Summer Apart Read Free Page A

bucks is cheap. Trust me, they’re getting a deal.”
    “You’re crazy,” I mutter.
    He shakes his head. “You’re undervaluing yourself. You have a real talent, and your work deserves to be recognized.”
    “Okay,” I say, sliding the envelope into my purse. “I’ll sell to them but only because you’ve practically already sold it for me.”
    He throws an arm around my shoulder, wiggling his eyebrow ring at me. “I’m sorry if I’m being pushy. I just really believe in you. I think you have a very good chance at being a professional artist and I don’t want you to throw it all away because of self-doubt.” Before I have a chance to reply, he closes his truck door and takes his keys out of his pocket. “You want me to follow you home and unload these boxes? I don’t think they’ll fit in your car.”
    I match his coy smile with one of my own. “I think they’ll fit. I think you’re just trying to hang out with me.”
    His tongue slides across his bottom lip, making him as guilty as ever. “Of course I’m trying to hang out with you. I drove two days to hang out with you.”
    Blood rushes to my cheeks at twice the speed of light. Park remains a gentleman and doesn’t mention it even though I’m sure my face is as red as Rudolph’s nose. He walks me around to my car and opens the door for me. I climb into the driver’s seat and he rests his arms on my door, leaning in to get one last look at me. “So…I’ll see you at my house,” I say, feeling butterflies wake up in my stomach.
    He smiles and taps the roof of my car. “See you there, beautiful.”
    And just like that, we’ve fallen into our old routine. Our dating but not really routine. The weird grey area that makes it obvious we like each other, but we both know that doesn’t change the fact that our lives are so completely different and there’s no rational way we could be together.
    Just like that—my heart wrestles with being completely head over heels in love with Nolan Park and thinking that I’m making a terrible mistake.

Chapter 3
     
    Mom is home when we get to my house. She likes Park, so it’s not the worst thing that she’s here. Like every parent, she has this innate tendency to say things that the typical teenager would find mortifying, but my mom isn’t like regular parents. My mom, although sweet and loving and a great mom, can somehow find a way to embarrass me for life every time Park is over. And, when I think it can’t possibly get any worse, she’ll find a way to top it.
    Last time Park visited, Mom got home from grocery shopping and as Park and I walked through the kitchen to grab a drink, she tossed me a squishy plastic bag of sanitary napkins.
    Mortifying, right?
    That’s not the worst part. As my eyes bugged out of my head and my heartbeat stopped dead while I stood in the middle of the tile floor, grasping a bag of freaking pads, Mom said, “Sorry about the pads, Becca. They were all out of super tampons and I know you hate the regular ones so I got super strength pads instead.”
    My cheeks burn as I turn off the engine to my car, glancing up in the rear view mirror to see Park climb out of his truck which he parked on the curb in front of our house. That moment with my mom was seriously the worst, most embarrassing, most cringe-worthy moment I’d ever had in my life, and now I am reliving the pain of that moment in my car. And yes, something that truly horrifying will actually give you pain when you remember it. I feel it in my gut, in my fingers that grip the steering wheel, in my face that burns so hot from the memory of my mother talking about super absorbency tampons in front of my sort-of boyfriend .
    Oh god, I’m going to throw up.
    There’s a tap on my window and I see Park, giving me a curious look through the glass while he stands next to my car, his arms loaded down with packing supplies. I force a smile and try to swallow back the embarrassment of that day with Mom. It was weeks ago and I