Chapter Two

Summer

It's sure you wonder how Jay even came to that revelation that he actually cared about Emma and it wasn't simple. It wasn't something that made sense for him, or even Emma. However it happened, the words escaped his lips and they're out there in the universe.

Three months earlier she didn't mean a thing to him. In fact deep down he sort of blamed her for his big break up with Alex . He didn't care that she missed Sean, he just knew she did. He used to see her get drunk at ravine parties alone. Spinner was too busy trying to get back to school so Jay was constantly alone drinking as well. He never spoke to her. One night he saw her, and he remarked, "Deja vu, huh?"

She was frightened by him considering all these parties he hadn't said an awkward word to her. She laughed it off and shook her head contemplating why he was even talking to her. "Kind of."

"What are you drinking?" He asked plainly grabbing another beer from the cooler for himself.

"Beer." She told him with a shrug.

He then realized that was a stupid question and sat down beside her at the bench. "I just wanted to ask why are you even here? I thought you were allergic to parties."

"It's a free country and I was invited once so I thought - why not? I have nothing better to do."

"You came to the right place."

"Yeah, so how long are we gonna pretend to like each other?" Emma asked boldly after a moment of silence.

"Who says we even will?" She didn't say anything sipping her beer, he noticed she hated it like she hates him or at least so he thinks. "I'm about to roll a blunt so if you want we can -"

Emma stood up and nodded, "Sure. Where to?"

He got uncomfortable somehow as he gestured over to the corner of the party, "The van over there."

Her eyes widened with discomfort and then she went back to her casual look she even let out a nervous laugh, as if she wanted to prove something she was about to decline and he needed to save it. Sean told him to look out for Emma in his absence and he was doing a shitty ass job. So he saved the conversation, if they were quasi-friends or friends that would be that. He wouldn't have to try hard looking for her or anything. "You're just gonna have to trust me on this. I don't want to hook up with you," She made one of those faces as if to say 'get away from me creep' but then he added, "I just want to smoke and it's pretty darn private."

"Fine. I have nothing else better to do."

"You know you're pretty damn intimidating? Anyone ever told you that?"

"I'm far from it." She replied as they walked past the burning bonfire and to the van. She stepped inside ahead of him and he shut it behind them. Everyone else was too busy getting loaded off of Keystone to notice.

They were alone. She sat down like a pretzel legs crossed as he sat down across from her. It was like he was daring her to make a move, and she was daring him to to do the same. Jay grabbed an old cd case as she watched him roll them a little something for them. She started talking and he didn't really pay much attention she started going on about how boring her summer was so far with her best friend not being around.

To her this felt strange. Talking was a nervous habit. The van, it smelled the same. It smelled like a combination of weed and gasoline in the summer heat. He was finished and then he gave it to her, "You first."

She made that face again, the one that he wanted to close his eyes and kiss away that very first time in the van - the one where she was afraid but she was always pretending with Jay that she wasn't. He caught onto that. She relented, "Fine."

They didn't speak with their words but how they looked at one another, her body language, his body language said something else they were bored and alone. Spinner like he said was too busy going back to school to hang out with badass Jay and Emma she had nothing to do but hang out with him. It was a match made in hell. They could make this work, even if it was only for a summer. Jay never gets attached and if he remembered Emma like he did when they did hook up that spring, neither did she. She couldn't ever bring him home to meet the parents. It was perfect.

He lit the lighter and she took the first hit and then everything changed. She passed it to him as she exhaled, "Now you." He smoked it quickly and gave it back to her, they went back and forth until there was nothing left and then the giggles started on both ends. "How bout we hang out this summer, Nelson."

She started laughing shaking her head, "Are you nuts?"

"Hear me out."

"No!"

"Why not?" He asked her.

"Because like we don't have anything in common."

"So? And we do."

"What?"

"We're bored and lonely!" And he muttered softly, "and kind of horny."

"Ew, what happened to I don't want to hook up with you?!"

"Ew? Thanks, Green. Look I don't know but you come to these parties, at least talk to someone. Let that someone be me! I know we hate the sight of one another but it's just for the summer."

"You're a poet and you don't even know it, but the answer still stands no."

"What if I told people you smoked with me? Maybe Manny?"

"Manny wouldn't believe you." And then her smile faded, and she took his threat a little more seriously. If she did it back in the spring, then she'd for sure do it in the summer she thought. He knew her Achilles heel - she cared way too much what people thought. It was Jay's way of keeping tabs on her, "If we did this, no one can know."

"I have conditions."

"Name them."

"You can't go falling in love with me. You have to get tested because of -"

"That won't be a problem, Nelson."

"You will call me by my name."

"Okay Emma," It felt strange calling her by her name and then he asked, "and what else?"

"When I call it off, it's over and we never speak of this like it never happened."

"Deal." He said with a nod.

"Alright then, if you want to hang out that bad this summer - here we are." Emma picked up her beer from the floor of the van and took a sip, and he and her clinked red plastic solo cups. "It's settled."