Summer and I met up in the library café the next day, ready to kick our exam prep up a notch with a coffee or two before getting down to revision. Of course, instead of talking about exam strategies or the reading we'd been asked to do, we were talking about David.
"I mean, I think we'll be cool," Summer shrugged. "I'm just not gonna date a dude who's so different when he drinks, y'know?"
I thought back to what he'd said while he'd been sloshing his beer around: that Summer was high-maintenance, that she was all drama, that she was crazy.
It turned out that David had freaked out earlier that night at Summer, too, before he'd gotten to me â but he hadn't been quite as transparent about it with her. He'd gotten all tense and weird when Summer floated the idea of going on vacation together with her family, saying it would be too much commitment for him.
By Summer's account, she'd rolled her eyes and told him it was chill, she just thought it'd be fun, no commitment required, but David had taken it as a big milestone in their relationship that he wasn't ready for. They'd argued a little then, and David had started getting loud and blowing things out of proportion. Summer skipped out on him after that to hang out with some of her French class friends, while David... well, David obviously found me, and spilled his guts up in a less than charming way.
"That's fair," I said, finding it hard still to contain how perfect the implosion of her mini-relationship with David was. Nothing in my life had ever lined up quite so well, but I still had to figure out what to do next. I had a feeling that blurting out I love you during the stress of exam revision wouldn't count as romantic and cute.
"I figured I'd let him cool off for another few days, but then we should probably see if he wants to hang out with us at some point. I don't wanna have an ex I don't even talk to, you know? Like, he didn't do anything terrible and he's still the same dude he was before, so..."
I nodded, slurping down a mouthful of coffee and thinking about Summer's other exes. Aria had transferred away since, but they still texted and kept in touch. She'd also nearly dated a girl called Robin, too, but that hadn't quite worked out when they found out Robin had dated her cousin. Toby had broken up with her when neither of them had been able to find the time to actually date anymore. Joey had turned out to be gay, but they'd dated for like, half a year, and they were still tight. And most recently... there was David, of course.
Her list of exes was way more impressive than mine, but I realized that if I'd been this glaringly obviously in love with Summer for so long, as Nora hypothesized, maybe that had always been kind of a turn-off for potential girlfriends.
"That's sweet," I said. "Hey, how is Aria?"
Summer's eyes lit up at the topic change, seeing as David wasn't exactly a fun subject at the moment. "She's good! I was telling her all about you punching David at the party," she laughed, while I rolled my eyes and groaned as if I were in actual physical pain.
"Why would you tell her about that?"
Summer grinned and shrugged down at her coffee.
"I was telling her about how you stood up for me," she said, and the smile on her face seemed to magnetically draw a smile from my own lips, too.
There was a pause, then, where I looked at Summer, totally struck by her again, and Summer looked down at her coffee, playing shy.
As if Summer could ever be shy.
Eventually, I scoffed.
"Alright, fine," I huffed, playing it up. "I guess that's a good enough reason to tell her all about my super embarrassing outburst that I didn't want you to tell anyone about."
Summer chuckled at the wording. "We've been through this, Jess. Super badass outburst. You're making a new name for Pisces everywhere," she laughed.
I rolled my eyes but chuckled along with her, and by the time we'd drained our coffee cups, we'd somehow darted from topic to topic to land on which one of us would survive longest in a zombie apocalypse.
"Obviously you," I said, as we headed into the main part of the library to try to steal some of the comfortable seats for ourselves. "You'd kick some serious zombie ass."
Summer grinned but shook her head. "Mm, I think you'd last longer though. I'd probably attract too much attention-- oh, over here?" Summer pointed over at the armchair-type seats that were lining the far wall. Three were free, their previous occupants clearing out.
We made a beeline for them, because they were probably the best place to sit in the whole library. Complete with a little pull-out desk, they were squishy, practical, and they were within fifteen seconds of the vending machines.
"But what would I do without you, huh?" I asked, grinning at her as we secured the seats. "I wouldn't have even seen that these seats were free without you. What makes you think I'd be good at spotting the zombies?"
Summer laughed and started unpacking her backpack.
"Maybe you wouldn't be any good," she said, shrugging. "But I know you'd last longer than me, because I'd totally take a bullet for you."
I aww-ed and put a hand to my heart, kidding but also definitely not kidding.
"I mean it!" Summer insisted. "Well, maybe not a bullet, in this instance, but a zombie bite. I'd take a zombie bite for you any day, my dude."
She said it like it was the most romantic statement in the world. And honestly? It felt like it was.
I pressed my lips together to stop myself from beaming embarrassingly, and to stop myself from letting those three little words spill out, too. This continued to be neither the time nor place.
We studied hard, breaking only to preserve our sanity and buy overpriced snacks that we could split from the machine. The next thing I knew, it was almost the middle of the night, and I had my head resting on my forearms on the desk in front of me.
Summer was gently shaking me awake, and she had a mischievous grin on her face that suited her, but made me a little wary. I was definitely expecting to go into the bathroom and find a marker mustache on my face.
"You good?" Summer asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
My eyes were squinting up at her, the library lights too bright for me. I mumbled something that might've been a word, but it didn't really sound like anything at all.
I felt like a mess. My hair was no longer in the loose ponytail I'd tied it in, and I wasn't sure where the hair-tie had even gone. I knew my eyes would be puffy, and I knew my breath was going to be less than fresh.
"You're good," she said, still grinning. "Sweet dreams?"
I pushed myself more upright, though my elbows were still resting on the desk. I ran my hands down over my face and tried to remember my dream, but weirdly, there was nothing there. No Nora, no oak tree, no mysterious figures whose faces I couldn't quite make out. Nothing.
I shrugged and nodded. "I guess," I said. "What time is it?"
Summer handed me half a peanut bar and reached over to smooth my hair back off my face.
She put her water bottle down in front of me in case I wanted any, and began to pack away her things.
"Definitely time we got you home," she chuckled.