😭

I’d never done drugs before, but I imagined this was what being high felt like. I couldn’t wait for our date tonight.

I’d planned everything based on Emma’s answers to the survey I’d sent and then I made another invite.

I will never get tired of this!

I thought about her all the time.

“Hi, Kiss And Run Guy.” “Not to be mistaken with Forehead Kiss Guy?” She scrunched up her face. “Hmmmm. They do look a lot alike.”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope we ended up back here after the date. The air mattress wasn’t ideal, and Brad put a damn Toilet King blanket on the bed just to be a dick.

The proximity was a tiny intimate sign that even though we hadn’t done anything past first base yet, the intention for something past first might be there.

First base?! Are we 14?! 😂

It felt like we were either going to be all or nothing.

She gave me an amused look. “To pick nits off your family? How romantic.” “You want romance? I thought we were just curse breaking.” “Of course I want romance,” she said. “Well damn, you should have said something. I’ll get right on it.” I dropped to one knee.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I took her hand and did my best to make my face straight. People were already stopping to watch. I made my voice low so only she could hear it. “Emma, would you do me the honor of delousing my family with me?”

Someone was recording on their phone. Actually, lots of people were recording on their phones. I waited patiently for her answer. She rolled her eyes. “Yes.” “Yes?” “Yes, I will comb lice with you.”

I'm dying 😂

When I set her down, someone shouted congratulations and we both cracked up quietly. Then we stood there, still holding each other, my arms around her waist, hers around mine, the Toilet King pressed between us.

“Wow. We’re checking each other for lice. I guess you could say things are gettin’ pretty serious.”

“They did.” I dragged the comb down to the ends. “My clothes were too small, my hair wasn’t brushed. There were a few weeks I had to use a men’s briefcase for a backpack because I didn’t have anything else. All my clothes were in black trash bags.”

God I REALLY hate Amber 😭/

Not everything that comes out of crisis is bad. Sometimes your traumas are the reason you know how to help.

Sarah was watching me. “My brother really likes you, I think.” The corner of my lip turned up again. “Oh yeah?” She nodded. “Yeah. He, like, never talks about girls and he talks about you all the time.”

😍😍😍😍😍😍

“He’s funny, for one. He’s smart. And handsome—” “Gross,” she said.

In that moment, maybe for the first time ever for me, she looked like a little girl. She was a little girl. I recognized the mask Sarah wore for what it was. It was easier to pretend to be angry and tough than to admit to being devastated and heartbroken. And by the practiced way she wielded attitude, she’d been devastated and heartbroken for a long time.

“I don’t really think he should rename the dog,” I whispered. “Me either,” Sarah said, conspiratorially. Both of us smiled into the mirror.

I love these two 😍

Emma bet me that she could survive a zombie apocalypse. She said zombies were slow and easy to outrun. I said they’re slow but steady and that’s how they get you. She said we should try it, so here we were at almost midnight in front of Neil’s mansion getting ready to prove my point.

CUTE!

One of the onlookers from the fake bridge proposal had offered to send me the picture he got. It was a shot of me on one knee and Emma looking surprised, the Toilet King on her shirt in clear view. It was hilarious. We cracked up about it all night and made it our screensavers.

😍😂💜

Her scent hypnotized me. Absolutely entranced me. Whatever pheromone was made for me, she had it. I felt drunk by the proximity to her.

The second her mouth made contact, I parted her lips, and her tongue plunged against mine and every single thing that mattered in my entire life was somehow happening on the lawn next to Neil’s garage.

“You’re okay with casual sex, right?” she said. “I just want to be sure.”

Goddammit Emma 😡

I paused. “I’m thinking I like you a lot more than you like me.” I looked over at her, and her expression was an apology.

😭💔😭💔

I didn’t think there could be anything worse than her not wanting me like I wanted her. But there was. It was her wanting me and losing her to a circumstance that wasn’t my fault and I couldn’t change.

Amber’s voice cut through the night. “Fuck you, Neil!”

Oh god...

“I shouldn’t be telling you this.” “Tell me anyway.” Her gaze came back to mine. “Justin, you will never get her to love you. You can’t. My parents tried with her. For years. They still try.”

She shook her head. “It’s not because of the kids. I mean it is, but it isn’t. If it wasn’t that, she would have found something else to be the reason.” She held my eyes. “She’s not capable of falling in love. Things happened to her and she’s…” She blew a breath through her nose. “You seem like a really nice guy, and I genuinely like you. I do. But you should prepare yourself for what’s going to happen when it’s time for her to go. Because she will go.”

At this point I will literally pay for Emma's therapy myself...

“Justin, for what it’s worth, I really hope this curse thing is real.” She peered back at me. “Because I think you deserve your happy ever after when it’s over.”

But Mom didn’t do well with abandonment—even the perceived kind. Which was funny, because it’s the very thing she’d subjected me to for most of my life.

Hmmmm...

Maddy had also left yesterday to her parents’ for their anniversary. So I was alone.

I hate Emma for not going

All I had was where I was going and I could never stop moving forward because of it.

Probably something I picked up at the hospital, or maybe something I ate.

Is he going to come take care of her?!

The rainbow unicorn floatie in the pool. I didn’t even give it a second thought.

Omg 😂😭💜

I dialed Benny’s sister, Briana, from the living room.

😍😍😍

“Too long, but that’s not what I’m talking about. He used to date my best friend. For seven years. The guy’s a dick. Just be careful.”

Omg wow. Just realized who Neil is... 😬

“Why did you come?” “Because you needed me,” he said simply. “I will always come when you call.”

I missed him. I’d been missing him, I realized. At work. At home. I’d been wanting to see him every single day since the water park. I never got a break from it. It was burning a hole in me.

He’d stayed.

Of course he did... he loves you!

I gazed at him, wedged into that tiny nook, his long legs tucked almost to his chest. The throw blanket from the couch covered him, and he was using a little decorative lake-life pillow. He must be so uncomfortable.

My heart!

I drank in his gentle breathing sounds. The rise and fall of his chest. And something in me accepted him. Opened up and let him in. I felt the stirring of something in my belly so rare to me I could count the occurrences of it on one hand. Justin was on the island. Not the real one. The one in my soul.

YES!!!

I didn’t know why it was so hard to say what I was feeling. Maybe because it felt hard to feel what I was feeling.

He pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head. And for the first time maybe ever, I felt like I belonged somewhere.

It was funny how much I wished I had these small, normal things. To wake up next to her and make her breakfast. Make plans for the holidays, ask her what she needed from the store on my way home and have our shows that we wouldn’t watch without each other.

Awwwh 😍

“Yeah, I—” My stomach gurgled and I stopped.

Uh oh 😅

I had the bathroom trash can and we were watching a movie. When I’d start to retch, we’d pause it until I finished and then we’d start again.

Oh nooo 😭

“Vomit, lice, drunks, the Toilet King. You really know how to show a girl a good time.”

😂😂😂

“Do you regret not leaving when I told you to?” she asked. I spit into the can. “I regret nothing. In fact I kind of feel like we need to share all our infectious diseases.” “Really?” “Yeah. What else ya got? Anything sexually transmitted?” Spitting. “That could be fun.” I bounced my eyebrows weakly.

💀