Page 114 of Heartbeat

Chapter Twenty-One

Worlds Colliding

“Is it okay that I invited someone?” Summer asked as she helped me move the couch against the fireplace.

We were in the living room setting up for the party, while Jonas and Noah fixed up the dining room.

“Of course,” I said. “Who did you invite?”

“Keith.”

“Keith?”

“He’s the guy I was meeting at The Den, that night,” she said. “We may be dating.”

“You don’t know?”

“Not really.” She chuckled. “I’m hoping I’ll get to find out today.”

“Is that why you’re dressed as a sexy nurse?” I asked, smirking as I looked at her dress, which was all but glued to her body.

“Oh, please. Is Kurt Cobain saying I’m trying to look sexy for a man?”

“It was your idea!” I laughed. “You said it was an easy costume to pull off!”

“For you to pull it off, with the long blond hair, the lips, and the chin.”

“Well, now I’m unsure.”

She laughed, as I took framed photographs from the top of the piano, one by one, and placed them inside a cardboard box she was holding, one by one. “Trust me. You look good.”

I wore light, ripped blue jeans with a red-and-black striped sweater and round sunglasses with white frames.

“Are you good?” she then asked.

I couldn’t help but sigh.

“I don’t mean that,” she said. “I meant with the whole dating again thing.”

“Did you? Really?” I asked, holding a photo she couldn’t help but focus on.

It was of Liam, Emma, Summer and me, weeks before the accident.

“Wow, that…it feels like ages ago,” she said.

“It does.” I stared down at the photo for longer than I wished.

“So—” She shook her head, snapping out of her own Super 8. “This boy.”

“Oh God, you sound like my therapist,” I said, making her scoff.

“Is it as serious as I think it is?”

“How serious do you think it is?”

“Extremely.” She smiled.

“He scares the shit out of me; does that count?”

---