A Summer to Remember

chapter 17





When I woke up the next morning, I rolled over and noticed I was alone in Adrian’s bed. I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was still early. I looked around the room to find my clothes. His room was on the smaller side but I liked it, it felt comfortable. He had a queen-sized bed with a nightstand on each side and a dresser in the corner with a small TV on it. I saw my clothes folded nicely at the foot of the bed. I threw them on and walked into the living room but I still didn’t see Adrian. The bathroom door was open—he wasn’t in there, either. Then I noticed a note on the fridge.



If you wake up before I’m back, I went to get breakfast.

I left a clean towel for you in the bathroom.



That was so sweet. I’d never had someone do that for me before. Well, I guess Jason would’ve been the only one who could’ve done anything like that for me, but of course he never had. I put the note back on the fridge and went into the bathroom to take a shower.

By the time I got out, I could hear Adrian in the kitchen. I walked out with the towel tied around me.

“Good morning, beautiful!” He turned around and smiled when he saw me. “You want me to grab you a pair of my basketball shorts and a t-shirt to wear?” He started walking towards the bedroom.

“No, that’s okay. I’m sure my parents would love me strolling home in your clothes,” I said sarcastically.

“Who says you’re going home?” He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me softly on the lips.

“I actually have an overnight bag I keep in the trunk of my car just in case I end up staying at Lily’s or something. You think you can grab it for me?”

“Of course.” He grabbed my keys off the counter and walked out the door.

We spent the morning watching TV and enjoying each other’s company. When lunchtime rolled around, we decided we should probably get some food. So we went to the nearest burger place. Lily’s car was sitting in the parking lot. As much as I’d love to just go through the drive-thru and go back to Adrian’s, I knew she would kill me if she knew we didn’t go in and say hi.

“Lily’s here. That’s her car.” I pointed to the red convertible out my window. “We should probably go in because if she finds out we were here and we didn’t say hi, she’d freak.”

Adrian laughed. “No problem.” He pulled into the nearest parking spot and we went inside. As soon as we walked in the door, I heard Lily’s squealing voice.

“Ava!” She came running up to me and about choked me to death when she wrapped her arms around my neck. You’d think we hadn’t seen each other in years.

“Hey, Lily.” She noticed Adrian walking in behind me. “Hey, Adrian.” She looked at me, then looked at him, then looked at me again and smiled. I didn’t know how this girl did it, but she knew things before you even wanted her to know. “Oh my God,” she mouthed to me. “Adrian, would you be a doll and get Ava the number two with no pickles? We have to talk. You know, girl stuff.”

“Sure.” I gave Adrian an apologetic look but he just smiled and kissed me on the forehead. Lily pulled me into the booth closest to the door. I looked over in the direction Lily came running from and saw Steven and Jason sitting at a table. Jason, of course, was giving me dirty looks, but looked down when he saw I was looking in their direction, so I smiled and waved at Steven. He waved back.

“Were you going to tell me that Jason was here?”

“Oh screw Jason, who cares? I want all the details about you and Adrian!”

“Keep it down. I don’t need the whole place knowing anything and right here isn’t really the place to talk about it.”

“But I can’t wait. I need to know now.” Lily’s always been good at begging, but I wasn’t about to talk about anything that happened last night in a burger joint with my ex sitting five tables away. Wasn’t going to happen.

“I’m sorry but you’re going to have to wait.”

“Fine,” she pouted. “Then I’m coming over tonight so you can tell me everything.”

“Okay. Wait. I don’t know if I’ll be going home tonight.” Lily’s eyes lit up.

“Would you be staying with him again?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t really ask but he hinted at it this morning. He works all week, so I’d like to spend as much time with him as possible.”

“You totally should. Get in all you can, if you know what I mean.” She grinned and winked at me.

“Lily!” I could feel my cheeks turning red. I looked around to make sure no one around us heard what we were talking about, of course they didn’t, or at least they were pretending like they didn’t. She knew how to embarrass me and she loved to do it.

“Call me as soon as you get home, though!”

“You know I will.” She got up and went back to her table. Adrian soon filled the empty seat in front of me.

“I’m so sorry about that. She can be a little demanding sometimes.”

“It’s okay. I like her. She seems like a good friend.” He handed me a burger and fries off the tray in front of him.

“She really is.” I glanced over and waved as Lily, Steven, and Jason walked out the door. “So do you have any plans tonight?”

“Well I thought we could order some food and watch that movie we never got to watch last night.” A smile crossed his face.

“First off, we won’t be ordering food. I’ll be cooking you food.”

“You don’t have to do that. You did that last night, and judging by the way it tasted, you must have spent a lot of time making it.”

“I want to, though.” I put my hand on his. “I only get to see you on the weekends, and we only have a couple months left. I want to make sure we do things you’ll enjoy and remember.”

“After last night, I can guarantee this will be a summer I’ll remember.” I felt my cheeks turning red again. I knew I’d remember this summer forever.