Unplugged Summer: A special edition of Summer Unplugged

by Amy Sparling

  My heart pounds as I step up on her porch. This is pretty much enemy territory because I know her grandfather doesn’t like me. I stand straight and try to look like a decent human being, and then I ring the doorbell.

  What seems like an eternity goes by, but finally I hear the deadbolt click and the door opens. An older woman stands on the other side, one eyebrow cocked like she thinks I’m a door-to-door salesman and she doesn’t want any of it.

  “Hello,” I say, giving her my most charming smile. I hold up the DVDs. “Bayleigh left these at my house yesterday.”

  “Who are you?” she says, giving me a scrutinizing frown.

  “I’m Jace Adams, ma’am. I live next door.”

  The woman, who I guess is Bayleigh’s grandmother, grabs the DVDs from my hand. “She’s sick but I’ll be sure to give it to her,” she says, closing the door.

  Well I guess a charming smile can’t win her over, especially since her husband kind of totally hates me. I sigh and turn around, then start jogging so I can get out of their yard as soon as possible. I try telling myself that this is a good thing, Bayleigh’s grandparents hating me. It means I should just stay away and ignore the girl next door. That fits in perfectly with my plan of ignoring all girls and everything else except dirt bikes.

  I should be focusing on dirt bikes.

  Not pretty girls with adorable smiles.

  Chapter 9

  I’m not about to go over to Bayleigh’s house again, not even if I secretly want to. I call up the guy with the backhoe and he’s happy to come back out and help me make a twenty foot long tabletop jump in the back yard. Once it’s angled perfectly, I spend the rest of the morning riding around, mostly for fun instead of for speed like usual. I do some whips over the tabletop. They’re considered fancy or even “tricks”, but really whips aren’t hard to do. You throw your bike sideways as you soar over a jump and it looks badass.

  I’m doing it hoping Bayleigh might be watching from her upstairs window, but I don’t ever look back there to check because I don’t want to seem like a show off. Of course, showing off is still showing off even if you act like it isn’t. It’s probably the lamest thing I’ve ever done. In my life back home, every girl knows who I am. They’ve seen me race and they know I’m good at what I do. There’s no need to impress them with my talent because they already know how good I am.

  But Bayleigh was pretty clueless about everything involving motocross and dirt bikes. I think it’s really cute how she asked so many questions, and not to mention how refreshing it was to talk to a girl who wasn’t already obsessed with me as a racer. My dad always warns about letting the fame get to my head. He says it’ll only get worse once I’m a pro racer, and I always roll my eyes and tell him it’s not a big deal, but I get what he’s saying. It is really easy to become an asshole when girls throw themselves at you. But I don’t want to be that type of guy. So it’s really nice that Bayleigh is getting to know me, the normal guy, not me, the racer.

  Around noon, I take a break from riding and I hang outside by the shed, hoping she’ll come out to say hello. I can’t even tell if she’s seen me or not. The balcony window is shadowed by the overhanging roof so I can’t see inside. Not that I’m trying to or anything…

  It only takes about ten minutes before I realize I need to get my shit together and stop stalking this girl. I take a cold shower and head into town to get something to eat. Just about everything that comes with living alone for the summer is great. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. I can watch anything on TV and keep the AC extra cold without having my mom complain that I’m freezing her out. The only part that sucks is going to a restaurant and eating alone.

  I find this burger place that claims to have the best burgers in town, and I order a cheeseburger with jalapenos and a large order of fries and then I tuck into a booth in the corner and read a motocross magazine. I’m not even interested in this stupid thing, but I found it in my car and wanted to look busy and not like I’m some loser who has to eat alone. Most people play on their phones to pretend to look busy, but I have no one to talk to. I could call my mom, but then she’d only go on and on about how much she worries about me and I’m not in the mood for that.

  It’s a shame Bayleigh broke her phone, or I would have gotten her number the very first day I met her. I could be texting her right now.

  Or maybe not, if she’s not interested in me.

  She did sit really close to me on the couch when we watched movies. I could feel her body against mine, smell the fruity scent of her shampoo. But she was also drinking, so maybe it didn’t mean anything. Guess I won’t know until I see her again.

  I think Fate is on my side today, because as I’m driving home, I see a girl in shorts and a tank top jogging on the side of the road. She’s wearing Converse instead of running shoes, which is a little weird. Her auburn hair sways in a ponytail as she jogs. I slow the car to a crawl and trail along behind her, slowly coming to a stop.

  She looks over at me, her eyes wide and a little scared until she sees my car. Her eyes soften. I roll down the window.

  “Need a ride?”

  For a second, I’m afraid she’ll say no and keep running along without me. But then she grins and walks over to the passenger side and slips inside my car. She looks really cute with red cheeks from the sweltering summer heat. I crank the AC for her.

  “Thanks,” she says, leaning toward the vent and closing her eyes as the cold air washes over her. I’m trying to think of something to say, when she goes, “Nice car,” in this sarcastic way.

  “It’s a rental,” I say, tapping the dashboard as if I’m super proud of the thing. I’m hoping to get a smile out of her, and it works. “Yep, this baby was the cheapest model available and she’s mine for the whole summer.”

  She laughs. “You’re not going to pick up any girls with a ride this lame.”

  I lower my voice. “I’ve already picked up one girl in it.” She looks at me, eyes wide, and I wink at her.

  And yeah. I can tell it now. She definitely likes me. Maybe not a lot, but I’m winning her over and I couldn’t be more excited about it. In this moment, I can’t even be bothered to think about my career or all that other stuff I should be thinking about. I just want her to smile at me again.

  Too bad we’ve now reached her house.

  “Can you pull in at your house and I’ll walk home?” she says, gnawing on her lip.

  “Your grandpa doesn’t like me, huh?” I pull into my driveway and park under the shade of an old oak tree. “He’s never said a word to me, but he’s always glaring at me and shit,” I tell her, trying to make her feel less guilty than she looks right now.

  “He doesn’t really like anyone, actually,” she says.

  I give her a look and she says, “Fine, he doesn’t like you because you’re messing up the yard and he thinks it’s disrespectful to your dead grandfather.”

  “Ah…” I look over at her grandparent’s house and I realize for the first time that although this place I inherited is all new to me, it holds memories for the man next door. He knew my grandfather and they were friends. I sigh and realize I have been kind of a dick. “Fair enough.”

  Chapter 10

  I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but apparently when you tell someone to never call you again, that doesn’t mean they’ll listen to it. In my case, it means they’ll keep calling you a few times a day, and when you don’t answer, they’ll send you a good morning and good night text filled with smiley emojis just to push your buttons.

  Really, I don’t know why The Ex does this. It’s insanely annoying and only makes me hate her more. Does she really think I’ll suddenly say, “Well she cheated on me and was a total bitch but she keeps calling and texting so I guess I’ll take her back?” She can’t possibly think that, yet here she is, texting me again.

  I usually allow the anger and hatred of this woman to rise up in my chest when I see her name on my phone. Usually, I can roll my eyes and think ab
out what a slut she is and then go on with my day. But something is off tonight. My phone keeps lighting up and here I am wishing it was lighting up because of Bayleigh. I wish I wasn’t alone here, with no one. I wish I had someone who could be my partner in every sense of the word. Someone who trusted me, who I could trust in return. Someone who wouldn’t make the nights be so lonely.

  I light a fire in the fire pit as soon as it gets dark. I bought marsh mallows the other day thinking it would be fun to roast them, but now that just seems so stupid. Who roasts marsh mallows by themselves? That is definitely a friend activity. So I sit in my lawn chair and I watch the fire and I can’t stop thinking of her.

  I glance up toward her house next door. The back of it is covered in shadows because the back porch light isn’t on.

  “You out there?” I call out, knowing I won’t get a reply.

  Only… I hear the creaking of someone stepping onto the balcony. A thin shadowy figure leans out. “Yes,” she says. “I just walked out…I wasn’t here long or anything.”

  Thank you, God, for this stroke of good luck.

  I wave her over. “Come on down. I could use the company.”

  The shadow disappears and my heart sinks. But then a few minutes later, I see her tiptoeing from her yard into mine and my whole chest feels fluttery and excited. She sits next to me in the lawn chair I’d set out earlier hoping it would be hers one day.

  I nod at her because I’m too nervous to say anything right now. Just being in her presence has got me all tangled up inside. She’s so ridiculously beautiful on a normal basis and now the shadows and flickers of the flame give her this romantic, angelic glow.

  “This bonfire could use some marshmallows,” she says with a little smile.

  My phone vibrates so I take it out of my pocket and see The Ex’s name on the screen. Although I do have a brand new bag of them in the kitchen, there’s no way I could eat right now. “I’ll remember that for next time,” I say, glancing down at the text.

  I’ve been ignoring all of her hellos and what’s ups, but this text is different.

  I could be five months pregnant right now and you wouldn’t even know, you asshole.

  What the hell does that mean? Is it a threat? Is she being serious? Jesus, I can’t have a child with that bitch. I can’t stand the idea of seeing her ever again. This can’t possibly be real.

  My thumbs fly across the phone screen, texting her back.

  Get Luke and all the other guys you slept with to take a DNA test and tell me the results.

  She writes back a few seconds later.

  God, Jace. I’m not pregnant. I’m just saying you wouldn’t know even if I was because you’re being an asshole who won’t talk to me in person.

  Relief floods over my entire body. Thank God. And then it hits me, like a ton of bricks: she only said that because she knew I’d reply to her. Fuck. I’m not making that mistake again.

  I close my fist around my phone and try like hell to look like a normal human being when I glance back at Bayleigh.

  “You okay?” she asks sweetly. “You’re being super quiet.”

  I shrug even though I’d rather punch something because I can’t believe I was stupid enough to fall for The Ex’s shit. “I’m fine. I’m just…I don’t know.”

  She leans forward, her hair falling into her face. “You might as well let it out. It’s not like you have anyone else to talk to,” she says with a grin. Then she glances at the phone in my hand and says, “Well, anyone who’s physically here.”

  I watch her intently, her soft features glowing in the firelight. I want to ask if she’s ever screwed over someone as badly as girls have screwed over me. But I know she hasn’t. This girl is sweet. Kind. I put the phone back in my pocket.

  “I’m not gonna babble on like some kind of child.” I grab a stick from the ground and poke at the logs in the fire. “But, if you have to know, I guess you could just say I’ve totally ruined my life. I’m stuck. I don’t know where to go from here.”

  “You’re eighteen,” she says. “Your life isn’t over yet. Just like how I know my life isn’t technically over, but it sure feels like it.”

  I lean back in my chair. “What’s so bad about your life?”

  “Well for starters, I’m stuck here all summer.” She glances back toward her house. “Do I even need to go on?”

  I snort. “Please do.”

  She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “I’m stuck here all summer without my friends. I’m grounded from everything, including my phone which is killing me, and my sort of boyfriend just officially became my not-boyfriend.”

  Okay. I know she’s clearly in pain and everything, but damn does it make me happy to hear she doesn’t have a boyfriend. I lift an eyebrow. “Sort of boyfriend? How is that a thing? Did he ask you to be his sort of girlfriend?”

  She shakes her head. “Screw you. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  My phone goes off again, but this time it’s staying in my pocket. “How did you get grounded?”

  She folds her arms across her chest and stares at the fire. “I don’t want to talk about that either.”

  “Okay, I’ll go.” I pop my knuckles and gather up the courage to spill my guts. Maybe it’ll make her want to talk to me as well. “I just lost a two million dollar contract over a fucking girl.”

  Her mouth falls open, and there’s this look in her eyes that I’ve seen before on other girls. I keep talking. “I had just signed to ride with a factory sponsorship when I lost it all because I got thrown in jail. My agent says there's no way in hell they will give me the contract again now that I'm out. Apparently motocross is a family sport and they don't think my bad attitude fits in with the family vibe.”

  “Wait,” she says, knitting her brow. “How does a girl play into this?”

  I don’t want her to know. I don’t want to tell her. I want her to keep thinking I’m awesome.

  I swallow. “I was in jail for four months on an assault charge.” My phone goes off again. I ignore it.

  “Did you…” she says, and then she looks away.

  I sigh, and take out my phone, clearing away the messages without reading them. The Ex is basically doing the same shit as always, going on and on about how I should talk to her. “He was a guy I raced with, and he pissed me off. He got what he deserved.”

  “Did you hurt him?” she asks. I can see the fear in her eyes and I hate that I’m the one who caused it. She has nothing to fear from me.

  “Oh my God,” she says, her eyes widening. “What did you do to him?”

  I wave my hand through the air. “He was fine. I just taught him a lesson.” I throw my head back and stare at the night sky. I can’t help but laugh. “At least I thought I taught him a lesson. He may have fucked my girlfriend but in the end, I'm the one who got fucked.”

  “I’m sorry,” she says. She chews on her bottom lip. This is really awkward for both of us, but I like this girl. I want her to know the truth about me because if she’s going to like me back, I want it to be for real. “She never should have done that to you.”

  “No, she shouldn't. But he knew what he was doing. I was his competition, and he got rid of me.” I lift my shoulders then lean back in my chair. “Smart guy.”

  She doesn’t seem super disgusted with me right now, so I guess that’s a good thing. “So when you got out of jail you banished yourself to Salt Gap, Texas?”

  I nod. “I've officially owned the place ever since I turned eighteen. I never came out to see it because I was too busy. I never understood why a man I'd never met would leave me everything he owned…but maybe he knew I'd need it someday.” I grab my iPad off the table next to me and skim through it. “I'm sick of this playlist. I think it's time for some online radio, eh?”

  She looks really excited for a moment. “You have WiFi on that thing?”

  I nod. “Why are you giving me that look?” I ask.

  She leans forward and clasps her hands together in
front of her chest, giving me this pleading look. “Do you think…maybe I could…um...?”

  And then I remember she got grounded from her stuff, so I roll my eyes and she says, “Could I check my Facebook? Please, just real fast?”

  I’m going to let her have it. Hell, she could have anything she wants from me right now because she’s just so damn cute, but I like messing with her so I pull the iPad to my chest and give her a look. “Do you think your mother would approve of that?”

  “Come on, Jace, pleeease?” She makes this pouty face but all I can think about is how much I love when she says my name. I laugh to try and stop my mind from wandering places it shouldn’t go, and then I toss her the iPad.

  She gives me this grateful little smile and then she attacks the screen as if logging into her page is the most important thing in the world. I go back to poking at the fire with my stick to give her some privacy. I head back into the kitchen to get us sodas and when I return, she doesn’t even seem to notice I’m back. Slowly, I walk up to the back of her chair, and then I lean down and get really close to her. She doesn’t even notice, or if she does, she ignores it.

  I hover my lips over her hair, just next to her neck. I want to brush her hair away and kiss her neck, find out of the skin as is soft as it looks. Instead, I exhale. She jumps and squeals and I realize she really didn’t know I was standing here. She must have been very absorbed in her Facebook page.

  “Dammit Jace, you scared me!” she says, swatting me away.

  I laugh. “I’ve been standing here a while, but you were so damn immersed in writing to your boy toy that you didn’t notice.”

  “He’s not my boy toy,” she murmurs under her breath.

  I fall back into my chair, my heart still pounding from being so close to her. “Whatever you say, Bayleigh. You should forget that dude. You’re better than him.”