1. STILL IN LOVE

1

STILL IN LOVE

Caleb

I walk into the living room of the pad we've called home for the past two months. It's been a long summer, forgetting about things, or at least trying to…well, as much as we can. But today is the last day. We leave for college tomorrow and we need to have the conversation we've all been dreading since that day.

Since she left us.

Tomorrow we are officially college students and we'll run into her again. None of us have been able to get ahold of her. She blocked all of us. One would expect us to move on, but we are all still very much in love with her.

Our girl.

Archer throws a beer my way and I take a seat. Jaden called this meeting. Always thinking he runs this little squad and none of us care enough to correct him.

We all remain quiet for a minute.

Harvey looks like he's still drunk from yesterday's binge. Shit. He may as well be. He has been drinking excessively and getting high every day since she left. He feels responsible for us losing her.

We all stood by him, so we are to blame, too.

We should have said something when that bitch handed him the drink. We should have known something fishy was going on after he got sloppy drunk over a few cans and she offered to take him to his room. I've never wanted to strangle a girl so much.

We didn't even know she recorded it. As soon as we found her riding him, we had ended that shit, and she scurried out grabbing her phone.

We didn't check.

After he threw up, we all took turns giving him a few punches.

How could he fuck someone else and cheat on our girlfriend? It made no sense until he told us what had happened.

We agreed to keep it a secret until he got the balls to tell her. But we didn't bet on the eagerness of Jaden's ex to be spiteful. We should have, those girls hated Summer, and they never forgot how she 'stole' all of us from them.

"I miss her." Archer is the first to break the silence, echoing something we've all had to deal with for the past three months.

We miss her. Terribly.

Our fifth musketeer .

He looks like he hasn't stopped running his hands through his hair all morning. I have been really worried about him. He's been slipping in and out of his depressive moods. A lot more often lately. He actually needs her. We all do.

"You think she's had time to cool off? That she'll listen and take us back?" Jaden asks solemnly.

"I doubt it." I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Summer isn't the forgiving type. Our girl has too much pride.

"She fucking has to," Archer says with more force than I think he intended.

"She doesn't have to do a thing. It's her decision." Harvey looks like he's in pain. I know he feels like shit.

Archer gets off the couch and walks away from Harvey, clenching his fists. No doubt wanting to pummel him.

"It's your fucking fault!" Archer hisses from the corner, looking towards the ocean. This pad is the ultimate holiday getaway, but we haven't found any happiness here.

Harvey stands up. "Yeah, so it is. What are you going to fucking do about it, huh?"

The idiot is just looking to start a fight again.

Jaden gets up and shoves Harvey back on the couch as Archer advances on him. I get up to stop Arch.

"We can't fight each other. What's done is done." I look between them, then move to sit on the couch. "We need a plan. We are definitely seeing her in the following days. What are we going to do?"

Archer grunts and returns to his window, running his hands through his blond hair again.

"We need to grovel," Jaden says evenly, like he's talking about the weather.

"Yeah," Archer agrees but doesn't turn.

"But how do we do that? You know she won't hear us."

Silence befalls us, and I look Harvey's way.

"You, sunshine, what do you think?" I ask.

Harvey shakes his head. "I'm not going to do it. I hurt her too much. You guys should try though. I am going to move on." He stands and walks out of the living room then the apartment. The retreat of a defeated man.

No doubt going to wallow in self-pity and get wasted some more. As much as I think he was wrong for hiding things from Summer and ended up fucking everything up for all of us, he should still be trying with us to get our girl back. But it just seems he gave up.

"Fucking idiot," Archer mutters, then walks out.

"Well, this was fruitful," I murmur flatly.

Jaden sighs, plopping down on the couch opposite me. Archer and Harvey have always been the emotionally unstable ones in the group. Jaden and I are the saner ones. Though Jaden hides what really goes on in that head of his behind his social skills. He may look the least unaffected, but he is dying inside too.

"We need to get her back, man," he says, his hands sliding over his baby afro haircut that he keeps stylishly messy, before covering his face.

"I think we should give her a little space. If we suffocate her, we'll just scare her away."

"She's had three months."

"Let's just take it easy."

"You mean finesse her." He smirks a little.

I smirk too. "If it helps."

Jaden seems to be mowing over what I'm saying.

The levelheaded smooth talker can talk his way out of touching the Monalisa, Archer is the one who understands people, the empath, but he throws the meanest punch. Harvey is the wild one, the crazy one, the one liable to do anything. And I'm the chill ideas guy who always has a blunt in his hand, the one always breaking up fights between them.

Pulling a blunt from my pocket, I light it. I need one if I'm going to poke at my broken heart. After pulling twice, I pass it to Jaden.

"We need to grovel," he repeats and I nod, the weed hitting me and I lean back into the couch.

"What if she has a fucking boyfriend?" The word sounds bitter even to my own lips.

Jaden rises and passes me the blunt, sporting a scowl, mirroring what I feel.

I pull on the blunt.

"Then she better get ready to dump that asshole, because that's not going to happen."

I smile a sad smile, knowing he means what he's saying. Jaden hides a monster behind the civility. A dark entity only a few smart people are observant enough to see and keep at bay.

"She'll be mad," I say, then take another pull.

"I don't give a shit. She's still ours ."

"I hope she still thinks so," I murmur more to myself before I pass the blunt.

***

We load the last of our suitcases in the trunk and I swing myself into the driver's seat. Harvey is drunk in the back, staring into nothing, barely awake. Archer is on his phone. Jaden next to me is busy tapping his leg. No doubt anxious. Our plan is to see her as soon as we arrive. Hoping to locate her before classes start next week.

Honestly, none of us know what the fuck we are going to say to her. Even though it's that bitch's fault, there isn't an excuse for what happened.

It shouldn't have happened.

I tighten the steering wheel as I drive onto the private air-strip road, making our way to Archer's parents' jet.

We were all fortunate to be born in excess, even though that means shit in the grand scheme of things. Money is just money, after all. We are all rich kids, but it doesn't mean we don't struggle either.

Harvey's great great-grandfather is one of the founders of the college we are attending, which means everybody over there is about to get on their knees to suck his dick. Archer is from old mining money. Jaden is from oil. And I am from banking wealth.

But we still have problems. This summer was supposed to be the summer of all summers traveling around the world with her before college, but everything went to shit.

I pull the car on the strip and park. We take our luggage and enter the plane. Seated in our usual seats, we call for something to drink.

"Have you seen her Instagram?" Jaden asks.

We turn and look at him.

"She posted something?" I ask, pulling my phone from my pocket.

He raises his phone for us to see, and my heart jumps a little. She looks happy sitting with her mom, nana, and sister, Blue, in a boat.

I open the app and go to her page.

"I'm still blocked," I sigh. "How come she never blocked you?"

"Maybe because I didn't comment drunk on her post and asked for her back like an idiot." Jaden chuckles.

They all chuckle.

It was a low point for me I admit.

She blocked our numbers everywhere, refusing to see us at all. We went drinking one day, and it was the only way I could reach her. I was blocked half an hour later. The guys had a good laugh about it and the kids at our school had a field day with the screenshots the next week.

We spend the rest of the trip stalking her Instagram, but we don't get more than that. According to the page, she's still at home. It sucks we can't even ask when she's coming.

Two hours later, we land and are settling into our house.

Unpacked and restless, we go visit an old acquaintance of Jaden's, Davon, a sophomore we were behind in school. When he heard we were here, he invited us for a drink at his house. Only a street away.

"The boys are at BU!" he says with a wide grin and we greet him with shakes.

"In the flash." Jaden dabs him.

"I guess the other kings of this place have competition if you lot are still like I remember." He laughs.

"You know it. So, what's good here?" Jaden asks.

"There's actually a party on the other street later. The captain of the football team, Trevor, cool guy, is hosting all the cool new kids. Best freshmen party."

"He's cool people?"

"Yeah, basically the new king of this jungle."

Jaden nods. No doubt making plans for us to go to the fucking party.

"I know how y'all are. All the hottest new chicks are going to be there. Basically, perfect hunting ground before the new meat is sampled." He hands a beer to Archer then his face twists. "Hey, where is that hot piece of ass you used to chase after?"

We all stiffen.

"Careful," Harvey grits coldly, and the rest of us glare as Davon's throat bops, realization washing over him.

"Um–" he looks at all of us "–sorry, bro, I didn't know she was yours."

"The party. So, Trevor is the main guy here?" Jaden asks.

"Yeah, yeah."

The door bursts open like it's a burglary and our heads snap in that direction.

"What's up, bitches!!!!" a blonde tornado walks in with a backpack and beach attire.

I look back at Davon and he sighs.

"We have guests. What's up, what's up, my people." The guy approaches.

I'm not hating but it is a bit annoying to see someone who is that happy. Fuck he's so chirpy about?

He starts with Jaden and Jaden receives him well, reciprocating some of the glee.

"Sup, dude," Jaden says.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm Martin," the new guy says.

"Jaden."

Martin nods and moves on. He dabs the rest of us, but none of us give him our names. Then plops on the beanbag.

"So, everybody, Martin, he lives with us here," Davon says. "Martin, these are my old schoolmates. You've met Jaden, that's Archer, Harvey, and Caleb. They cool people."

"Tight. So how are you finding this dump so far?" Martin leans closer to grab a beer on the table.

I can't help but chuckle. This guy is definitely something, and I can't help but find him a little endearing.

"We haven't seen much of it. We just got here," I say.

"Aight, bet. Well, if you need an acquaintance or something on camp, holla."

We nod.

We have a few beers afterward, then leave, walking back to our house.

"Where do you think she lives?" I ask.

"Probably the dorms," Arch says with amusement.

"Definitely the dorms," Jaden adds.

I can't help the smile.

"Yeah, cause fuck the system," Harvey says and we all laugh.

Summer is a bit of an interesting crayon. She always talked about not wanting to be part of a sorority; she didn't want anyone telling her what to do.

The original plan had been for her to live with us. The fifth room was hers, but after everything happened, she managed to get a replacement, even though we wanted to keep it open for her. And we didn't even know about it until two weeks ago.

She got us a male kid named Fanta Morris . I haven't even met him, but I hate him already.