Pieces of Summer

“You’ll figure it out,” Whit tells him.

“Weird thing is that she said she’d meet me when she met me, and wouldn’t set a time. Then she sent a text saying she was here, and I told her I’d meet her near the entrance.”

“Definitely weird,” I agree, shrugging… bored out of my mind.

“There she is,” he says, looking past me.

A slow smile curls his lips, and I turn around with Whit to see this girl he’s been going on about. My eyes immediately land on something that has my breath fogging up my throat, and my free fist clenches at my side as my other arm falls away from Whit.

Looking lost and uncertain, Mika is walking around in a small circle, glancing down at her phone. Her shorts are up to her ass, showing off her tan legs. Her shirt is loose and hanging down on one side, revealing her shoulder. And her hair is braided to one side as she nibbles her lip.

“Guess I better go get her before she bails. She looks nervous.”

Blake starts to walk by, and reflexively, I grab his arm and jerk him back.

“What the hell, man?”

“The fuck are you doing here with her?” I growl.

His eyebrows go up in confusion as I jerk him back harder, gripping his arm tightly.

“You know her or something?” he asks, confused.

“That’s Mika,” Whit says flatly from somewhere behind me.

“She related to you?” Blake goes on. “I’ve never seen you get so pissed before. What am I missing?”

“Why are you here with her?”

Blake looks down at my hand, then over at Mika, then back to me, and something in his eyes shifts. “Ah, fuck. She’s the one. Isn’t she?”

I’ve never fucking told him her name, or any of the story, but I did get drunk enough once to admit to him a summer girl had fucked my head up.

“Shit, man. I didn’t know,” he goes on.

My eyes shift over to Mika about the time she sees us, and confusion mars her face before her eyes turn to angry slits. She spins around and walks away, and I fight with myself not to go after her. Maybe she’ll fucking leave soon before I completely lose my mind.

“Ah, hell,” Blake groans. “You’ve really fucked up now.”

I let him go, cracking my neck to the side, and I watch as Mika pulls her keys out of her pocket, heading toward the parking lot.

“I don’t care if she’s pissed. She shouldn’t even be in Hayden. She has the entire fucking country she can go to. This is the one place she shouldn’t have ever come back to.”

Blake’s hand clasps my shoulder, and we both watch until Mika disappears from sight.

“I wasn’t saying you cared about pissing off Mika. But you should probably notice your girlfriend is missing at some point, otherwise you’re going to end up single.”

My eyes slowly flutter shut, and I take a long, regretful breath. He’s right. I just really fucked up. It’s shitty that I don’t even care.

Once again, Mika is in my head.

Chapter 14

MIKA

I almost feel hungover when I wake up. I’m not sure why I spent the night crying, but I did. Maybe it’s because I went to the carnival to make a friend and saw Blake and Chase were already friends. I felt like the idiot getting played. I should have known better than to think someone just wanted to get to know me.

You look so familiar… Asshole.