Summer Heat

You almost crashed the car on the freeway as you were trying to wrap your mind around this all. Although, was there really any way you would say no? This is what you were waiting for. You couldn't come across too eager though, that might seem kinda weird to Amy.

"Y'know what?" you said, treading lightly. "If you want me to, then I will."

It was as simple as that. Nothing more needed to be said. Amy was smiling. Not a **** smile, but a genuine one. It seemed like she actually did want you and Summer to be a thing.

"Finally!" you said as you flopped down on your bed, the final bag having been brought into your dorm room. It was a sense of normalcy to be back in college. Evelyn had been driving you up the wall, and being around Mr. Pearson wasn't exactly the most fun situation to be in.

You took a second to look back on your scores with Summer in preparation for being around her a lot more.

Wallace, Summer

Affection Score: 94

Love Score: 19

Lust Score: 1

Whelp, nothing had changed since last time you looked.

You decided to shoot Summer a text message, because it was about suppertime now.

Cody: Hey, Summer! Did you want to grab some food tonight? I'd love to catch up with you now that we're back.

You took the time that it took her to respond to do a little look over your room again. Obviously Amy would stay here on occasion, and it probably wasn't a good idea to have the bed be 5 feet in the air, especially because it wasn't exactly made for two people. Furthermore, it was an even worse idea to have it be that high up if there would be a third person there.

Would there be a merit to living off campus? You probably couldn't do that this year at least though, because you already signed your housing contract through May.

Oh well, not much time to think about that now, because your phone pinged to signify a text message, and a quick glance proved that it was Summer.

Summer: Sure! Did you want to meet up on the East Side Lawn? I've gone through so much these past few days.

Cody: Sounds great, see you in a few!

You swiped up your room key and meal card, turned out your dorm room's lights, and faced the heat of Georgia. One thing you had taken for granted at the Pearsons' house was the far less hot and humid weather. This heat really sucked. Oh well, it'd be better in the winter...certainly much better than up north.

The sun was nearing the western horizon, peeking up above the tops of the trees in the area. A slight breeze helped in taking the edge off of the heat, and the setting sun promised cooler temperatures would follow. Cars and people continued to show up on campus as many returned back to school from their unexpected hiatus, creating a beautiful symphony of honking and general commotion.

"Hey there, Cody!" a familiar voice called out.

You turned your head towards the sound of a voice calling out to you which cut through the general din that was made by all of the foot and vehicle traffic, and saw the brown, curly-haired, witty, smiling girl that was Summer standing over on the other hill.

She ran in your direction, acting as if you hadn't seen one another for months instead of just a few days, almost getting run over by a speeding pickup truck as she crossed the street, before eventually making it to you, wrapping herself around you in a tight hug.

"I don't know why I've missed you as much as I have these past few days," she said over your shoulder, before breaking the hug. "Man, I have so much to tell you."

"So do I", you thought, but decided you'd table the heavier topic for after supper, and said, "Well, I'm all ears".

The two of you found somewhere to sit down in the crowded dining hall, with your food sitting in front of you, and she looked very comfortable, but you could tell there were a million thoughts running through her head.

"Gosh, where do I start? So, my dad lives in North Carolina, right? Well..."

She embarked on an epic tale of telling how her dad picked her up mere hours before the storm was scheduled to make landfall, because he was generally a pretty scatterbrained person (the way she was describing him reminded you of Evelyn, in a weird way). Then, a lot of the stores nearby were out of groceries, so they had to go pretty far out of town. That wouldn't be bad enough, but her sister was causing a ruckus, because she didn't want to have to share the room, and it was just pretty bad family drama all around. She got more animated as she told certain parts of the story, stabbing her tater tots with more gusto than usual; her liveliness on full display here.

"...and, yeah, so that's how I spend my little unexpected break," she said, breathing deeply afterwards as if she had said everything in one breath.

"Wow, geez, that's...wow, I'm sorry that all happened to you," you sympathized. "Your dad definitely shouldn't've left everything until the last minute."

"Yeah, well, he's not the only person I know who leaves things 'til the last minute," she said, lightly kicking you under the table. "Mr. 'I Forgot I Have a Psychology Paper Due in Nine Hours'".

"That was one time," you defended.

"Mmhmm, sure, and what did you do with all your work this week? Do it on the drive back?" she ventured.

"I'll have you know that I actually did it on Monday and Tuesday," you said faux-snobbily.

"Wow, I'm impressed," she responded, somewhat astonished. "Anyways, how was your break? You mentioned you were spending time with some family friends in the mountains, right? Anything worthy of a drama TV show happen there?"

That was a difficult one to answer. Yes, there was definitely more drama over this week than the average high schooler goes through in their freshman year, but this crowded dining hall wasn't exactly the place you wanted to have this conversation.

"Actually, yeah, there is something pertaining to this week I wanted to talk with you about," you began. "This isn't really the place to do it, though, so d'you wanna go on a walk somewhere?"

"As long as it isn't 100 degrees out there still, sure," she answered, intrigued.

After putting your dishes away and walking out of the dining hall, you were blasted with an intense pre-autumn heat, not as bad as the one earlier in the day, but still pretty hot and humid. The sun had mostly set by this point and a few stars were beginning to be visible. The amount of traffic had died down, making it actually easier to hear yourself think while outside. The two of you wandered around aimlessly before you came to the small little arboretum and garden area on the outskirts of campus that was known for commonly being empty. Today seemed no different, as you didn't see or hear a soul around.

"So...I was technically staying with family friends, but they also happened to be Amy's family," you started before Summer interrupted.

"Wait wait wait, let me guess, you stayed with Amy and her family over the break, and in one of those nights you spent over there, her parents were out of town-"

"Let me stop you right there," you interjected before Summer took it too far. "I mean, so far you've been spot-on, which is kinda scary, but not the point." You took a deep breath before saying your next point, because there'd be no going back from this. "Amy also said she would be willing to try out a bit of an...unorthodox relationship. One that also involves you."

After you finished that sentence, Summer's face fell from a neutral smile to one that was hard to place. She probably didn't even know how to feel about that yet, and that meant that you had even less of a clue how she felt about it. You said a silent apology to Amy in case that this blew up, and you just said this all without anything good coming out of it.