Last Summer

I lay on the bed, my skin hot and slick with sea water and sweat. The sun had been scalding all day, followed by a sun shower, which meant the night was humid. The air stuck to me like a cloth of heat, and no matter how many times I took a cold shower or jumped into the ocean, it only stuck to me hotter.

"We should've gone to your place," I groaned.

Everett lay beside me, inches away. The mattress wasn't big enough for the two of us to lay spread eagle the way we were, but I took measured care to keep my arm a millimetre from his. Even with the distance between us, I could still feel the heat of his body mingling with the humid air and invading my skin.

"I like your room," he replied. "It's got character."

I sighed, fanning my face with a hand, but it only blew hot air onto my sweaty forehead. "Your room's got an aircon. I'd argue that's better than character."

"You're being a big baby. It's not that hot," he replied. He shifted, turning to face me and I tilted my head, meeting his eye. His hair stuck to his face, the sweat on his skin making him glow. I scowled.

"Easy for you to say. You can take your shirt off."

He looked down at his exposed chest before smirking at me. "Hey, be my guest. No one's going to stop you here."

I rolled my eyes. He was teasing me, but I didn't care. I wriggled on the mattress, grabbing the hem of my shirt, and pulling it off my skin, tossing it onto the floor.

When I looked back at Everett, he was staring wide-eyed at my chest.

"Eyes up here, mate." His eyes flashed up to meet mine and I grinned. "Or maybe another punch to the face will remind you?"

"I think I remember it pretty vividly." He rubbed his jaw in memory of our first meeting. He pouted at me. "I forgot that you were wearing a bikini."

I snorted. I knew he'd forgotten, or we wouldn't have teased me so arrogantly. I tugged at the bikini string holding it all together. "I can take that off too if you'd like."

"Oh, I would like."

Laughing, I flopped back onto the bed, decidedly keeping my bikini on. "Of course, you'd like."

"Not my fault you've got amazing—"

"Everett!"

"What? I was going to say eyes. They're just so compelling."

"Of course, they are."

His hand traced up my bare stomach before stopping at my waist in a hug. I groaned, shoving his arm off of me.

"What?" he whined.

"It's hot."

"I want to cuddle."

"It's too hot to cuddle, you big baby."

"It's never too hot." His hand trailed over my skin again and I pushed it away, turning to glare at him. He smiled back. "Well, if it's too hot to cuddle, maybe we can do some other things."

"It's too hot to do anything."

He was silent for a moment. Outside, cicadas sang, a signal of summer's arrival. Beyond the chirping, the washing of waves cut through the night, almost lulling me to sleep. Almost.

"It's a shame you don't have an aircon in here," Everett said.

I frowned at him. "Yeah. We established that."

"Well." His hand returned to my skin, sending butterflies all through my stomach. "I have an aircon back in my room."

We met eyes.

In an instant, both of us were off the bed, pulling our shoes on.

"I'll get my bike," I said.

"I'll grab my keys."

We missed the sunset that night. In the silence of his room, all I could hear was the low buzz of the vented aircon, and the mix of our breathing in the air.

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"Isla, can we slow down a bit?"

My expression soured as I glanced at the time on my phone. "No. Hurry up, we're already late."

I grabbed his hand, dragging him down the steps and into a building on the right. The doors had already been shut, so I quietly weaselled them open and stepped into the lecture hall. My professor was halfway through a slide about protein in cells when I led Everett to an empty row in the back.

He settled in beside me as I pulled out my laptop—as if I'd be able to concentrate on my lecture with Everett beside me.

"Why is the lecture hall so empty?" he muttered, leaning over to whisper in my ear.

"It's nearly the end of the semester. Everyone's probably just going to watch it online."

"Not you, though?"

I shrugged. "I wanted to see what it felt like going to a lecture with my boyfriend."

He blinked at me. Then, a smile crept onto his face, and he leaned back against his seat, his hand finding mine beneath the small desk.

For once, I was glad my lecture was late in the afternoon. It had given me time to take Everett to all the tourist-y sites in Sydney and stop at my usual café before dragging him to my university.

If I sat here, with him beside me, here in my lecture hall, I could almost imagine what life might have been like for us. I could imagine a world where Everett and I went to the same university, attended the same classes, saw each other after class.

Maybe we would've gone on dates on campus. We could've had study dates in the library. We could've snuck into each other's' lectures, and caught lunch between courses, sneaking kisses on the way to class.

Summer could've lasted forever.

Everett's hand tightened around mine and I smiled, leaning onto his shoulder. Maybe we didn't have forever, but we had right now, and I was going to take what I could get.

I listened to the professor, not bothering with rushing to take notes for once, simply enjoying the way Everett's thumb stroked the back of my hand as we both learned about cell structures together. Weirdly enough, it felt like I was absorbing more information than the lectures where I spent every second transcribing notes onto my laptop.

At that moment, my phone buzzed. I frowned, pulling away from Everett for a moment to check who had messaged me. Lachie. I hadn't spoken to him for a few days now. He was probably wondering why I'd missed class yesterday.

I'd worry about coming up with an excuse for that later. I was still dreading the inevitable question. "What did you get for your midterm?"

No. For now, it was just me and Everett. Everything was perfect.

I ignored his text, placing my phone back beside my laptop when it buzzed again with two more texts from Lachie.

Huffing, I swiped my phone up, setting it to silent.

By the time I leaned back against Everett, he was frowning at me.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"Nothing," I whispered back. I didn't feel like talking about Lachie or my midterms. I wanted to pretend the last few days—months—didn't exist.

He didn't push it, instead turning back to face the lecture.

The next forty minutes felt like seconds and the lecture was over before we knew it.

Everett turned to me as I packed my laptop away, despite barely using it.

"Where to next?" he asked.

I grinned back. "Why do I get to decide?"

"Aren't you my tour guide?"

"Is that all I am to you? A free tour guide?"

"Hey, your words, not mine."

"The last time I gave you a tour, I left you stranded in the middle of Shellside Bay."

Everett chuckled at the memory. He'd insulted me, teasing me at the fact that Austin didn't return my feelings at the time, and I'd kicked him out of the car in the middle of nowhere.

He deserved it, really.

"I really got my steps in that day." He leaned back in his seat, throwing an arm over my shoulders. "Your lecture halls are way comfier than mine."

"You should just stay here, then."

He smiled at me. "I think I will, then."

I shoved his shoulder, rolling my eyes. "Don't tease me like that. You'll get my hopes up. New York's waiting for you to return. Speaking of which, you haven't told me. How's uni life?"

"College life is going great," he replied. "Well, as great as it can go without you. Meaning, not great at all."

"What? Come on, you seemed to be having a good time."

"Good. Great. Shit. It's all the same," he said, shrugging. I settled him with a patient stare, and he sighed, explaining. "I've made some friends but they're not as cool as you. I feel like everyone I meet, I just compare them to you, you know? And everywhere I go, it's just like—Oh, Isla would like this place. Oh, Isla would like this restaurant. Oh, if Isla was here, she'd definitely do this."

"At least I don't have to worry about you cheating," I teased.

He rolled his eyes at me. "Come on, that's the last thing I'd do."

I knew it was true. I'd never even worried about it. When I met Everett, he was still torn over his ex-girlfriend cheating on him with his best friend. He knew how it felt to be betrayed in that way.

"I don't know about you though," he teased.

I raised a brow. "Not to alarm you, but I did fall asleep in River's arms yesterday."

He laughed, shaking his head. "Don't even joke about that. If you told me that a year ago, I probably would've knocked him out."

"Oh, please, River would've had you on the ground in seconds."

Everett flexed a bicep. "Are you sure about that?"

We both laughed and I turned to properly face him in my seat. The lecture hall had emptied by now and since no one else had entered since, I assumed this had been the last class for the day.

"What about everything else?" I asked carefully. "Outside of uni?"

"You mean my evil stepmother?" When I didn't laugh, he cracked a smile and continued. "She's fine. I mean, she's annoying, but I only see her at family dinners when I have to be there. And I guess she feels the awkwardness too, because she avoids me as much as I avoid her now—Are you going to answer that?"

I followed his gaze to my phone. Despite being silenced, the screen still lit up with an incoming phone call, Lachie's photo flashing brightly.

I frowned, turning the phone off.

"Not friends anymore?" Everett asked.

"Huh?"

He nodded towards the phone. "That... Luke guy. Are you guys not talking or something?"

"Oh." I sighed, shaking my head. Just what I was trying to avoid talking about. "No. Nothing happened. I just—I really don't feel like talking to him right now. He'd just ask about my midterm results and talk about our labs and classes. Besides, I'm busy. I'm with you today."

Everett watched me for a moment. "I wish I could be with you every day."

"Me too."

"Maybe..." He paused, running a hand over his face. "Maybe I could."

I turned to him, frowning. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I—I wasn't going to mention it until I knew it could actually be possible, but I'm applying for an exchange program. To come here. To study here, in Sydney, with you."

I thought I was hearing things. I shook my head, blinking hard. When I looked up, meeting Everett's hopeful eyes, I knew I wasn't imagining this. He'd just said what I thought he said.

"Are you being serious?"

He nodded, then paused, pursing his lips unsurely. "I mean, it's not certain. All I've done so far is apply."

"When did you apply? How long have you known? I mean—What do you need to be accepted?"

He laughed, grabbing my hands. I realised I was halfway out of my seat and smiled meekly, sitting firmly back down.

"I need good grades. I've known about this program since before I even got accepted to study at NYU. It's just—my first semester; it was so much harder than I expected. My grades were alright, but not good enough to be accepted into the program. So, this semester, I've been studying like crazy—"

"Is that why you've been so busy?" I paused, the pieces beginning to connect as I recalled the past few months—the past year—with this new perspective. "Is that why you were skipping out on all those parties? Not just to talk to me, but to study?"

He shrugged. "I needed those grades."

"And do you have them?"

He hesitated. "I think so. But we won't know until I get all my grades back."

"Holy shit."

"I know."

"Holy shit, you might come to Sydney. You might—" I paused, cutting my excitement short and meeting his eyes. "Everett, you're doing this because you want to, right? You're not—it's not just because of me, is it?"

He shook his head, his fingers intertwining with my own.

"I want to be here. I mean, I would be lying if I said it wasn't partially for you, but I like it here. I like being able to see you when I want. I like being in the same time zone as you. But I also like the weather here, the city, the beaches, the culture. I like being able to visit Shellside Bay and my grandma when I want, instead of being stuck in New York with my dad and stepmom. And I'd rather see River every day than hang out with my college friends again, or have to bump into my ex and act civil.

"I've thought about this a lot—since before we even started dating officially. I've thought about it from the first day I kissed you, and I want to stay here."

My eyes watered and his jaw fell slack. He reached up, cupping my face. "What's wrong? Did I say something wrong? I don't have to study here if you don't want me to."

"No," I said quickly. I shook my head, blinking back my tears through a watery laugh. "You didn't. I just—I'm so happy. I can't believe it."

"Well, it's not confirmed or anything—"

I interrupted him by pressing my lips to his. His eyes widened briefly before fluttering shut, kissing me back with a newfound passion. His hand slid across my jaw, his fingers burying in my hair as his tongue slipped into my mouth.

I sighed into the kiss, leaning towards him, letting him pull me in.

We pulled away at the same time, our eyes heavy and chests rising and falling in sync.

"Imagine your professor walks in right now," Everett murmured.

I laughed, shaking my head. "Way to kill the moment, Ev."

"Kill?" he repeated. His hand fell to my waist, pulling me closer until the arm rest stopped me from coming any closer. "You're going to have to get used to this when I'm going to college here."

I raised a brow at him. "Am I? Well, you're going to have to get used to calling it uni, or you're going to get mocked relentlessly."

"I'm not scared of you Aussies."

"You should be."

He snorted and I grinned at him before turning to my backpack and digging through the front zipper.

"This calls for a celebration," I said as I searched.

Everett leaned closer, trying to peek into my bag. "I haven't been accepted yet, Isla. Don't get your hopes up."

"I already know you'll be accepted. And besides, I was planning to share these with you. I just never had a chance today."

"Yeah, because you've been dragging me all over the place like the world is gonna end tomorrow."

"It kind of is," I said.

I intended it as a joke, but he fell silent, his brow creasing. The world wasn't ending, but this world was. When Everett left for New York, this world—this invented world where Everett and I were a normal couple, doing normal uni things together—would be over.

My fingers finally grasped the plastic edges of what I was looking for and I whipped it out with a grin. "Here!"

His eyes fell to the chocolates in my hands. Slowly, a smile crept onto his face.

"How did you know I missed Australian candy?"

"Candy," I mocked in a bad American accent. "This is a Picnic bar."

"Picnic?" he asked taking one from my hands. He turned the packet over, frowning at the image. "Why is it called Picnic?"

"I don't know. Why would I know that?"

"Aren't you Australian?"

I rolled my eyes. "Just try the stupid chocolate."

He smirked at my reaction before ripping the plastic open and taking a large bite. He chewed for a moment before frowning.

"It's so chewy."

"Yeah, it has nougat," I pointed out. His frown deepened. "What, you don't like it?"

He swallowed hard. "I mean, it's no Flake."

I laughed. "I can't believe you remember what a Flake is."

"Of course, I do. Except, with the Flake, I don't remember eating it like this."

He gave me a pointed look which I didn't understand for a moment until it hit me.

Slowly, I took the chocolate from his hands, instead holding it up to his mouth. He smiled at me, leaning closer until he took the bar into his mouth, his lips grazing my fingertips.

My face warmed as I watched him lean back, chewing the chocolate and swallowing it.

"Delicious."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

I hope you guys loved this chapter! We needed a bit of fluff after all that hehe there's literally less than 10 chapters to go!!!

Next time: a bit of fun