The day after his 20^th birthday, Nick is pulling up to Summer’s house.  He was going to call when he woke up but he decided it would be better to just show up at her house.  As he is parking he sees the garage door open and Summer’s dad backs out of the drive way.  Summer stands in the doorway and waves to her dad as he drives away.

As soon as the car turns the bend Nick gets out of his car.  Summer had gone back inside but the garage door is still open.  Nick hesitates for a moment and then walks in.  He sees her scuba gear in the back of the truck.  He was about to open the door leading into the house when Summer comes out of it.

She sees Nick and screams.  He jumps, “shit Sum you scared me.”

Summer – “Well what were you doing trying to sneak into my house?”

Nick – “I wanted to see you.”

Summer – “Why didn’t you call first?”

Nick – “Well I woke up kind of early and didn’t want to wake you if you were still sleeping and I thought you would like to be surprised so, surprise.”

Damn it why does he have to be so cute, Summer thinks to herself.  “Well you’re here now come on in.”

He follows her into the house.  “So how was the rest of your party?”  They go in the kitchen and Summer starts to clean up the dishes from breakfast.

Nick – “It was okay, there were a lot of people I didn’t know there but mostly everyone started to leave around 1.”  He sits on one of the kitchen stools

Summer – “How did Brian’s annoucment go over?”

Nick – “Ok, I guess.  Loren is going to try to tell Jessica about it before it hits the papers.”  Nick gets a little bit of a sad look on his face.

Summer reaches across the counter and hands him some juice.  “She’s going to be fine Nick.  Jess is a really tough girl.”

Nick – “I know.”  He notices the juice.  “this for me?”  Summer nods.  “thank you.”  Part of him can’t believe that she remembered what kind of juice he likes.

Summer – “You’re welcome.  Now if you will excuse me I have to go get ready.”  She starts to leave and he turns around in his seat.

Nick – “You have school today?”

Summer – “No it’s Saturday but I have other plans.” 

Nick – “What other plans?”  He is following her and she is half way up the stairs.

Summer – “I’m going diving with a friend.”

Nick – “Can I come?”

Summer looks nervous for a minute.  “You should have really called first Nick.  I… I have a date.”

Nick – “Oh… I see.  Well then I will just get going.”  He opens the front door and is halfway to his car.

Summer – “Nick wait.”  He turns.  “I had this planned for over a week I can’t cancel on him the last minute, it would be rude.”

Nick – “If you are dating someone why did you call me?”

Summer – “I’m not really dating him.  This is only the second time we went out, but he’s a nice guy.”

Nick – “Well then I will leave you to your nice guy.”

Summer – “Hey you have no right to be pissy with me.  I didn’t ask you to come over this morning I asked you to call me.  You’re the one that just showed up.”

Nick – “Yeah stupid me.  When you call last night I though for a second that maybe you wanted to give me another chance.”

Summer – “Nick.”  She reaches out and takes his hand.  “Come inside and let’s talk okay.”

Nick – “Okay.  I guess we are attracting some attention out here.”  Summer’s next door neighbor had peeked her head out of her side door.  Summer waved at her and then took Nick inside.

They went into the living room and sat on the couch. 

Nick – “So where do we begin?”

Summer – “I’m not sure, I haven’t really done anything like this.”

Nick – “I’m sorry for what I did to you Summer.  I really truly am, if there was any way to take it back I would in a minute.”

Summer – “I can’t pretend it didn’t happen Nick. “

Nick – “I know.  And I know that you have no reason to trust me but I swear I will never do anything like that again.”

Summer – “I want to trust you.  My sister says I am being a little naïve about the whole thing.  Maybe she is right.”

Nick – “I’m  not going to do anything to hurt you again.  I promise”

Summer – “But how can you promise something like that?  You don’t know what is going to come up.”

Nick – “I know how I feel.. Summer you were more then my girlfriend.  You understood me better then anyone.  You saw through all of my bullshit.”

Summer – “Apparently not quite all of it, I didn’t see you were sleeping with Willa.”  He is just quiet.  “Were you faithful to me at all?”

Nick decides it’s best to be honest with her.  “After you and I decided to see only each other I didn’t see her for a month.  She avoided me and I was glad because she was pissed that I chose you over her.  Then one night there was a party and I ended up in her room.  I would like to say I didn’t know what I was doing but that would be a lie and you deserve more then that.”

“Why did you keep seeing her?”

“You sure you want to know all of this?”

Summer nods.  “If we are even going to get back to being just friends I think it’s important.  I mean come on Nick she was and probably still is psychotic.”

“I kept telling myself it was the last time but then I would end up back there.  Howie busted me on Halloween.”

“I know he apologized to me.  He told me I was allowed to slap him if I wanted to.”

“Did you?”

“No.  I was too busy trying to get over you.” 

“Well where are we now.  Do you want us to try again?”

“Can you give me a reason to try again?  I mean I do miss you but I’m not sure if I miss the craziness of being your girlfriend.  My life didn’t stop when you left me sitting at your parents house Nick.  I had to go on and things have changed over the last 2 months.  I started going out, and I just feel like I am back to being me again.  Why should I let you upset that balance?”

Nick smiles that smile that makes her melt.  “Because I love you and you love me.”

“It can’t be that simple.”

“It can if  we let it.”

“you’re incorrigible.”

“Does that mean you’ll go out with me?”  He leans towards her a little bit.

She smiles, “You really are too cute for your own good.  We can start hanging out as friends again that’s it.”

“good then you need to call this guy you have plans with today and tell him that your friend that you haven’t seen in two months is in town and you need to spend time with him.”  Summer doesn’t say anything but he can see that she is considering it.  “I mean come on you can’t go scuba diving with out ME Sum.”

“Alright but only because I won’t have to teach you.”

“You were going to go with a virgin scuba diver?”

“yeah well.  He asked what I wanted to do and that was the first thing that came to mind.  But don’t read too much into this we are just friends okay.”

“Ok.”

“I’m going to go get dressed.” 

She gets up and heads to the stairs.

“Summer.” 

“Yeah?”  She turns and Nick is just a breath away.  She looks up at him, even with her standing on the first step he is taller then her by a good four inches. 

“I was just wondering if friends kiss each other?”

“Well,”  She moves up a step and he follows.  “Good friends do.”

“How many good friends have you had in the past 2 months?”

She is still trying to retreat up the stairs because she knows where this is going and what will happen if Nick touches her.  “No good friends, just friends.”

“so since we are working on being good friends again, doesn’t that seem like a good place to start?” 

She is at the top of the stairs now with her back against her door.  He slowly leans down giving her plenty of time to turn away but she doesn’t.  His lips lightly brush hers and then suddenly  he takes a step back.  “Sorry Sum, I know I shouldn’t have done that.  I just couldn’t help it.  I’ll let you get dressed.” 

He turns around and goes back down stairs, leaving her standing there with her mouth hanging open.  She goes in her room and decides to torture Nick all day long as she pulls out a bikini.