A Summer to Remember - By Jessica Gunhammer Page 0,7

door we go.” Steven came over and took Lily’s hand. ‘Thank you’ I lipped to him. He just smiled and kept talking to her in an attempt to keep her distracted. Adrian and I followed them to the next house, staying a few feet behind.

“Sorry about that. She’s had a little too much to drink tonight.” I looked at Adrian apologetically.

“No need to apologize. She seems like a lot more fun than some of my friends when they’ve had too much to drink.” He laughed.

As we walked up the sidewalk to the white house next door, someone ran right into me, almost knocking me over. Adrian grabbed me just as I was about to hit the ground. Next thing I knew, we were standing chest to chest and I was staring directly into those beautiful green eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry.” I pulled away and attempted to brush the beer off my hand and arm.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t mind.”

I looked up. Jason was standing on the front porch of the house, staring at us. By the look on his face, he didn’t seem to be enjoying himself. Cally came around the corner and handed him a Jell-O shot. He took it from her and put on a show, laughing and acting like he’d never been happier. Did he really think I was going to buy that? Not a chance!

“You know that guy?” Adrian asked, nodding in Jason’s direction.

“Yeah, actually. We used to date, but it was a long time ago.” Okay it wasn’t really a long time ago, but after all that had happened today, it felt like a long time ago. “Anyway, how about those shots?” I grabbed his hand and led him inside, right past Jason and Cally, who were staring at us as we went by.

Maybe I’d had too much to drink, but I felt really comfortable with Adrian. How could I feel like this with someone I just met?

“I’m going to find the bathroom. You wanna grab us some shots?” he asked.

“Sure. I’ll go find Lily and Steven. They’re probably in the backyard. You just want to meet me back there?” I looked around the room to see if I could spot where the drink station was set up.

“Sure.” He let go of my hand and headed up the stairs in front of us. I felt a little sad when he had to let go of my hand, which made me feel a little weird, because I hardly even knew the guy. Okay, I needed to find Lily.

“You sure have moved on pretty fast,” a familiar voice said from behind me. I didn’t want to turn around and face him, but at the same time, I did.

“Even if I have, why do you care?” And there I was, standing face to face with Jason.

“I don’t, but geez you sure haven’t wasted any time.” I heard the irritation in his voice.

“Well if I have or haven’t, it sure isn’t any of your business, now, is it?” I turned to walk away and Adrian was there, standing right behind me.

“Everything okay?” he asked, as he gave Jason the eye.

“Everything’s fine. Can we go find Lily now?” I grabbed Adrian’s arm and walked him towards the backyard.

“Are you sure you guys are broken up? For being broken up for a while, that conversation seemed a little more heated then it should’ve been.” I came to a stop in front of the back door.

“Okay, maybe we haven’t been broken up for a while. Maybe it’s more like a few hours.” I looked down at the floor, ashamed I had lied to him.

“Why didn’t you just tell me that in the first place?” He put his hand under my chin and raised my head up so I was looking into his eyes.

“You just seemed like such a nice guy and talking to you is the only thing that made me not think about him. I shouldn’t have just said that. Now I’ve just made you sound like a rebound or something.” I needed to stop talking. “We dated off and on throughout high school and he just broke up with me today, right before graduation. I didn’t see any of it coming and that’s the truth. I’m sorry.” I looked out the back door at the people sitting outside. I was too humiliated to look him in the eyes.

“Ava, don’t worry about it.” I looked at him as he laughed. “I was just asking you a simple question.