The Sweetest Summer

Chapter Eight- Bitter

"God you're annoying! Fine. Use the car. Whatever." I growled and she grabbed the keys from my desk.

"Good doing business with ya, sis." I flipped her off as she paraded from my room and Marissa laughed.

"That girl's got some skills."

"Yeah." I agreed, walking to my bathroom to grab my black nail polish from the top drawer. "But she's not the only one." I walked past Marissa and opened my bedroom window crawling onto the trellis.

"What are you doing?" She giggled as I dipped the brush into the inky, sticky polish and painted the camera like I was fucking Pablo Picasso.

"Evening the playing field." I smirked back at her, the wind billowing through my hair, and for the first time in seven days I didn't think about Eli.

**************

The small brown house in Crenshaw was packed when we arrived, and I pulled at the hem of my black dress, feeling sorely overdressed in the crowd of barely dressed twentysomethings. Marissa had unsurprisingly disappeared twenty minutes ago with Mister USC and I was beyond ready to go home.

I sipped on my seltzer in the middle of the living room. It was only eleven-fifteen, but the way the pounding in my skull from the techno music echoed, it felt much later. I sighed and pulled out my phone again, using my heavily made up face to unlock the screen. "Still nothing." I muttered, noting my blank text message receptacle.

"Excuse me?" A voice behind me cooed and I turned to see a very attractive, familiar face.

"Oh nothing, I was just talking to myself." I blurted.

"That's cool." Beckett Press ran one of his tan hands through his longer dark hair. "I get it. Sometimes you're the coolest person in the room, so it's more fun to talk to yourself than anyone else." He grinned crookedly and a bead of sweat ran down my spine. Beckett had a reputation for being cocky, not that I was cool enough in high school to know him personally.

I grinned back, my hands shaking a little as I took a long sip of my beer, buying myself some time. I didn't know what else to say to him. He was easily the best looking person in the house in a black T-shirt and black straight leg jeans with a pair of black Doc Marten combat boots.

"Second time running into you this summer, and it's only June..." Beckett grinned, taking a sip from his red solo cup. "It's like fate keeps pushing us together." I choked and he patted me on the back twice, his hand feeling warm against my spine.

"Thanks." I wiped the spittle of beer from my chin, feeling even more like a loser than I had five minutes ago. Even more than when I'd tried unsuccessfully to talk to him in the cafeteria Junior year, spilling my milk all over my top as he walked by.

"You want another?" He motioned to my drink, but I shook my head.

"No thanks. I was actually about to get going." I sighed.

"What's the rush?" He challenged. His tone was annoyed, but his smile was warm.

"One A.M. curfew." I admitted, feeling even more like a child. "It's okay though, I already requested my Uber."

"Cancel it." He downed the rest of his drink.

"What?"