Summer of Us

Chapter 17

I awake half a day later to the smell of fire and roasting meat. When I finally emerge, groggy and sedated, the cabin is empty, save for all the food that now lines the counter. There's even more in the fridge and a bit in the pantry. Someone must've gone shopping while I was knocked out cold. Outside, Monty's rotating what must be ham right over the open flames in the fire pit, a few scattered beer cans where he'd been sitting before.

There's something invigorating about eating fire-cooked meat out in the open, using just your hands. We pull apart ham and suck juices out of the smoked outer skin. We pass his beer back and forth and listen to the animals in the woods. We point at luxe housing on the mountainside and imagine what the owners are like, how rich they must be. We wonder how much it would cost to get a boat out on that lake and bounce prices off each other, settling that we'd split the cost if we could find someone to take us out there.

"Wonder if swimming is allowed," I say, watching the water.

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Seems like a lot of speedboats out," I say, pointing with my least messy hand. "You could get hit."

"You just swim by your boat and you'd be fine," he says, holding out a piece for me. It's mostly skin, which tastes wonderful but he doesn't like because there's no real meat to it. I'm so caught up in getting out on the water and my hands are already full, so I don't even realize when I duck take the strip right into my mouth with my teeth.

Monty freezes as I slurp it right out from between his fingers. His eyes flicker to mine, like I'm this untamed thing. I mumble an apology and sit back up, my cheeks burning with shame.

"Ava," he says, but I won't look at him. "Aves."

"It wasn't anything," I say quietly, digging my feet into the dirt. "I wasn't thinking."

"You said you wanted to talk," he pauses. "Let's talk."

"Right now?" I say, annoyed. Annoyed that this whole summer, he's been getting exactly what he wants, when he wants it. He comes to my house when he deems it acceptable, decides when I get to see him, decides to ignore my calls and texts. He got me to come on this trip, and now he wants to talk, right when he asks. Meanwhile, I've been pining my ass off the last two months, waiting. It's not fair.

"Yeah, I've got some questions."

"Well, I've got some questions for you," I say, flinging a piece of ham outwards. It dives over the edge of the cliff, hurling through branches and landing somewhere down below. "Starting with, why did you ignore me all summer?"

"What the hell was I supposed to do? I was being policed by my ex-girlfriend."

"Because Ash is so much more important than me."

"That's not fair, Aves."

"Not fair?" I say, getting up so fast that my vision blacks out in the corners. "What's not fair is that you kept this huge secret from me for our entire friendship, and never once had the guts to say anything about it. And when you do, you ambush me the night before I'm supposed to move away to college. You haven't been my friend all summer, and now that you're single you just expect me to fall right back into your lap, and pick up where we left off?"

"Right," he says, standing up, eyes angry. "Because you're so much better. You want everyone to drop everything the minute you come back to town. I hate to break it to you, Aves, but I have a life outside of you, now. So does Trent, and Star, and even that pretty boy neighbor you're boning. You're just upset because I'm the one that doesn't play by your rules anymore, or do exactly what you want to do, when you want me to do them."