Summer of Like // Farleigh Start x OC

15: Loose Words Hanging on the End of Your Lips

The sun beats down on me, the hot weight of its rays pinning me to my lounge chair, making it impossible to even think about getting up. It seems like all I do these days is sunbathe, but I'm not complaining. To be content is to be basking in the sun, my mind devoid of all thoughts except for the sound of Venetia turning the pages of Harry Potter next to me.

With a sigh, she drops the book to the ground.

"So?" I ask, tipping my head to look at her.

She settles back in her chair, tipping her face back towards the sun. "It was fine, I guess. I didn't love the ending - I mean, there's this whole big battle and everything and then it just jumps to when they're all like forty and have kids. Nothing in between."

"At least you win." I say. Not that I was ever really doubting that she was going to beat Farleigh and Felix to finishing the book by a mile - but even if the ending was kind of shit, there's some consolation.

"Yeah." She says.

I bring my arms up over my head, resting them on the back of the chair, and close my eyes. With how comfortable I am, and how warm it is, it's all too tempting to fall asleep - but I resist. I don't want my front to be noticeably darker than my back.

Next to me, Venetia sighs. "So."

"Mm?" I open my eyes, turning my head to look at her. Her bottom lip is pinched between her teeth, and her eyes are alight in the way that they always do when she has something exciting to tell me. I'll have to do my best to act surprised when she spills.

"I went on a walk last night." She starts. "Just to have a cigarette, you know."

"Of course." I say.

"And I was just sitting on the little stone ledge over there," She vaguely gestures behind us, to the house. "When Ollie walks up and starts talking to me about how pretty I am and how I really should eat." She giggles like she's making fun of him. "It was like he was a totally different person. He was trying to dom me into eating."

I lower my sunglasses to look at her. "Well? Is that what I should have been doing all along?"

She giggles again, this time less condescending. "Maybe." She teases. "It might have worked better if you'd have done it. Either way," She says, "Next thing I know, he's going to eat me out and I tell him that I'm on my period, and he does it anyway." She's thoroughly excited by the novelty of it - she talks about him like she talks about limited edition designer collaborations.

I scrunch up my nose. "That must have made a mess."

"Of course." She flaps a hand, dismissive. "I had to take a bath, after, to get it all off of me, but - have you ever had someone do that to you before?"

"Have I had period sex?" I repeat. "That's basically what dental dams are for, V, nobody really uses them when they're not eating someone out on their period."

"I mean with a guy." She says.

"Of course not." I say.

"See?" She says. "God, he's so..." She trails off with a smile. "I don't know if there's even a word for it."

I can't help but laugh. "What, really?" I sit up, swinging my legs over the side of the chaise into the little aisle between us. "He eats you out one time and you're trying to come up with new additions to the English language? I'll eat you out anytime you want-"

"I know, Evie." She teases. "You've said, about a million times." Her face shifts, and she pauses. "I hope Felix isn't mad."

"Right." I say. I'd forgotten what she'd told me - about the summer before this one, about the boy before Oliver. About how she was worried Felix would try and do the same thing to her with me, just to get revenge. Farleigh probably hadn't even thought about Venetia before telling Felix.

"He seemed mad, at breakfast, but there's no way he's found out already." She says. "I mean, it was just last night. No one was out but us."

I could tell her. I should tell her - we're best friends for a reason. We tell each other everything. But telling her is admitting that Farleigh and I watched her get eaten out. I turn it over in my head again.

"I have something to say." I start. "And you have to promise that you won't get mad."

Venetia scoffs. "I could never get mad at you, Evie."

"Farleigh and I saw you and Oliver last night. And I'm 100% sure that Farleigh told Felix."

She just stares at me for a moment, and then she's lunging forward, reaching over the spaces between our chairs to aim a flurry of slaps right at my head. I throw my arms up for protection, but it only does so much good - most of her blows land on my forearms, but my shoulder still take a beating too.

"What the hell?" She says.

"I'm sorry- I didn't mean to see, we were just out on the roof and-"

"Why didn't you tell me you were hanging out with Farleigh last night?" She cuts me off.

"I tried, he didn't want me to." I say.

Her eyebrows shoot up at that, peeking over the top of her sunglasses. "What did he say, exactly?" Her tone switches on the dime, going from accusatory to interested in an instant.

"No," I say. "It's not like that."

"Oh, shut up." She says, scooting to the edge of her chair so that our knees are touching. "It is so totally like that. I told you all about mine, tell me about yours. You owe me, for being a voyeuristic creep anyway."

I roll my eyes, but give in anyway. She's right - I do owe her, and it so totally is like that. "He didn't really say anything. He just sort of looked at me."

"Like how?" Venetia asks.

"I don't know, like..." Like he wanted to kiss me. The words dance on the tip of my tongue. I almost wish that Venetia hadn't had a life changing head-related experience last night, just so that Farleigh and I wouldn't have been interrupted. Then I'd know if he really was trying to kiss me, and not just a little too high. "I don't know."

"Mhmm." She presses her lips together like she's trying to hide her smile. "And what else did you guys talk about?"

"Nothing really." I say.

"C'mon, please?" Venetia begs, leaning closer to me.

"He just said that we could be friends." I say. "That was really it."

"That's it?" She asks, sounding disappointed. "I got ate out on my period last night and all you could get was 'we can be friends'?" She sighs, and flops back into her chaise. "You're so lame when it comes to guys, Evie. If Farleigh was a girl you'd have fucked by now."

I splutter out a laugh. "I don't-"

"You do, you so totally do, don't even deny it, I see how you two look at each other." She cuts me off. "I am explicitly giving you full permission to do whatever you'd like to that boy, and you'd better well use it before the end of the summer."

I settle back in my chaise. "Okay then."

"I mean it, Evie."

"I'm sure you do."