Summer watched Julia and
Seth walk hand in hand into the classroom. Ugh! She rolled her eyes. They were
so sickening to watch. She turned her face away from the happy couple and went
back to looking at her notes.
“That is like, so wrong.
Publicly walking hand in hand with Seth Cohen.” Summer turned and faced
Samantha, one of her cheerleader friends, who had just spoken.
“That’s what people do
with their boyfriends, Samantha,” she quipped, pretending that the idea of the
two of them together didn’t bother her in the slightest.
Samantha shuddered
delicately. “Does the idea of Cohen as anyone’s boyfriend only creep me out?
Anyway, she needs to be careful. People are only being nice to him when she’s
around—which is like, always. But our patience won’t last much longer.”
Summer frowned and turned
back to the front. She’d already warned Julia that dating Seth was social
suicide. If she wanted to stay with him, these were the consequences.
She knew she could have
warned her cousin again but as she glanced over at the two of them laughing at
something with each other, Summer got the feeling that somehow Julia wouldn’t
care.
…
“She keeps watching us,”
Julia whispered to Seth, who was sitting in front of her.
Seth glanced across the room
but Summer had already looked away. It had been two days since they had started
the jealousy route and he didn’t think it was working.
He was having serious
doubts about the plan. He hated playing mind games. It wasn’t his thing but he
also wanted Summer and Julia seemed adamant that it would work.
Seth brought his
attention back to the teacher, who was now explaining a group assignment that
was due in the next week. Madame Rousseau explained in her perfect French that
it wasn’t enough to just read the books one must live them. Therefore, every
book they read would be acted out in some way or form. This time around, each
group would be given a specific scene from the play L'École des Maris
also known as The School of Husbands by Moličre and each scene would be acted
out accordingly.
“Le premier acte et
scčne, Marc et Patrick.” She walked around the room delegating scenes from the
first act. “Le deuxieme scčne de le premiere acte…Summer, Richard, Julia,
Samantha et Seth.”
Summer groaned. Working
on a group project with Seth and Julia. Could it possibly get any worse?
When Mme Rousseau finally
finished assigning groups she asked everyone to get together and start on their
project.
Summer blew a strand of
hair out of her face before she got up and walked slowly over to Julia’s desk
where the rest of the group was now gathering.
Julia was already talking
when Summer finally stepped up to the group. “…Obviously you guys will play the
two brothers,” she said looking at Richard and Seth.
Richard shrugged and Seth
nodded, both acknowledging the obvious.
“Now, Summer and Sam, do
you want to play one of the sisters or the ladies maid?”
Summer made a face.
“Ladies maid? Do I, like, look like I would play a servant? Let me answer that,
no.”
Julia blinked at Summer
before turning to Samantha. “Okay…What about you?”
Samantha shrugged. “I
really couldn’t care less.”
“Fine. Summer and I will
play the two sisters Isabelle and Lenor and Samantha you’ll play the ladies
maid Lisette.” The bell rang as soon as Julia finished speaking. When she saw
that everyone was about to leave she quickly added, “Okay so why don’t we all
get together tomorrow at my house to practice?”
Everyone agreed, even Summer although she did so grudgingly and stated that
they would meet up after school to go to Julia’s house the next day.
…
“Il est ainsi bâti.”
“Je vous en plains, ma
soeur…Ugh, can we take a break? We’ve been practicing forever.”
Julia rolled her eyes and
looked over at Seth, who shrugged. “Summer, it’s been twenty minutes.”
Summer sighed. “Look, I’m
starving. I missed lunch, so can we just take a mini break so I can get
something to eat?”
“You could have told me
that in beginning. Help yourself,” Julia said, pointing to the kitchen.
“Whatever.” Summer threw
the book she was holding down on the couch and made her way to the kitchen.
They were all at Julia’s
house practicing for the play. Samantha was the only one missing; she had
bailed after school stating that something had come up that she couldn’t miss.
Seth eyed Richard who was
sitting across from him going over his lines. He didn’t like him. Something
about him was deeply irritating. He had the tall, blonde football player thing
going on and Summer seemed to be impressed by it. They’d been flirting ever
since they got to the house.
Summer came out of the
kitchen with a couple slices of buttered toast and a glass of orange juice.
“Okay let’s get this over with.”
Seth saw the bread and
smiled over the memory of them sharing his toast. Even with all the bad things
that happened on that trip, it had been by far the best time of his life.
“Let’s start from where
we left off,” Julia said, flipping her book open. Seth and Summer opened their
books as well and they went back to practicing the scene.
It was a couple hours later
and everyone was packing up to leave when Julia faced Summer and asked her if
she needed a ride home.
Summer smiled at Richard
who was on his cell phone before turning back to Julia. “That’s okay. Richard
and I talked earlier and he’s going to give me a ride home.” She grabbed her
bag and went to the hallway closet to get her sweater.
Seth leaned over to Julia
and whispered frantically, “Okay, this is not working at all and now
she’s into jock boy over there.”
Julia shook her head and
laughed at the look on Seth’s face. “So what? Are you going to give up on her
now?”
Seth fell back on the
couch. “No.”
“Then chill. This is all
going to work out, just wait and see.”
Summer walked back into
the room almost at the same time Richard got of his phone. “Hey, Summer I hate
to do this to you after I promised to give you a ride and everything but I have
this family thing, I have to do and since I know you won’t be stranded, I hope
you don’t mind if...” His voice drifted off before he completed the sentence.
Not that he had to.
He grabbed his bag and
gave her a quick apologetic smile. “I gotta go. I’m sorry,” he said, before he
turned and walked out of the house.
Julia seeing this as an
excellent opportunity elbowed Seth in the stomach.
“Ooph—What was that f—”
He stopped talking as soon as he saw the pointed look Julia was given him. He
grinned when he realized what she was about and got up from the couch.
“Hey Summer, I can bring
you home.”
Summer flicked her gaze
to Julia then to Seth before she shrugged. “Whatever. If it’s cool with Julia.”
Julia smiled. “Of course
it is.” She got up from the couch as well and walked over to Seth, wrapping her
arms around his neck. “You are so sweet to give my cousin a ride home. After
you’ve dropped her off, come back and we’ll … hang out.” She gave him a quick
peck on his mouth and Seth had to restrain himself from applauding her. In one
sentence, she had made it sound like his giving Summer a ride was a chore and
had implied that he’d get a reward for it when he got back.
She winked at him before
she stepped back and turned to let them out of the house. “See you tomorrow,
Summer,” she said before she closed the door behind them.
Seth snuck a glance at
Summer as they walked down the stairs and decided not to say anything to her.
Summer didn’t look very receptive to conversation right at the moment and
especially not conversation with him.
It wasn’t until they had
climbed into his parent’s Range Rover and he’d started backing out of Julia’s
driveway that he remembered that he wasn’t supposed to know Summer’s address,
even though he did.
Eyes still straight ahead
he asked, “So, uh, where am I dropping you off?”
Summer gave a start when
he spoke. She had been wrapped up in her own thoughts, thoughts that had
annoyingly centred on the dark haired boy beside her, and for a second her mind
blanked. He was watching her so she made a face and asked icily, “What is it,
Cohen?”
He raised both brows,
surprised by her sudden tone, but repeated, “Your address?”
“Oh.” She gave it to him
and quickly turned away to look out the window, carefully hiding her face so he
couldn’t see the telling red spreading over her cheeks.
A tense silence fell
between them until ten minutes later Summer, eyes still fixed on a point beyond
the window, made a comment on something she’d been thinking about all day. “So,
what are you guys, like, married?”
Seth glanced her way and
tried to keep the amusement out of his voice when he responded. “I’m sorry,
what?”
Summer rolled her eyes and turned towards him. “Oh come on, Cohen. How,
husbandly of you to drive the wife’s cousin home. You might want to speed up,
so you can get back faster. I’m sure she’s keeping the bed all warm for you.”
As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Summer regretted it. Not only did
the image of Seth and Julia having sex make her nauseous but even to her own
ears she sounded jealous.
“Why do you care,
Summer?” Seth asked, his eyes piercing into hers.
As their eyes locked, her
heart sped up and she was shocked that he could have such an affect on her.
What was going on with her? She wasn’t into him, she couldn’t be into
him.
“I don’t. Anyway, this is
me.”
Seth realized in frustration that they were on Summer’s street and he wished
they had a few more minutes. He parked in front of her house and was undoing
his seatbelt to walk her to her door but she was already out of the car before
he could even get his door open. “Don’t bother to walk me up, I’m good. Thanks
for the lift.” She slammed the door and sprinted up her walkway. She walked
into her house without even turning to wave goodbye and Seth slumped down
dejectedly in his seat when he saw the door close.
Summer was definitely
feeling something for him, he was almost positive about that. Were those
feelings enough for her to throw caution to the wind and give them a chance?
That he wasn’t so sure about.
*