Last Summer

Austin had a summer fling.

It was kind of becoming his thing. Every other month, he'd show up to the beach with a new girl; one from our grade, one from the year above us, one from out of town. Always someone new.

He'd always been popular, and short-term girlfriends seemed to follow wherever he went, but he'd never had as many as this past year.

I wasn't sure what it was all about. Before Everett appeared and turned Shellside Bay upside down, Austin would tell me everything. Even without telling me, I could read him. I knew his every thought. I could tell how he'd react to something before he even knew himself. Every twitch of muscle in his face, every slight drop of his eyelids—I could read it all.

Last summer, everything changed. Now, I didn't even know his coffee order, much less about why he was seemingly dating every girl that breathed near him.

Maybe he wanted to prove he was over me. Or maybe he was still trying to move on. Maybe he was just having fun before we graduated and officially became adults.

Whatever it was, he was always with a new fling, and this one was no different.

Diane was a tall, local girl just two years older than us who liked to go by Dia—which, with an Australian accent sounded a bit too similar to 'dire' and had the same number of syllables as her full name, so it wasn't really a nickname, but we went with it anyway.

They'd only been together for a month, but one day she showed up to the beach with a gold necklace shining on her collarbones.

"Pretty," Sky said, leaning uncomfortably close to scope out the infinity pendant. "Where'd you get it?"

"I got it for her," Austin jumped in, smirking proudly. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer, and she giggled, tugging on her necklace. "Nice, isn't it?"

"I love it," Dia said. "Isn't he the best?"

Sky and I nodded in agreement, and she giggled again. For the rest of the day, she kept tugging on her necklace, her fingers unconsciously wrapping around the metal every time I looked at her.

That night, I lay on Everett's mattress beside him, soaking in the air condition of his room. His arm was wrapped under my back and around my waist, his fingers tracing patterns on my stomach as we stared at the ceiling.

"Do you regret choosing me?" he asked.

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Choosing me over Austin," he clarified. "Do you regret it?"

I spun, my heart sinking into my stomach. "What? Why are you asking that? Have you always thought I'd regret it or something?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, you liked the guy for years. He was your first love. And he liked you back. Why didn't you choose him?"

"You're insane if you think there is any universe where I would choose Austin over you," I said. I leaned down to kiss him. "And besides, you were my first love. He was just—I don't know. He was comfortable."

"Am I not comfortable?" he teased.

"You're... I don't know how to explain it. It's like my life was still and then you came into Shellside Bay and suddenly everything was moving so quickly, and it was all moving towards you, you know?"

"I think so," he said. He paused, his eyes flittering away before returning to mine. "I just think that Austin could've treated you better. He's a local. He could get you nice gifts and take you on dates whenever you want. I can't do that for you."

"First of all, I'd love you whether or not you bought me things, Ev," I chided. "Secondly, you give me hoodies all the time. And you spend your money on expensive flights just to see me throughout the year. That's more than I could ever ask for."

"But I didn't buy you a necklace," he said. He frowned, his voice growing low. "I bet if I didn't spend all my money on plane tickets, I'd be able to buy you a necklace. I'd buy you ten."

"I don't need a necklace," I replied. I kissed him again, this time slowly. When I pulled back, he leaned up towards me. "I have you."

His lips twisted and he looked away. "Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Of course."

"I just—I want to spoil you, you know?"

"You spoil me enough just by being here," I said.

His expression soured, his lips pulling into a frown, eyes flittering away for a moment. Then, his eyes widened slightly with an idea, and he was reaching past me, the mattress bending beneath us as he pulled something off his bedside table.

He looked back to me, something hidden, clutched into his fist.

"What's this?" I asked.

His eyes glittered at me. "It's a gift."

"A gift?" I inched closer.

He took my hand, opening my fingers to rest his fist in my palm. Something cold touched my hand and he moved his fist away, revealing a seashell.

"It's not necklace, but—"

"It's a shell," I muttered. I turned it over in my hand, running a finger along the chipped edge. "From Isla."

"You remember it?"

"Of course, I do, I'm the one who found it last week," I replied.

It was nothing special but seashells weren't common on Isla and so I'd gotten excited when I found it half-buried beneath the sand. That was, until I'd seen that it was chipped on the corner.

"I threw it back," I said, awed as I turned it again. It was as if it had reappeared in thin air, re-emerging from the corners of my memory.

"I picked it back up," he said. "I wanted to keep it as a memory of you and of Shellside Bay, but now I want you to keep it. Not much of a gift, I know..."

"It's better than a necklace," I replied. I squeezed my fingers around the shell, memorising the curves and ridges and that sharp, jagged edge where it'd been chipped.

I imagined him watching as I threw it back into the sand then, when my back was turned, kneeling down and digging for it again. I imagined him wiping the sand off the shell, cleaning it, turning it over his fingers and placing it on his bedside table, thinking of me the entire time.

I smiled. "I love it."

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I had about four assignments and one week to do them all.

I hadn't started yet.

Instead, I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, pretending the assignments might get done themselves, or the ten lectures I had to catch up on would absorb into my brain as I lay there.

What I really wanted to do was talk to someone, hang out with someone—hang out with Everett.

Even thinking about it upset me. I turned, my eyes landing on my seashell that I'd set on display beside the rest of my sentimental junk—the melted piece of plastic Austin had given me, my dad's snow globe, and my photographs.

Groaning, I turned the other way, grabbing my phone in the process.

Everett couldn't talk. He was busy. We were always busy. I didn't want to think about it. So, I called someone else.

By the time I got to the coffee shop, Lachie had already ordered himself a coffee and gotten us a table.

It didn't take me long to start ranting.

"I just don't understand. It's like, I'm paying them thousands of dollars and for what? For professors to read off of slideshows for an hour? How am I supposed to learn anything from that? How am I supposed to feel motivated to watch them? Or worse, attend them? I just—I have no idea what I'm doing. I can't work up the motivation to do anything now. There's just so much, I don't know how to start."

Lachie listened to me silently. He lifted his mug, taking a slow sip before placing it back onto the table with a clink.

"None of us know what we're doing," he said simply. "I just did a quiz for a subject I forgot I was taking."

I snorted, rolling my eyes, and shoving his shoulder. He laughed, shrugging.

"What? I did. I actually passed too. Can you believe it? One of the questions asked something about gravity and I drew a hot dog for my answer."

"You're an idiot," I said.

"Point is," he replied, "Nothing ever makes sense. Yeah, it's pretty shit, but that's uni. Trust me, half your class haven't started their assignments yet either. Don't sweat it."

"You think?"

"I know. Hell, half my hallway hasn't attended a lecture since week one," he said. He smiled at me. "Isla, you're doing fine. Relax."

I sighed, my shoulders sagging in relief. Lachie was my only friend in university, other than River who barely counted considering how much time he spent in his room rather than in class or with me, and so I hadn't realised that other students were in the same boat as me. It was different from high school. It felt like they'd taken an entire year of high school and shoved it into a term of uni, and I was drowning beneath the waves of assignments that only built up every week.

"Look," Lachie said, drawing my attention back to him, "how about this—start with the assignments that are due first. There's still a few weeks until our finals so you have time before you need to catch up on all lectures. Just take them slowly. And look, for our class, I'll send you the notes I've got so far. How's that?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You've been taking notes?"

"Well, not yet, but I was planning to catch up this weekend."

"The key word being planning."

"I'm a very organised person, thank you very much. It's definitely going to happen."

"In that case, it sounds good," I said, smiling. "Seriously, Lachie, you're saving me here."

He raised his mug to me in a mock cheer before lifting it to his lips and draining the last big of his coffee. He stood then, fishing for his wallet in his pocket.

"I should get going, then. I have work in an hour, and you can never trust Sydney trains," he said. "I'll just go pay for this and walk you back?"

I nodded. "I'll wait outside."

I pushed out of the café doors, feeling the bite of cold wind hit my bare shoulders. People seemed to rush past me, crowding the streets. I shrunk back into the window of the café, hoisting my bag in front of me. At that moment, my phone began to ring.

I jumped, digging through my purse to find my buzzing phone, my heart instantly beginning to race as I spotted Everett's name flashing on the screen.

"Everett," I answered chirpily.

His voice came raspy through the other end. "Hey, Isla."

"What are you doing? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"I'm about to sleep. I just wanted to hear your voice first," he replied. There was some shuffling in the background, and then he said, "You never told me how your trip to Shellside Bay was. Did you get to see Connor and Austin?"

I almost snorted. Our trip to Shellside Bay had hardly been anything to talk about.

"Not really. They were both busy with work the whole time." I paused, smiling. "But guess what? I brought your shell back with me this time. It's next to my bed at home."

"The shell? I thought said you'd keep it in Shellside Bay, so you don't lose it."

"I won't lose it," I said.

He laughed lightly. "Not that I don't believe you, but what if you do?"

"Then I'll just find another shell," I replied without pause. "Next summer, when you come to visit."

When—never if.

"Or I'll buy you that necklace after all," Everett said.

I snorted. "I don't want a necklace."

I just want you here.

I didn't say it. I couldn't. Everett went silent on the other end, and I wondered if he was thinking of the same thing. Or if he was picking out a necklace in his mind.

Beside me, the glass door to the café opened and Lachie stepped outside, his eyes on his wallet as he pocketed his cash.

"Alright, I paid, should we get going—" he cut himself short as I turned to him, my phone pressed against my ear.

"Oops," he whispered, smiling coyly. "Sorry."

He gestured me to continue my call as he stepped back, giving me privacy. I turned away, tuning back into Everett's voice.

"Who was that?" he asked. "Was it that Luke guy?"

"Lachie," I corrected. My voice lowered. "Yeah. We're just grabbing coffee."

"Coffee? Since when do you drink coffee?"

"I don't really. Lachie does. I just came with him."

"And he just needed you there to drink coffee?"

"Why are you getting jealous?" I scoffed. "I was just stressed about uni. I needed to rant to someone."

"You could've called me."

"No, I couldn't have," I snapped. "It's night-time there. I thought you were asleep."

"Before that, then."

"When? When you were in class? When I was asleep? When Everett? When should I have called you?"

He fell silent and guilt tore through me. I wanted to swallow my words. I sighed, breaking the silence first.

"I didn't mean that," I said. "I'm sorry. I was just—I didn't mean it."

"No, I'm sorry. It's stupid of me, being jealous," he replied. I couldn't tell based on his voice whether he was upset, but my guilt only grew anyway. There was no way my words hadn't hurt him. I shook my head, frowning.

"It's fine," I said. "I know you just want to be here. I want to be with you too. It's just—it's out of our control."

"Yeah."

We both fell into silence again, tension drifting between us through the form of unspoken words—words that didn't need to be spoken, because we'd spoken them a million times. How much we missed each other, how much we wanted to see each other—how impossible that would be.

Behind me, a few steps away, Lachie waited, his hands deep in his pockets.

"You'd better get to sleep," I said eventually.

Everett took a second to reply. "Yeah. Yeah, I should. Do you have class today?"

"Yeah, statistics," I said. "And about a billion assignments to work on."

"Well, good luck. Text me, yeah?"

"Of course."

We both paused.

"I love you, Isla," he muttered. "A lot."

"I love you more," I replied.

I hung up first.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey guys! Thank you so much for reading! Sorry for the late update, but I really wanted to edit this chapter before posting. I hope you liked this chapter even though Isla and Everett probably aren't loving it lmao let me know your thoughts and predictions! <3

Next time: a surprise guest arrives in Sydney...