A Different Kind of Summer

"Stop it!" Karl said as he slapped my phone out of my hand. "She's not going to text you back anytime soon."

I stared back at his cold brown eyes. "Fine," I said, sitting back in my chair.

I looked back over my right shoulder. Kristin was sitting with her friends, all of them laughing and conversing with each other.

"Give it a break," Karl said, shaking his head. Karl was my best friend.

"She's not your friend, not anymore."

"What's the conversation?" Sandy asked as she sat down at our table in the cafeteria. Her girlfriend Lucie sat down next to her.

"What else?" Karl shrugged as he motioned to Kristen.

"Give it a fucking break already," Sandy said. "Whatever you guys had in High School is now gone, she has moved on and so should you."

I looked back. Kristin and I weren't the best of friends even in High School. We were good friends at best. Then we came here, it wasn't planned or did we know we would end up at the same college.

When we saw each other the first day, we hit it off. We talked every day and all night for the first two years. We never were in a serious relationship. It was excellent and comfortable.

Now we barely spoke, not because of me. I tried everything to keep the friendship going, but it seemed like I was the only one.

"Tell you what," Lucie sat up in her chair. "I will pay you fifty dollars for every comment or like she has given any of your drawing on Instagram."

"You're serious," I looked over at her.

Lucie came from a wealthy family. They had paid her full tuition and for the house, not a condo, not an apartment, a whole three-bedroom place for her to stay in while she was away at college.

"Sounds good," Karl said.

"Well?" Lucie asked as she looked at me.

"Fine," I shrugged.

I hit my Instagram app and began going through my drawings. I loved to draw and had taken it as one of my main courses. I planned to be an architect or something along those lines. I enjoyed drawing buildings and parks as well as cities. I flipped through my drawings, looking for Kristin's name.

"A hundred if it is a like and a comment," Lucie added as she threw fuel to the fire.

"This year," Karl blurted out.

"Yes," Sandy added.

I scrolled faster. I saw likes and comments from teachers past and present. Even comments from people I didn't know, I was nearing the beginning of the year and nothing from Kristen.

"Aha!" I said out loud as I found a like and a comment. I flipped the phone around and showed Lucie.

"One of your drawings, not a sketch of her," Lucie shook her head. "Of course she would comment on a picture of herself."

"Seriously?" Karl said, shaking his head.

"Okay, I give in," I said, dropping my phone to the table.

"I just checked hers, you have commented on every single picture she has on there," Karl laughed. "Seriously? Every single picture?"

I shrugged. I had nothing to add.

"What's the big deal anyway?" Sandy asked. "It's not like the two of you dated or fucked or anything. You were just friends."

"You wouldn't understand," I said, shaking my head. "Anyway," I said, lifting my head to look at them. "What are you guys doing for the summer?"

"Cancun, duh," Lucie said, shaking her blonde hair.

"Heading home to see the parents," Karl said. "They got me a private coach to work on my speed."

Karl was a wide receiver for the football team. He had only played two games with the team so far, but the coach promised to give Karl more reps if he got his speed up.

I knew I was going to head back home. It wasn't something I was looking forward to, but I was out of money, and Mom had found me a summer job.

I looked over at Lucie; a thought was going on through her blonde head.

"Say it," I surrendered.

"There are five categories of friendships," Lucie said as she took a pen from her bag. "Best Friends Forever like you and Karl."

"We aren't," I began to shake my head. Karl shook his head.

"Please, the two of you are inseparable at times, it is what it is," Sandy said, smiling.

I nodded my defeat.

"Then there is the basic friend. You can call hang out, tell each other basic shit that happens in each other's day, ask for advice, the usual basic bullshit." Lucie shrugged.

Again, I merely nodded.

"Then there are the frenemies, where you are friends only because you don't want to be enemies because it gets downright nasty," Lucie said.

"Like the relationship you have with Jacob," Sandy pointed out.

Jacob was a friend that I couldn't stand. We barely talked, and most of the time, it was just a nod. "Understandable," I nodded.

"Then there is the friend zone," Lucie said. "Like what you two have," she said, looking at Sandy and me. There was an uncomfortable silence between us.

"Moving on," I said, breaking the silence.

Sandy and I were definitely in each other's friend zone. There was a time when each of us had a crush or liked the other. First, it was her, but I told her I was seeing someone when I wasn't. Then I wanted her, and that was when she realized that she liked women and not men.

"Now you sir," Lucie said as she made a big circle on a piece of paper and put my name in the middle. "Are neck deep in the acquaintance zone. Where you're just someone she knows or used to know. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less, you're just there floating around and being annoying."

I sat back and looked at her. "Annoying?"

Sandy and Lucie both looked at me and began nodding their heads. "Let her go, cut her loose."

Karl looked at me and nodded. "It's time, bro, you know, I know. Hell, most of the campus knows it."

"I got another bet," Lucie said as she reached for my phone. "I will give you four hundred dollars at the end of summer. If she sends a text, calls or reaches out to you first."

"I'm in," Sandy said, looking over at me.

"Me too," Karl piped up.

"You're just as broke as I am," I said, looking over at Karl.

"I know, but I also know she won't," Karl said.

"You in or out?" Lucie said.

"That's a lot of money," Karl said.

I looked over at my shoulder and looked at Kristen. She saw me looking at her and gave me a wave with a smile. Then mouthed "Sorry," as she looked at everyone around her.

"I'm in," I looked back at them.

They all sighed.

"Delete all of her contacts and unfollow anything you have her on," Lucie said.

"Fine," I said, taking out my phone. "You guys don't know her as good as you think you do."

"No," Karl said. "You don't know her at all. If you didn't say Hi, Good Morning, or any of that other bullshit, she wouldn't say a damn word, and that's the truth."

"She's just been busy, a lot has been going on," I shrugged as I deleted Kristin's contact phone number and then began to unfollow her social apps.

"Take it from a woman, that means you're not that important," Sandy said. "It's something we say to get you to stop messaging us."

"Then just say stop," Karl laughed.

"If you can't take the hint then why should we give it to you?" Sandy smiled.

"There," I said, pushing my phone over to Lucie. She thumbed through everything. Then nodded her approval.

"I bet she won't even notice you unfollowed her," Karl laughed as he stood up.

"Adding two hundred," Lucie said.

"Sheesh woman," I looked at her.

"In or out?" she shrugged as she stood up.

"Fine," I shrugged. "You're money, not mine."

We all waved our goodbyes, and I began to head for the exit.

"Hey," a voice said from behind me.

"Hey Kristin," I smiled as I looked over at Karl as he passed.

"Sorry I didn't get back to your text yesterday," Kristen said, her blue eyes beaming at me.

"Day before," I corrected.

"Yeah, it's been a busy week with cheer practice as well as summer break coming up. I just had a lot of things on my mind. We are good right?" she asked.

"Sure," I nodded.

"Good," she smiled as she looked over at her friends. "You still draw right?"

"Yeah, I post pictures online every Thursday," I said, looking at her.

"Oh," Kristen replied, a bit taken back by my blunt comeback. "I will have to check them out sometime, maybe after summer break you can show me some of them."

"Okay," I nodded.

"We are redecorating a wall in our sorority house, and I was wondering if you could draw a picture for us to put on the wall. All you would have to do is draw it. We will get someone to copy it onto the wall." Kristen nodded.

"Of what?" I asked, looking at her friends.

She handed me a printed picture of wild horses running on open plains. Then a picture of all of them in their cheer outfits. "Can you put us on the horses?" she asked, looking up at me.

"I guess," I shrugged. It was an easy task, but it would be time-consuming. "I have a lot to do this summer."

"Oh," Kristen nodded. "No problem. We can get it after the summer break."

I nodded and then walked away.

"Thanks, Chris," Kristen said.

"Christian," I said under my breath.

When I walked out into the hall, Lucie stood against the wall with her arms crossed. "Asking about the finished project doesn't count," she said.

"I wasn't going to count it," I said, looking back at her.

"Have a good summer," she said as she walked away.

"You too," I smiled.

********************

Four weeks had passed. The summer job my mom had found me was working at the local grocery store. It was tedious, but it was paying well.

I received many pictures from Sandy and Lucie. They had picked up a few women friends on the beaches of Cancun. Two photos they had sent were with three other women in bikini tops.

Karl was doing good with his trainer. He even had time to meet someone at the local gym. From the pictures he had sent, it seemed like they were doing more than just working out.

Even Jacob sent me a picture of him parasailing and another picture of him taking shots from some women's cleavage. They were all having fun, and I was in a grocery store stocking shelves.

I sat in the break room to eat my lunch when an unfamiliar ringtone began playing. It had been a while since I heard my default ringtone. Looking down at the phone, my heart raced, thinking it was Kristen.

"Hello, is this Christian?" a voice asked.

"Yes," I replied, a bit disheartened.

"Good, this is Betty one of Kristen's friends," the voice said.

"Yes," I replied, a bit annoyed.

"I just wanted to say we found someone to do the drawing for us," Betty said. "I just wanted to be polite and tell you so you wouldn't waste your summer. Thank you."

She hung up before I could say anything else. I nearly threw my phone against the wall. I had almost finished the drawing. I pulled out my sketchbook and looked at the picture.

There was Kristen upfront of the others, on the largest of all the horses. I tore the page out, tightened it into a ball, and then threw it at the trash. I buried my hand in the palms of my hands.

"Missed by the way," a voice said.

I looked to see a woman sitting on the other side of the break room. I looked over at the trash bin. My paper was sitting on the floor.

"Of course," I shrugged with a smile.

"Bad day?" the woman asked.

"Bad year," I replied as I got up. I picked the wad of paper up.

"May I see?" she asked.

"Sure," I shrugged. "Might as well show it to someone," I handed the paper over to her.

"April," she said as we shook hands. I had noticed her behind the customer service desk a few times.

"Christian," I replied.

"I know," April pointed at my name tag.

I looked for her name tag, but she wasn't wearing one. "I took it off as I came back here," April smiled. "You have talent," she smiled.

"I have more," I smiled as I brought my book over.

We sat together as she scrolled through my book. She made a few comments and a few critiques on nearly every drawing. Then she showed me her phone. She liked taking pictures of wildlife.

"She liked every picture," I told Karl over the phone later that day.

"You're doing it again," Karl said with that voice I knew so well.

"It's not like that," I said, shaking my head as I lay on my bed.

"What's her name?" Karl asked.

"April," I answered.

"Favorite color?" Karl asked.

"Orange, it reminds her of...." I stopped.

"See," Karl said. "You're doing it again. Falling for someone you just met. You can't keep doing that. It is summer. You're on a break. Find someone that you don't want to know, don't need to know, do your thing and then bounce."

"I can't do that," I said, sitting up.

I had never seen Karl form a long-lasting relationship with any of the women I had seen him with. He always said it wasn't worth it at our age.

"Yes, you can, instead of thinking what if, just think of the moment," he said.

"Hit it and quit it basically," I replied.

"Exactly," he said. I knew he was smiling. "I got to go but take my advice. This April thing just let it go."

"Sure," I replied.

*****************

For the next three days, it was easy not to see April. We were on different schedules. That was until one of the other stock clerks called in. I walked into the store to see April standing behind the customer service desk. She was dealing with a customer, so she didn't see me. I hurriedly walked through the store and into the back room.

I began putting some of the stock onto a float to take out on the sales floor.

"You're Jackie's kid, aren't you?" a voice said.

I turned around to see a big man walking toward me.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Thomas," he said, shaking my hand. "Store Manager. Gregory told me he hired a new stock clerk for the summer."

"Yeah," I nodded. "Just until summer is over, then I am heading back to college," I said as I loaded more items on the float.

"How is that going?" he asked.

"You know, one day at a time," I shrugged. "Sometimes I wonder why I even bother going."

"Keep doing it," Thomas said as he pointed the finger at me. "I went for a little while then dropped out, now look at me."

"You're the manager of the store," I laughed. "That's pretty good."

"Is it?" Thomas asked as he leaned back on a pallet of water. "I am topped out salary wise. I never made it past my first year of college, and now I will have to wait until someone retires or dies to even think of applying for a district position. This," he said as he looked around at the back room and the building. "Is the ceiling for me, most likely I will retire in this store or another one just like it."

I looked around at the dirty walls, spider web-infested ceilings and the many pallets of stock.

"Think about it," Thomas said as he patted me on the shoulder.

I kept thinking about what the manager said as I worked the floor. I never thought of things like that. I always thought college was something I could fly through.

"Hey there," a voice said, breaking my thoughts.

April stood there in front of me. "Hi," I replied as I put up a case of canned corn.

"Are you avoiding me?" April asked.

I looked up at her and shook my head. "Different schedules," I shrugged.

"Ah," April said as she put a hand on my float. "Any more drawings?"

"Yeah a few," I said as I walked down the aisle to pick up a few things I had put on the floor.

"What's wrong?" April asked, looking at me. "Don't say nothing."

I looked back at her. April was older than me, maybe in her thirties. She had brown hair and the bluest eyes I had ever seen. She wasn't magnificently beautiful, but her hair and eyes made her stand out.

I took a deep sigh, and for some strange reason, a flood of things came out of my mouth as I stocked. Everything from Karl being an ass about my past relationships to Sandy being with women, not me. Then everything with Kristen. April followed me across the store as I just laid everything out.

When I finally stopped. April looked at me with a grin.

"Karl is being Karl he sounds like the best friend all of us should have, he is telling you things you need to hear. You are young, you have a lot going for you and if you keep falling for the first woman that gives you any attention you will get hurt, or worse fall in love get her pregnant and have to settle for something less than you want."

"Sandy is young as well, she is experimenting, and you know what? That is good for her and frankly its none of your business. If the two of you were meant to be it would have happened already," April shrugged.

"As for Kristen, your friends are right. Cut that bitch loose. I have friends that I haven't talked to in years, but I can pick this phone up and talk to them for hours, and they do the same. All relationships work if both people want to stay in contact, not just one. And the whole being too busy thing is a bullshit excuse for someone that either can't prioritize or doesn't want to put in the effort. Trust me."

I laughed. "Thank you and sorry for laying things on you like that," I shrugged. "Guess it was plaguing my mind."

"No problem," April smiled. "What are you doing after you get off?"

"Nothing," I shrugged.

"Meet me back here around six?" April asked. "I want to show you something. Bring your sketchpad."

"Okay," I smiled.

The rest of the day went much smoother. It felt like a load had been lifted off my shoulders. April was right about many things. I had thought Sandy being with Lucie had to do with me. Karl had once told me that he had gone through a bad breakup, which might have influenced his serious relationships.

When I clocked out, I saw Thomas sitting in his office with one of the other Managers. I patiently waited for their conversation to be over. I quietly knocked on the door.

"Christian, come in," Thomas waved.

I walked into his office and closed the door. "I want to ask you something," I asked.

"Go for it," he said as he leaned his large body back in the chair.

"Why did you drop out of college?" I asked.

He leaned forward and grabbed a photo of himself with three kids in the picture, and a woman I guessed was his wife.

"Best years of my life," Thomas said, looking at the picture. He put it back in its place, then folded his arms across his stomach. "Now, will I say it's for everyone?" he said, making a face like he was thinking. Then he shook his head. "There are some regrets, as well as some what-ifs, and some maybe's. If you're going to drop out make sure it is the right thing to do and have a plan."

I nodded my head. "Thank you," I smiled.

"Christian," he said as I opened the door. "Use your head on top of your shoulders, not the one below your belt. You get me?"

"Yes sir," I smiled as I closed the door.

As I began walking to the front door, April called me over. "Bring walking shoes and comfortable clothes," she smiled as she returned to dealing with a customer.

I looked at her strange but decided we might be walking through town. There were a lot of historic buildings downtown. Maybe we were going to take pictures and draw some of them.

**************

I stood outside the store waiting for April for over half an hour before seeing a red pickup truck pull up.

"Sorry," April said as she rolled down the window. "I got out later than I wanted."

I got into the truck, and she pulled off. We talked a lot on the way out of town and up to the hills. April never went to college; instead, she went straight to work after high school.

First, she worked at a diner, and then she started at the store. She never got married or had any kids. She didn't tell me her age, but my guess with calculating the times she spent in the diner and the years she had been working at the store made me think she was in her late thirties or early forties.

"Here we are," April said as she pulled the truck to a stop. We were in the middle of a clearing. I knew we were way up in the mountains. "The rest of the way is a hike," she said as she got out of the truck.

"I didn't plan for a hike," I said, looking down at my jean shorts and sneakers.