Page 173 of Summer Love

“Noah, why did you tell Ryan that? Why did you make up that bullshit bet?”

He wipes the blood off his lip with the back of his hand. His eyes move from Avery to me.

“Ryan was trashing Summer. I wanted to shut him up.”

I take a step toward him.

“By feeding him shit about me?”

“Look, I knew you’d slept with her. You two never told me, but I knew.”

“So what?”

“So it wasn’t me, and I⁠—”

“Noah.”

I clench my fists.

“I said it because... because... I don’t know, Jace, I was in love with her, goddammit!”

“You were what?”

Noah doesn’t answer. He stares at the floor.

“You were in love with her, and you told Ryan I bet on her virginity,” I say, low.

“I was jealous, Jace.”

I raise my fist. He doesn’t move away.

“Go ahead, hit me if you want. It won’t change anything.”

I lower my fist, because he’s right.

Summer’s gone.

I grab my phone and dial her number. It barely rings. Voicemail. I hang up, try again, no better luck. She must have blocked me.

“You call her,” I say.

Noah calls her and shakes his head.

“For all I know, she never even unblocked me.”

Avery already has her phone to her ear. She waits, hangs up without leaving a message, calls again, hangs up.

“I’m getting her voicemail too,” she sighs. “She must’ve turned her phone off.”

I type a message. Delete it. Type another. Send it.

Summer, it’s a misunderstanding. I just figured it out. Call me back, please!

Unread.

I pick up the letter. Yumi pulls Avery close and talks to her too low for me to hear. Noah hasn’t moved. He stares at his bloodstained hand.

Flip comes over and licks my fingers. I stroke his head, my eyes on the crumpled letter in my other hand.