Last Summer

I groaned, rolling over in my sleep, only for my hand to hit a shoulder. My eyes fluttered open, only to immediately shut with the bright influx of sunshine, straining my already bloodshot eyes.

This wasn't my bed. This was—

"Everett?" I muttered, my voice raspy. I eased my eyes open to see his face, just centimetres from mine. His brow furrowed and, without opening his eyes, he replied.

"What's wrong, babe?"

I couldn't help but warm at that. I leaned closer, tracing a hand across his jaw. His lips twitched and I traced a path higher, over his cheekbones until I reached his brow. I smoothed a hand over his forehead before wrenching his eyelids open.

"Wake up!"

He groaned, rolling away as I burst into laughter.

"You're evil, Isla!" he complained, rubbing his hands over his eyes.

"Hey, you're the one who said our time together is limited," I teased, sitting upright.

He turned slowly, glaring at me over his shoulder. We both paused, waiting for the other to make a move. And then, his lips pulled into a wide grin, and he leapt forward, grabbing me at the waist and tackling me into the mattress.

I giggled, wriggling out of his grip, but he was too strong—too big over me. He pinned me down at an awkward angle, leaning over me until his face hovered above mine.

"Am I still evil?" I asked, smirking.

"The most," he replied.

"Just because I woke you up?"

He laughed, leaning closer and closer until his lips brushed my jawline, and traced a line down my neck.

"For that," he hummed against my skin. "But mostly for making me fall so in love with you."

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Now

I rolled over in my bed, my hand smacking Sky in the stomach with a loud grunt.

"Move over," she groaned, shoving my hand off of her.

"You move over, this is my bed," I replied, my voice rough with sleep.

After Sky's sudden appearance, we spent the afternoon kicking out stragglers and cleaning the apartment. It was pointless, really, considering River had cleaners come in afterwards anyway, but it had felt like the old days for a moment.

It felt like Shellside Bay, with Sky nursing our hangovers and handling our drunken mistakes—and by our, I meant River's. His guests had destroyed half our furniture. The couch had a permanent tilt to it now.

Sky was moved in by sunset.

It hadn't taken long. All she had was a duffel bag of clothes, and then we were set. We were officially roommates—for the next few weeks. And then she'd be gone again.

I was going to make these few weeks stretch out for as long as possible.

She flipped over, her face burying in her pillow. Her words were muffled when she spoke. "Don't you have a class or something?"

I sighed, my eyes opening. I did, except I'd been planning on skipping it. It was a biology class—a class where I knew nobody and sat alone in the back, struggling to absorb any information while the professor read off a PowerPoint presentation.

"Why would I go to class while you're here?" I asked, teasingly.

She kicked me, her cold toes colliding against my thigh and I squealed, rolling to the edge of the bed.

"Education is important," Sky said sagely, as if she hadn't skipped school once a week back in high school. She had a talent for being 'sick'.

"I would just rather spend time with you," I replied. "Besides, I'm going to fail whether I go to class or not."

I was half-joking, but it made Sky sit up anyway. She leaned on her elbows, frowning at me, her hair thick and unruly from sleep. She poked me with a toe against my leg.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked carefully. "You always did good in high school. Do you miss Everett?"

I snorted, rolling over to bury my face into my pillow. That was an incredible understatement. To say I missed Everett was barely touching the very concept of missing him—of how I felt. Even thinking about him, hearing his name, brought a twinge in my chest.

Sky's toe poked me again and I reached down to pinch her calf. She squealed, pulling away and I flashed her a grin.

"I'm fine," I said, poking my tongue at her. "Keep your nasty toes away from me."

"Isla!" she said, her voice whining. She narrowed her eyes at me, and I narrowed mine back. "I can sense when you're lying, you know."

"No, you can't," I replied. "Because I'm not lying."

"Yes, I can. Your nose twitches." My hands flew up to my nose and she smirked, lifting a brow. "See? Now tell me for real—what's up?"

"You're sneaky," I scowled, but I hoisted myself onto my elbows anyway, meeting her eye properly. "I just—I don't know. It's kind of everything, you know? Everett's gone. Austin and Connor are gone. You'll be gone again soon. And uni is hard. Like, so much harder than I expected. I don't know. I just... I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Shellside Bay. I miss summer."

It was true, and when I said it out loud, it suddenly felt very real. I hadn't realised how much I missed Shellside Bay until I said it.

I missed the beaches and bonfires. I missed Austin, throwing me into the lagoon at Isla, I missed River's terrible steering on the Nauti Buoy boat each evening, I missed Connor skinny dipping while half drunk on sticky summer nights. I missed my mum, hugging me. Kissing my forehead. I even missed my boss, Tom, and working at the Shack every summer.

Most of all, I missed having Everett beside me. I missed being able to kiss him and touch him whenever I felt like it. I missed his arms around me, and his hands in my hair. I missed every part of him.

Sky shuffled closer until she could reach me. She took my head into her hands and pulled me into a hug, burying my face in her neck, and her fingers untangling my bed hair as she massaged my scalp. It felt like I was hugging my mother for a moment, and I melted into her touch.

"Things are different," she said slowly. "It'll probably never be the same, but different isn't necessarily bad. I mean, yeah, things are tough right now. You're at uni, my cousin's pregnant. It's tough."

I laughed and she chuckled quietly before continuing.

"But it'll be fine. I mean—" she shifted so that she could look at me properly— "you're Isla Monroe. When have you ever given up when things got tough, huh? When Austin would destroy you in every surfing competition and race, you trained before sunrise every morning. When you decided you wanted to move to Sydney, you worked every summer for years. And when River offered you this place, you studied like crazy for the rest of Year 12. You'll get through this. I know it."

I smiled at her, my eyelids beginning to burn with the promise of tears. My lips wavered and I leaned forward, pulling her into a fierce hug.

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" I teased.

Her voice came out strained from how tight I was hugging her. "Oh, so now my toes aren't nasty, huh?"

I laughed.

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Sky had motivated me like crazy and by noon, Lachie had joined me on the kitchen counter where we tackled the monster that was our biomolecular lab manual. We'd made it a habit to study together, and ever since the party, some of our study sessions had moved to River's kitchen counter.

I couldn't blame him. River's place was like a hotel.

Lachie sat beside me, flicking through his lab manual with a furrowed brow and twisted lips.

"I just don't understand how I left so many pages blank," he said, his page-turning growing rough with frustration. The pages almost ripped as he aggressively flipped through them. "I mean, I attended these labs, didn't I? What was I doing the whole time?"

"Annoying me," I said, shooting him a mock glare.

He rolled his eyes, sliding the manual towards me and collapsing against the table. "I'm not cut out for this degree."

Laughing, I picked his lab manual up and flipped the workbook to the same page I'd been looking at.

"On the bright side," I began brightly, "it looks like the questions you missed, I filled out and vice versa." I flipped to the next week's practical activity and frowned. "At least for last week. You really don't have any other friends in the lab?"

"No!" he groaned, dragging his hands over his face.

"But you know, like, half the uni."

"I'm only friends with idiots!"

"Great," I replied, settling him with a deadpan stare. "So am I."

"That's harsh, Isla." He pouted and held a hand to his heart. "I'm going to have to go cry that off. You got a bathroom?"

"No, we use buckets like in Medieval England."

He glared at me and I rolled my eyes, jabbing my thumb over my shoulder.

"Second door on the left," I said.

I'd thought about sending him to River's room as a joke for a second, but he'd probably murder the poor guy. 

Besides, I was pretty sure that Alistair was still camping out in there. He was beginning to look like he'd be a regular around here, and I wasn't sure if I'd come to terms with it yet.

It had always been River and Connor—not River and Alistair. It didn't even sound right.

Lachie bowed his head to me, a teasing smirk on his lips, before he spun and left down the hall. I sighed, turning back to the lab manuals spread on the table, sticky notes and calculators scattered over the pages.

Most of my notes were scribbled nonsense, while most of Lachie's were smiley faces and bad renditions of the animals we examined in class. I traced a finger over one margin where a rat played leapfrog with a cane toad.

Lachie reminded me of Connor. I knew they'd get along if they ever met. Maybe Lachie was Connor in an alternate universe where he grew up in Sydney and decided to go to university. The thought of that seemed to comfort me. I missed having all my Nauti Buoys around.

As I was flipping to the next page, my phone buzzed on the counter and I turned to see Everett's name flashing across the screen.

I didn't have to think twice. I scooped it into my hands, answering the video call with a wide smile.

"Ev!" I smiled in way of greeting.

He grinned back at me, his eyes softening as the screen lit up his face. His hair was messy, and his shoulders were bare. It looked like he was lying in bed.

"Hey," he murmured, his smile still wide on his lips. "I miss you."

"I miss you more," I replied, shifting to lean my hand on the counter. "What time is it there?"

"Eleven." That explained why he was in bed. I opened my mouth to tell him the time in Sydney, but his eyes twinkled, and he said, "It's one over there, right? What are you up to?"

I groaned, tilting the phone down to show him the lab manuals spread out on the counter. "Studying. Please save me."

"Huh," he said simply, his brow furrowing. "Alone?"

"No, actually. Guess what?" Before he could reply, I quickly added, "I made a friend! We're in the same lab and everything. I mean, I'm really starting to think that this isn't so bad. I think I'll actually do pretty good in my next exam."

Everett's smile seemed to soften on his face. He watched me through the phone, eyes half-lidded, and my pulse quickened, looking at him.

It struck me suddenly how much he'd managed to change in the time since we'd last video called. His hair had gotten slightly longer. His smile—when was the last time I'd seen him smile at me like that? Too long.

His eyes seemed darker, with bags lining the skin beneath them. He'd even grown a stubble. He looked tired. It had only been days, weeks, and Everett was changing, growing, without me.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sensing my sadness.

I shrugged, shaking my head. I wouldn't ruin our call. Not when we barely had any time together. Not now.

"I just miss you," I replied. "I don't know how we survived last year."

"It was easier when we both weren't busy with college all the time."

"Uni."

"Whatever," he groaned, though he grinned wildly at me. "It'll be over before we know it."

I nodded firmly. Three years would be nothing. And I'd have him for summers. We'd be fine.

Suddenly, his eyes flickered, and footsteps came from behind me. I turned to see Lachie pausing at the edge of the living room.

"Oh," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Am I interrupting?"

"Who's that?" Everett asked. His smile had vanished, and he frowned at the screen. "Is that River?"

I snorted. "Yeah, River grew blond hair and blue eyes in three months," I teased. "No, this is Lachie, the friend I was telling you about. Lachie, this is Everett."

"Her boyfriend," Everett added curtly.

"Ah, the boyfriend," Lachie said. He flashed a smile, stepping closer to wave at Everett through the camera. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

"Woah!" Lachie exclaimed. His eyes grew wide, and his grin split across his face. "You're, like, proper American! I thought you were just in New York on exchange or something. You live there?"

"Uh, yeah," Everett said. His eyes moved and I knew he was watching me.

"We're studying together," I said quickly. "We're in the same lab."

I knew I'd said it already, but I felt compelled to explain again. When Everett didn't reply, the silence seemed to stretch for too long. I cleared my throat and added, "River's here too."

"Oh," Everett said. He wasn't exactly best friends with River, but the affection was obvious. They had similar senses of humour, anyway. His smile grew slightly, his eyes lighting up. "Where is he? Haven't spoken to him in ages."

I pursed my lips. "Well, he's actually in his room, but..."

"Oh," he repeated, the disappointment clear in his voice and expression.

Another silence drifted over us. Lachie had taken his seat beside us and was beginning to flip through the lab manuals again, the pages turning loudly.

"Well, I don't want to interrupt you two," Everett said eventually. I frowned. Was that bitterness in his voice?

"You're not interrupting," I said, my brow furrowing.

"No, no. You should get back to studying. I need to sleep anyway. Talk tomorrow?"

He was speaking so quick; I could barely process his words. I shook my head, blinking.

"Right. Okay. I miss you a lot," I said. I glanced at Lachie, suddenly feeling awkward with him listening to the conversation. He stared intently down at our workbooks. "Love you, Ev."

"Love you more," he replied. He smiled at me, but it didn't quite reach his eyes before he hung up.

My heart wavered. There had been so many things I wanted to ask him about—his classes, his friends, his family. And I had so much I needed to tell him. I sighed, putting my phone down. I'd just have to find another time. Always another time.

"So," Lachie said. I turned to find him smiling gently at me, sympathy wrought on his face. "Where should we start?" 

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

I don't love this chapter lmao but I hope you do! Thanks for reading as always!! I loved how many of you guessed Everett would meet a girl in America hehe

In other news I'm officially finished with finals week so hopefully i can get more writing done in the winter break!

Next time: Everett is hiding something?