On Monday, I just wanted to sleep.

I have to face Tommy sooner or later.

Part of me wants to hear what he has to say, but still dump him.

But what's the fun in that?

Ben's finally allowed to drive, so he started picking me up again. We rode to school, chatting about prom plans.

Ben's girlfriend wanted to have me over before dinner so she's doing my hair and makeup and nails instead of my mom and sisters.

We pulled into a parking spot, and got out. Inmeadietly, we were greeted by a girl. More like she greeted and ignored me.

"I'll just go," I mumbled, slipping away.

When I walked inside, Tommy was leaning against a wall.

"Lins," he said, walking over to me.

"No matter what you say, I'm not getting back with you. I still want to be good friends, but no relationship," I finalized.

"Goddamnit, I'm sorry. I'm such a douche. Listen, I really do like you. A lot. But if you don't want to be with me, that's fine. I just hope you're happy," he said.

I nodded, hugged him quick, then stuck out a hand.

"Friends?"

"Friends," Tommy confirmed, "also big brother."

I laughed, then told him I had to get to class. I stopped by my locker quick, then headed off.

-

"I'd like to see where you guys are on your projects," Ms. Halls said.

I pulled out the completed paper. She began walking around the room, looking at notecards, outlines, a couple printed papers, rough drafts, everything.

When she reached me, she stopped.

"Single spaced? How many pages is this?" She asked.

"Well, it took a little over one whole notebook, but it's twenty-seven pages,"

I replied.

"Impressive. Lindsey, you do so well on all of our free writing assignments. You would make a wonderful author," Ms. Halls said. Then she kept going.

Author?

-

"That's why I didn't approve of you two," Mark said.

"And you approved of me and Daniel?"

"Technically, you never broke up, and you guys still get along great. When have you ever fighted?"

"Good point," I replied, "and insight."

We were sitting at the lunch table, waiting for everyone to get their food. We both got out of class a little early.

"How much does he remember now?" Mark asked.

I swallowed some milk, then replied, "On Saturday, he kept asking questions about The Unknown. He remembers being on varsity as a freshman, buying all of those Chicken McNuggets, and that he didn't have a date to Homecoming this year."

"Impressive. I think by the end of the season, he'll have all of it back," Mark said.

"Let's hope you guys make it to state," I muttered, meaning it in more than one way.

"Hey, guys," Sam said, plopping down next to Mark. One by one, the rest of the guys came.

Daniel and John sat next to me. I noticed Tommy at the end of the table, so I sent him a friendly wave.

I'm a single Pringle. And it's not too bad.

-

"Now do I get to read it?" Daniel asked as we walked to the bench.

"Nope. Friday, I've decided."

I grinned at him, just to irritate him. Daniel just shook it off, like TSwift. Gotta love her.

Speaking of Taylor Swift, I'm wearing my Keds. They are probably the most comfortable sneakers on this planet. And cute.

The boys came running out in their shorts and shirts. We watched as they sprinted the bases and stretched.

It got so hot that I took my sweater off. The boys must've though so too, since they asked the coach if they could take their shirts off.

One by one, they stopped by and threw their shirts next to us on the bench. For some reason, Daniel did too.

Then things started getting weird. The JV coach turned the sprinklers on, and it's only 4:30.

Daniel said something to Mr. James, then went inside. Ben came over to me, threw me over his shoulder, and ran back to the field.

Daniel came out a minute later with a plastic Walmart bag wrapped around his cast. Smart thinking.

Music started playing, and I noticed Mr. James setting a speaker down in the dry grass.

"Josie's on a vacation far away, come around and talk it over. So many things that I wanna say, you know I like ny girls a little bit older," I sung, immeadietly recognizing the song.

"I just wanna use your love, tonight! I don't lose your love, tonight!" We all sung in unison.

I guess I'm the only one who knew the rest of the song, since it was just me singing.

"I ain't got many friends left to talk to, no one to keep me out of trouble."

I kept singing, and the boys joined in everytime the chorus played again. I guess I'm not the only one who likes 70s and 80s music.

The next song came on. It was "Boys of Summer" by Don Henley. How is it possible that my two favorite songs were played back to back on the radio?

None of the boys knew that one, except for Daniel. And that's saying something, since he lost two years of his memory.

"I can tell you my love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer are gone!" We sung.

It was so nice to dance around in the sprinklers. It must've been almost 90 degrees out.

When I was laughing, I looked down. I completely forgot I had a white t-shirt on. You could see my pink sports bra clearly. But I smiled, knowing that none of the boys had even noticed.

The next song had picked up the pace the past songs had lacked. It was "Not Guilty" by Bryan Adams. Another good song, though.

Sadly, 5:30 rolled around, and we had to get back inside and leave. We all trudged back to the school, carrying our clothes and shoes that we took off. All I had was my sweater and sneakers.

The boys dried off in the locker room, while I helped Daniel get the Walmart bag of. Then someone set a blanket on my shoulders.

"I'll drive you home, Lins, but I'm going to go in the locker room first," Daniel said.

"Alright," I replied, sitting down on the floor.

It took only a few minutes before he was back out. We grabbed our backpacks and headed to Daniel's truck.

"Here, this is your shirt. I think you left it here after swimming. That was when your grandma was in the hospital, I think," Daniel said.

"Oh, yeah. That's right. Thanks," I replied, taking off my soaking wet shirt and putting the dry one on. My sports bra was wet, but there's no way in hell I'm taking it off right now.

"Now, to the residence of Ms. Adams!"

❤️