𝑱𝑼𝑺𝑻 𝑭𝑶𝑹 𝑨 𝑴𝑶𝑴𝑬𝑵𝑻 (18+)

twenty-seven || "Is This Some Kind Of Sick Joke?"

"What are you gonna do huh?! Fight him? You could get in serious trouble Devon you have a scholarship, scouts. You'd risk all of that for what?"

"For you Summer! I'd risk all of that for you."

A tear fell down my cheek allowing the rest to follow suit. "You mean more to me than any of that. Fuck the scholarship, fuck football, I'll be fine. But this? No, no this isn't fine."

"Devon please." He walked over to me wiping a tear from my cheek. "I love you, Summer. I know you want to protect me, and I appreciate that." He kissed me gently before pulling away.

"But I'm going to protect you too."

                                        ...

In the days that followed Devon and I had barely spoken or seen each other. His routine was camp, work, and home while mine was a constant back and forth between work and burying my head under my covers. I wanted to give him space to calm down, I mean he couldn't seriously be thinking of risking everything he's worked towards just for me. Who was I kidding? He'd always been like that. He'd put everything on the line if it meant protecting someone he loved and I admired him for it, envied him.

Even if it was his downfall.

After a few pep talks from Jess, I sat my parents down and told them everything. She had been right there with me, holding my hand while I retold the worst year of my life along with the events that happened recently. They weren't angry at me for waiting so long to tell them, they were sad for me; sad that I had to go through it alone. Sad that I felt like there was no one I could talk to. My dad wanted to drive to Chris' house and exchange a few words with him and while Jess backed him up fully, my mother and I convinced him how bad of an idea it was.

Chris hadn't texted me since our last conversation but I wasn't satisfied. Jess thought I was being paranoid but I had a feeling I couldn't shake no matter how hard I tried. No one knew him as well as I did.

How determined he was.

"Come on, let's go get some ice cream or something; it'll cheer you up!" Jess pulls on my arm trying to get me out of the bed. "Are you paying?" She laughs and pulls out her wallet. "Yes so get up and let's go, I'll even drive." I hesitantly get out of bed and slip on my shoes following her out the door. It was Sunny outside, no clouds in sight. A stark contrast to my bedroom. I put my hand on the sun that hung on my neck religiously and scoffed.

Is this some kind of sick joke?

The best ice cream shop around was near the beach Devon worked at but Jess didn't know that and I wasn't going to tell her. "What's good around here?" she questioned, tapping on her phone. "Uh, there's a place like five minutes away from here?" She hummed and continued scrolling. "What about the Frozen Cone? They have really good reviews and it's by the beach, we can walk the pier for a bit." Fuck you Google. "No, I think we should go-" She pulled out of my driveway and turns up my radio.

"You have terrible taste, Frozen Cone it is."

Why did the universe hate me?

It was Saturday, Devon didn't always work Saturdays; maybe this was one of the days he was off? We pulled into the parking lot and I scanned it, looking for Devon's car pleased when I came up empty.