Free Next Summer by Hailey Abbott

her, where he belonged.
    From: [email protected]
    To: [email protected]
    Subject: Re: The Usual Shenanigans!!!
    Beth,
    That story about your first night at the pier was so funny I think I broke a rib from laughter. (They love me here in my dorm—I’m the crazy laughing girl who never leaves her computer.) Maybe you should be the writer in this family. In fact, considering the critique I just got (my hot professor isn’t quite so hot when he’s ripping my story apart for its “sophomoric” style—OUCH!), you guys should come take my place here. And when ARE you guys coming?? That first weekend in August is best for me.
    Back to Pebble Beach intrigue: Tell me the truth—Ella’s hook up wasn’t really named Inigo, was he???You’re just making that up to get a cheap Princess Bride laugh. (It worked, you’ll be happy to know!!) And don’t tell me Kelsi’s still moping over that musician from last summer. SUCH A LOSER. He was never good enough for her anyway. Pebble Beach has boys everywhere—she just needs to find the right one.
    Most crucially: Who’s this Adam guy, the surf hunk? You were suspiciously casual about him in that last e-mail. Too bad for you, Ella’s filled me in (I quote):
    who cares about some stupid fling ask beth about her new boyfriend G-2—total clone of the original—luv luv luv E
    You’re so busted, Beth Tuttle. Tell me everything!
    Love, Jamie
    Beth went for a jog later that afternoon, taking one of the trails that wound through the woods. Usually, Beth loved to run in and out of the trees—the pine needles carpeted the earth beneath her feet and everything smelled like bark and flowers. But today she was in a bad mood.
    Maybe it was Jamie’s e-mail. Beth didn’t like the fact that Ella was so obsessed with the Adam-G-2 thing. Which wasn’t even a thing , she reminded herself, working her legs harder.
    After all, he and Kelsi had hit it off when she’d introduced them at the arcade a few nights ago. The two of them had started to talk and laugh while Beth got involved with a game of Ms. Pac-Man, expecting to feel all satisfied that her matchmaking had worked. Beth tried to concentrate on the glowingpellets on the screen, but every time she heard Adam crack a joke and Kelsi’s easy, natural giggle, she gripped the joystick in a choke hold that would have killed a small animal.
    Forget satisfied. Beth felt sick. Every time she glanced over and saw Adam and Kelsi smile, Beth felt like she was hooked up to some type of medieval torture device—the one that painfully stretches you out in all different directions. A kind of feeling that was eerily familiar. She’d sucked down about five Cokes before she recognized what was happening—and when she’d felt it before.
    It was exactly the way she’d felt last summer, when she had realized that she was in love with George.
    She ran the last part of the trail at full tilt, bursting through the trees and out into the sunlight along Peachtree Road. She slowed when she hit the sidewalk, and took big, deep breaths, like she could flush her conflicted feelings away by filling her lungs with the fresh morning air.
    Obviously, she told herself sternly, she was just missing George, so she was trying to re-create how she had felt last summer. That had to be it.
    Beth wiped at the sweat on her forehead, and started back toward the cottages, feeling no more settled than she had before.
    When she heard her phone ringing from the pocket of her shorts, she ignored it. She knew that it was George calling again, and she didn’t feel like talking to him. He would know something was wrong just from her voice. He would want to talk about it and that was the last thing Beth wanted to do.Then it struck her—Beth had finally encountered one topic that she couldn’t ever share with George. Her phone beeped, indicating that he’d left a message.
    Why am I avoiding him? Beth wondered. She’d ignored his cell from earlier in the day as well. Was she not