Chasing Summer

My Personal Hell Is Your Promise Land

After an hour on the beach, it began to sprinkle. I was sitting in front of the fire next to Jean when the first droplet landed on my cheek. I tilted my head back, gazing up at the sky for five seconds before I stood up. I lived in Shiganshina long enough to know that it was going to pour in a matter of minutes. There was no way I was going to stick around to get drenched.

Everyone around me stood up, too—all except for Eren, who looked a little too cheerful sitting in his wheelchair with my jacket swallowing up his upper body. When he saw that more than half the group was already walking up the path to the parking lot, his face fell, eyebrows pulling together in confusion. He had no clue that it didn't just sprinkle in this town. We literally lived by the saying "When it rains, it pours."

Petra got to her feet, brushing away the sand on her jeans before she walked behind his wheelchair. "Time to go," she told him, grabbing hold of the handgrips.

"But why? We haven't even been here for that long." He turned his head to stare at the ocean with longing. What did he see in that vast body of salt water that made him look at it like that?

"It's going to start coming down hard," she said.

As if on cue, the rain picked up and I was left standing there to feel it soak through my thin T-shirt. I could tell by Eren's expression that he was going to be stubborn about wheeling himself up the path, so I took matters into my own hands, because I didn't want to get any wetter than I already was.

"Wrap your arms around my neck," I said, leaning into him. When he gave me this puzzled look, I added, "I am not about to stand around waiting for you to haul your ass up that hill. Petra can push your wheelchair up to the truck. It'll be a lot easier on her without you in it."

Petra gave him a sympathetic look, but said, "That's true."

"Fine," he grumbled under his breath, looping his arms around my neck without making eye contact. I slid my arm beneath his knees and pulled him up against my chest. "Is it always like this here?"

I started walking toward the path, my feet sinking into the soggy sand with each step. Petra was close behind. "Yep. It's raining all the time here."

"And if it's not raining," Petra said, "it's windy out."

Eren sighed, ducking his head further under the hoodie of my jacket. He didn't say anything more as I continued to make my way up to the parking lot, which wasn't hard at all, considering he weighed so little. It made me wonder how sick he really was, but I didn't linger on the thought. It wasn't any of my business.

By the time I got to the truck, we were both sopping wet. I saw that Jean had already made himself comfortable inside, offering us a little wave as I tugged open the passenger door.

What an asshole.

"You could've helped," I muttered, easing Eren down into the passenger seat. He unwrapped his arms from around my neck, mumbled a thank you, and continued to shake like a leaf. His teeth were chattering, but that wasn't what nabbed my attention. It was the way he was breathing that did that. It was like he couldn't take in a deep breath. "Do you need your oxygen tank?"

Those green orbs found mine and he nodded.

I climbed into the truck, shoving Jean aside with more force than the action warranted, and then heaved Eren's oxygen tank into my lap. There was a clear tube hanging from the top that I grabbed and handed over to him. He quickly slipped it on. It split beneath his chin, wrapped behind his ears, and then united in his nostrils. After that, he used some wrench thing to turn a nob on the oxygen tank.