Cherry Red Summer (Emely and Elyas Book 1)

by Bartsch, Carina

  Once the first break was over, I gave up my search and leaned on the wall outside my next class. It didn’t take long for Sören to materialize next to me.

  “Hi, Emely!” he said, grinning.

  “Hello,” I mumbled as I scanned the hallway in hopes I might still see Elyas.

  “Emely?”

  “Yes?”

  “I asked how you are,” he said.

  “Um, oh yeah . . . fine. And you?”

  “Thanks, I’m—” he started, but I stopped listening. The bell rang at that instant, and suddenly I saw him.

  Elyas turned into the hallway, accompanied by Kevin. They stood in front of their next class, a few yards down from mine. The mere sight of him rattled me.

  I had decided in advance to just walk up to him and say hi, but now my legs didn’t want to budge. Elyas seemed distracted. He turned his head slightly in my direction, scanned the crowded hallway until he caught sight of me, and froze.

  But no smile.

  No warmth.

  His face was ice cold.

  I raised my hand to wave, but he looked away before I could.

  I didn’t know what was going on. Before I had a chance to ask him, my teacher arrived and held the door open for the mass waiting to go in. I tried to catch one last, fleeting glimpse of Elyas through the surging mass of students, but I couldn’t find him among all the faces anymore.

  If I thought waiting for the first break was bad, waiting for lunch was worse.

  Sören blathered on, but I didn’t catch one syllable of what he or the teacher said. I just sat, blinking into space, unable to understand why Elyas had looked at me so coldly. I tried to convince myself that maybe he hadn’t seen me, or maybe he had confused me with someone else, or maybe there was some logical reason for the way he’d acted. But deep down I suspected the worst.

  After the two torturous hours of class were finally over, I resolved to find Elyas. I even managed to ditch Sören, so I was alone as I stepped out into the courtyard. This time I did find him.

  Elyas stood with his back to me, facing Kevin, who sat on one of the rec tables used for Ping-Pong and the like. It took me a while to summon my courage and walk over to them.

  Kevin noticed me first, nodding at Elyas to signal he had a visitor.

  I stood behind Elyas, who turned around. At first he looked at me, surprised, and for a fraction of a second his eyes were as warm as they had been yesterday. But they darkened again within a blink, and I tensed under his glare.

  My voice trembled. “H-hi . . . Elyas . . .”

  “Yes?” he asked in a tone as cold as a bucket of ice water.

  “Um . . . I . . . ,” I whispered, but I couldn’t get any more sound out.

  “Um . . . can’t you . . . speak?” he said.

  I stared at him. He’d never spoken to me that way before.

  In that moment, my world crashed in on itself. “I . . . just wanted . . . because of yesterday . . . ,” I whispered and then stopped talking. His icy eyes froze the blood in my veins.

  He suddenly and unexpectedly flashed me a smile, giving me a nanosecond of hope. It took me a second to realize it wasn’t a nice smile. It was a mocking, scornful smile—an infinitely cruel one, too.

  “Because of yesterday?” he repeated before a dismissive snort escaped his nose. “Listen closely, little Emely,” he said. “You’re nice and all. But, hey, your boobs are just too small for me.”

  I stared into the turquoise-green sneer of his eyes, which seemed frozen. I went rigid and couldn’t react. Everything got quiet around me; the world seemed to stop turning. The only thing I felt was an unbearable, searing pain radiating from the center of my chest.

  I always thought it was trite whenever someone talked about a broken heart, but here it was, happening to me. Mine shattered like glass into a thousand pieces, tinkling on the floor in slow motion.

  Everything sounded muffled. I was deaf, no longer present, and I couldn’t get my mind to understand what Elyas had just said. There was only the gaping wound that threatened to devour me from the inside, the only proof my imagination wasn’t playing tricks on me. I stumbled backward in a daze, unable to take anything else in. Not even Kevin’s spiteful laughter, which passed through me, and swelled to fill the entire courtyard of people.

  The next few months were a blur. I vegetated away, constructing someone completely different for other people to see. I didn’t want anyone noticing what was really going on.

  My only salvation was that my love for Elyas eventually grew into hate. But I struggled with the hurt for months and resolved I would never, ever forget. Elyas and I didn’t say a word to each other after that day. Even having to see him at school was hell on earth.

  Things started to improve when Elyas spent a year in England with Kevin. Alex had told me they were trying to get into some fancy university there.

  Once they had left, I finally started moving through Neustadt again without fear. It took a long time to feel like I was over him, but it did eventually happen.

  I only saw him one more time after that. It was when I was at Alex’s house two and a half years later. Elyas came through the front door right as I was leaving. After a second of terror that brought everything back, I walked past him as though he were made of air.

  Now, seven years later, here I was lying in bed next to him. I was actually lying beside the person who had invented mental cruelty. I squinted over at him angrily. He still had his hands behind his head as he looked at the sky, lost in thought.

  How could I be so stupid? How could I even consider liking him after everything he did to me in high school? I could kick myself for being so dumb.

  Unbridled rage welled up inside me, and I did something that was long, long overdue. I raised my elbow, jammed the boney tip into his ribs with incredible force, and yelled “You jerk!”

  The breaking sound I had hoped for didn’t happen, but I knew from Elyas’s reaction that my blow hadn’t missed its mark. “Ooowww!” he yelled, grabbing his side, obviously in serious pain. “I didn’t do anything!”

  Oh really?

  “You’re a jerk! You’re an ass! You made high school hell for me!” I said. His face passed from incomprehension to annoyance. Apparently he didn’t quite follow what I was saying.

  “Could you please explain what kind of number you’re pulling here?” he asked.

  “I’d love to!” I said, quoting back to him in the same tone what he’d said that day. “Listen closely, little Emely. You’re nice and all. But, hey, your boobs are just too small for me!”

  “Oh God . . . ,” he moaned, rubbing his ribs. “Why are you bringing that up now?”

  “Why don’t you start by saying, ‘Sorry I was such a giant freaking jerk’?”

  He grumbled in pain, apparently unsure how to respond.

  “Oh my God, what are you talking about?” he mumbled. “I’ve just been injured—”

  “You’ve been injured?” I repeated. “Don’t make me laugh!”

  “Seriously! That hurt!” he insisted. “I admit what I said back in high school was wrong. But you don’t need to play the drama queen about it now! I mean, what you did to me back then was way worse!”

  Huh?

  “What I did? What did I do to you?” I stared at him and then continued. “Well, excuse me, but that was my first kiss! If I’d known you were expecting something more professional, I’d have gotten some goddamned coaching first!”

  “Stop talking nonsense,” he said. “That was my first kiss, too. Stop twisting the facts around! My comment about your breasts was just my response to the way you took me for a ride.” He paused. “God, I was so pissed when I heard you were dating that loser.”

  All expression drained from my face. “What?”

  “Did you honestly think I wouldn’t clue in to what was going on?
” he asked. “That weirdo was running all over school telling everyone what you did!”

  “What are you even talking about?”

  “That loser guy—I don’t even remember his name anymore. Simon?” Elyas said the name derisively.

  “You mean Sören?” I asked with a furrowed brow.

  “Yeah, that’s him. Sören,” he mumbled. Evidently he was not a fan.

  It took me a couple of seconds to collect my thoughts. This was way too much information at once. After taking a deep breath, I started again, focusing on the facts.

  “Sören went around the school saying he and I were dating?”

  “Yeah. But it doesn’t matter how I found out,” he replied.

  “And you . . . you believed him?”

  “Of course I believed him,” said Elyas, who was now starting to look confused. “You were always hanging out with him.”

  “God, Elyas,” I moaned, pressing my face into the pillow. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe you should’ve come and talked to me about it? Or asked Alex?”

  “What would that have changed?” he said with a snort.

  “For starters, we would have told you that Sören was bullshitting you.”

  I could see the wheels spinning in Elyas’s head. “You mean . . . you . . . you weren’t dating him? At all?”

  “No, you idiot! I was in love with you, head over heels, for two years—two years, goddammit. Years! You broke my heart, jerk!”

  “You’re not being serious, or . . .” He stared at me.

  This was too much stupidity even for me. I thrust my elbow into the same spot as before.

  “Ooowww!” he yelled, grabbing his side again. “Stop doing that!”

  “Don’t be such a wuss,” I mumbled.

  “You think you’re the only one who suffered?” he asked.

  I snorted. “Well, who else? Did you step on an ant when you ripped out my heart?”

  “What about me, you stupid cow!” he answered. “Didn’t you ever think that maybe I was in love with you for two years myself?”

  “Oh come on,” I said.

  “Believe it or not, it’s true.”

  Was he trying to convince me that he had been just as in love with me as I was with him? “If that’s true, Elyas . . . then . . . then . . .”

  “Then?”

  “Then you’re even dumber than I thought.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Because the whole thing was totally your fault.”

  “You’re saying that if it were you, you would have done something differently?” He didn’t wait for my answer. “That loser Simon—”

  “Sören,” I said.

  “Whatever!” he said more heatedly. “That loser Sören was nipping at your heels for years! Whenever I saw you, you had that little dachshund in tow. Do you have any idea how envious I was?” I didn’t answer, but that didn’t stop Elyas.

  “And yet,” he said, calming down. “When you let me kiss you . . . I had hope. After that I thought we’d be together. Then the very next morning, that loser himself told me he was officially your boyfriend and that you two were going on a date that afternoon.” He shrugged. “Of course I believed him! And I blew a fuse.”

  I was starting to see his side.

  Sure, it was all years ago now, but I had gone through hell. It was strange to find out, seven years later, that it was all for nothing. Just a stupid misunderstanding.

  “Are you not talking to me anymore?” Elyas asked cautiously after a moment.

  “I need to give some serious thought—” I started but then sighed, surprising myself at how much my anger had dissipated. We couldn’t change any of it now. “Screw it, Elyas. It was all so long ago.”

  He didn’t say anything, which I took as tacit agreement. The words had come easily enough, but I couldn’t move my mind forward. It swirled around, putting me in a strange mood.

  Our beautiful kiss that day had been real. My impression that Elyas had enjoyed it as much as I did seemed to have been accurate. What would have happened if Sören hadn’t told people lies, or if Elyas hadn’t been foolish enough to believe him? Could we have been happy?

  That thought turned into a queasy feeling in my stomach.

  “Emely?”

  “Hmm?”

  “About that mean remark I made back in high school,” he started. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think your breasts were too small at all. Actually, they’re . . . very nice.”

  I tried to suppress a smile. “Your apology is a little late, but thank you. I’ll pass it on to them.”

  “How big are they, actually? A cups?” he said jokingly.

  “No, thank you very much. B. B as in bastard, buddy.” Not A as in ass!

  He laughed softly, and we both smiled. After a moment I started feeling ravenously hungry, a side effect from the pot. I desperately needed something sweet. There had to be something sweet in here somewhere.

  I rolled over to open the top drawer of Elyas’s nightstand. Unfortunately it was too dark to see anything, so I groped around inside.

  “Are you looking for condoms?” Elyas asked. “They’re one drawer down.”

  As if!

  I growled and jammed my elbow back toward him. This time he was too fast and moved his ribs out of the way just in time, with a laugh.

  “The rubber that could protect me from you has yet to be invented,” I sighed. “And spare me the comment about how lucky we are that at least extra-large condoms already exist.”

  “I wasn’t going to say that,” he replied. “Only men who are compensating say stuff like that.”

  God! He was so full of himself.

  “Besides,” he continued, smirking, “women actually don’t like it if it’s too big.”

  Ugh. “I see you believe everything you read in men’s magazines,” I said and returned to my search. I couldn’t find anything. “Do you have any chocolate around?”

  “Who keeps chocolate in their nightstand?”

  Um, me? “No idea . . . It was just a thought.”

  “We have some in the fridge. Do you think the two lovebirds have moved to Alex’s room by now?”

  “Depends on what signals Sebastian has been sending,” I said.

  “Or how much Alex is talking,” he added.

  When he was right, he was right.

  “I’ll go and peek,” he said, getting out of bed. Through his open door I could see that the hallway was pitch-black. Elyas tiptoed out a bit to check on the situation in the living room.

  “The coast looks clear,” he said, giving me a thumbs-up.

  I followed him through the dark hallway into the living room, where he turned on the light. We squinted for a moment as our eyes adjusted. Elyas looked kind of cute squinting.

  I thought so for only a moment before wondering what kind of pollution had clouded my brain. I frowned, followed Elyas to the fridge, and hopped up on the island. I peered over his shoulder while he opened the door and looked in.

  “Hmm . . . ,” he said, opening various drawers that all turned up empty.

  “Don’t tell me there’s no chocolate left!” I sounded desperate.

  “No, unfortunately not. Looks like Alex gobbled up all that was left.”

  I recalled all of Alex’s Sebastian drama and suspected her chocolate consumption had increased threefold of late. Great.

  “Wait!” Elyas said, and opened the freezer.

  I squealed as he held up two cartons of Häagen-Dazs. Let one of them be Baileys, let one of them be Baileys . . .

  Elyas looked at the label on the first one. “Do you like Baileys?”

  I was so excited I could have hugged him. Instead I squealed and waved my arms around like a little girl. He handed me the carton with a smile.

  I pulled
off the top as Elyas opened the drawer and took out a tiny dessert spoon.

  I raised an eyebrow. “What am I, a bird or something? Give me a real spoon!”

  Elyas laughed and shook his head, looking for a soup spoon instead. He handed me one, and I said, “Much better,” with a nod of approval. I loaded the spoon with ice cream and got busy licking it away. The ice cream melted on my tongue, and I closed my eyes to savor it. Lost in the deliciousness, I didn’t notice that Elyas was watching my gastronomic orgasm.

  “Uh, do you think I could have some, too?” he asked.

  He looked silly standing there holding a spoon in his hand.

  “Hmm, let me think . . . Nope!” I grinned and shoveled another spoonful into my mouth. Elyas flashed me a grim look.

  “Go get your own!” I said.

  “Emely, that is my own!”

  “Mine, yours . . .” I snorted. “Haven’t you ever heard of sharing?”

  “I was about to ask you the same thing,” he said, laughing.

  “You can have the other carton!” I had no intention of sharing even one spoonful with him.

  “It’s plain vanilla, and I don’t like plain vanilla.”

  “Hmm,” I said. “Then it looks like you’ve got a problem.” I grinned and kept eating. But that changed when Elyas’s lips formed that all-too-familiar smirk. I stood my ground as he took a step toward me with an outstretched hand. I yanked the carton away just in time to leave him grabbing air.

  I smirked back at him and shoveled more ice cream into my mouth. Elyas wasn’t ready to give up yet, and he prepared for his next attempt.

  “If you want ice cream,” I said, “you’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers.” I was prepared for any battle necessary to protect my ice cream.

  He smiled, which was merely a distraction, as he grabbed for the carton again. In vain.

  I managed to get the next spoonful into my mouth just before Elyas took another step toward me. I quickly moved the carton behind my back.

  “Hmm,” he said impishly as I looked at him with my spoon in my mouth.

  Elyas leaned forward, rested his hands on either side of my legs on the counter, and lowered his face toward mine with a twinkle in his eyes. “How about,” he whispered into my ear, “we take the ice cream back to bed with us?”