Free Summer Boys by Hailey Abbott

right hand entwined with Peter’s left, which leaned lazily against the armrest. Kelsi looked so trusting, it made Ella feel even worse that she didn’t want Peter to take his hand away.
    And he didn’t. Suddenly, Peter’s fingers started to move. They traced over her skin in a delicate pattern. The sensation brought Ella’s skin to almost unbearable heat. She could feel the roughness of his knuckles tickle every single nerve ending. Back and forth, back and forth.
    It was a deliberate and stealthy rhythm, very much like the way he walked.

11
    Jamie lay on her stomach, on the knotted pink quilt that covered her bed, listening to Jeff Buckley. Her back was covered with yellow slices where the sun peeked at her body through the blinds. “Lover, You Should Have Come Over” was on repeat on her stereo. It had played six times so far.
    She was vaguely aware that the summer was passing her by. It was already mid-July. Her mother had come and gone once, floating in and out of Pebble Beach like a dust cloud and leaving Jamie hoards of Tupperware containers filled with various salads.
    Jamie was also vaguely aware that the phone was ringing. Slowly, she reached down to the cordless receiver, which she’d stolen from the living room and held hostage in her bedroom for ten days. Lifting her head for a second, she could feel the places where the knots had dug into the skin of her face.
    “Hello?”
    “J, it’s me.” Ethan’s voice came over the line without a hint ofcellular static. He sounded wonderful. Jamie sat up and cleared her throat as her skin went clammy.
    “Hi,” Jamie whispered.
    “Hey, I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked. But I’m having a party tomorrow, and I wanted to know if you wanted to come. You could bring your cousins.”
    Jamie nodded, and then remembered Ethan couldn’t see her. They were on a phone, not speaking to each other via satellite. “Ummm,” she said.
    “I thought it’d be cool to hang out. I feel like I haven’t seen you in a year, J.”
    “Um.” Jamie searched the far reaches of her brain for a coherent thought. She wanted to see him so badly, she was actually getting a physical pain in her chest.
    “Are you sure you want me to come?” she managed to sputter.
    “Of course I do,” he said cheerfully. “It’ll be fun.”
    Jamie tugged at a knot on the quilt until she pulled it out, leaving a ragged little hole in the fabric. Her fingers were trembling. Fun. Fun is good.
    She managed to control her voice enough to get her question out. “Ethan, do you mean you want me to come as…just a friend?”
    “Well, aren’t we friends?” Ethan asked in return.
    Jamie was completely stumped. Were they?
    “I guess,” she replied wistfully.
    “Okay, then. Will you come to my party?”
    Say no, say no. Jamie knew she should refuse. The only thing that might be worse than not seeing Ethan, would be pretending that she was fine with being his friend. But even though thatreasonable part of Jamie was begging her not to cave, the need to see Ethan again was much bigger than her fear of falling apart when she did. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll come.”
    “Great. See you then.”
    Jamie swallowed the rest of the questions she wanted to ask. “See you. Bye.”
    After she hung up, she slammed her cheek back onto the mattress. He’d called. She couldn’t believe it. Part of her really wanted to call him and tell him she’d changed her mind, but another part of her was excited that she was on his mind. He hadn’t forgotten about her.
    Grabbing a pen and a piece of scrap paper from beside the phone, Jamie started sketching. She wanted to get all her feelings out on paper—she found this to be very therapeutic. She drew a cartoon Jamie with a fire poker stoking some flames burning beneath her rib cage. She drew a pair of hands squeezing the inside of her chest. She drew a rake scraping down the sidewalk.
    Then she crumpled the paper and threw it at the picture of Ethan she’d jammed