Free The Summer of Me & You by Rae Hachton

window, until I said—
    “So, I'm guessing you heard me and my mom talking about you last night.”
    She sighed. “Kaleb, it's okay.” Her eyes were tired, or maybe even sad.
    “So you know I like you. A lot. Right?”
    “Yeah,” she said.
    “Well?” I wanted, needed, her to like me a lot, too.
    “Well what?”
    “Do you feel the same about me?”
    She avoided the subject. “Can we just talk about this later? I have a major headache.”
    “It's called a hangover.” I pulled into her driveway.
    “You would know,” she said, unbuckling her seat-belt. She opened the door, jumping out.
    Kayleigh seemed incredibly moody. I rolled down the window. “Hey—what's with the attitude?”
    She'd started to walk to her door, but she turned around and leaned down near the window to tell me, “You are trouble. You're violent and I heard you were some sex freak who was addicted to meth. So, no.”
    She lingered there long enough for me to say, “That's what you heard. Don't you wanna find out for yourself if it's true?”
    She shook her head. “No. Not at the expense of what might happen to me.”
    I felt her slipping away. I had to say something.
    “Everyone likes sex, Kayleigh—including you. One day,” I added, because I was pretty sure she'd never had sex before. “You can't hide behind those glasses forever. That's why you're afraid of me.”
    “Keep my glasses out of this. They have nothing to do with it.” She pointed to her face.
    I laughed at how silly that'd sounded when she'd said it. I saw a smile cross her face too, though she tried to hide it. Her eyes sparkled. “Complete nerd,” I said. She smiled more.
    “But I think you like this nerd,” she said, opening the car door and dipping back into the seat next to me.
    “It was only one time. The meth. I didn't know any better and she was a bitch.”
    Kayleigh nodded. “Sorry,” she said. “Why did you do it?”
    I quirked my eyebrow. “You never said if you liked me or not.”
    “It's possible,” she said.
    “Good enough for me.”
    “So?”
    “I didn't choose to. It just happened. It made the crazy emotions go away. For a while. But I realized the hard way that substance abuse wasn't the cure.”
    She didn't comment on that, but she did say something else. “I wasn't trying to impress him.”
    “What?”
    “That guy you beat up last night? I wasn't trying to impress him. I don't even know him, nor do I like him. I was just really drunk, and I'm not too happy with myself that you saw me like that, you know.”
    “So you do care what I think about you?”
    She didn't say anything. She let the space fall silent. Then I said, “It's okay. You saw me in a messed up condition, too—so we're even.”
    “Thanks for trying to save me last night, but my mom wasn't even home.”
    I glanced up and my eyes landed on the figure standing in Kayleigh's doorway. Oh, shit. Kayleigh was about to be in trouble. I could sense it. “She is now, and she's staring at you. Hard.”
    “Looks like I better get inside,” she said. “See you later?”
    “Maybe. If she doesn't kill you first. Let me know what happens?”
    “I don't think dead girls can speak, Kaleb.” She opened the door and climbed out. Before she headed into her house, she said one last thing. “We're still not friends.”
    I laughed, silently, leaned my head against the seat, my eyes still on her. “I'm not trying to be your friend, Kayleigh.” She shut the car door, then bolted up the driveway. She slid past her mother, who then closed the door.
    I put the car in reverse, backed out and drove home.
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
    That Boy
    *
    “Where in the hell were you, Kayleigh? Why did that boy just bring you home at 9 am in the morning? Do you have any idea what that makes you look like? You spent the night with him. It makes you look like a tramp!”
    “Calm down, mother,” I told her. “I didn't do anything wrong.”
    “I came home early this morning and you weren't