Romans & histoires Cruel Summer

Alexander’s entire body tensed beside him, his hand already brushing the inside of his coat where he kept his weapon. But Irvine only smiled. “Oh, no need for hostility. I’m just here for a little… reunion.” Her gaze drifted past Lucien, landing on me. And the world fell away. The last time I’d seen that face, it had been pale, cold, lifeless. Now, she looked alive, too alive. Her eyes gleamed with something dark, something almost… beautiful in its cruelty. “Summer,” she said softly, tasting my name like a secret. “How are you?”

Not ever. Summer sat by the window, staring out into the darkness. The cold breeze from the open window brushed against her skin, but the chill in the air was nothing compared to the unease gnawing at her chest. Hilda had just left for the night, and now she was alone, consumed by thoughts of what Jessica was planning. Her mind couldn't settle, turning over the conversation she'd overheard earlier. Jessica's words echoed in her mind—When the foxes leave tomorrow, Summer will go with them.

The head of the orphanage found me in the middle of the scorching summer, which was why he named me Theros Sommar. When Daisy learned of it, she then said that moving forward, the summer solstice every year would be my birthday. She then prepared birthday gifts for me and even baked a birthday cake for me to celebrate. Ever since my gastric bleeding the other day, she had forbidden me from drinking again. But the mood back then had been just right, so I pestered her until she gave in and allowed me to drink some red wine. One thing led to another, and that night, she finally gave herself wholly to me.

] I looked at the screenshot Mabel sent. Carl was saying mean things about me again. [That girl Summer is so ugly, and her voice is fake. She uses a voice changer!] [How did she even get into the music school? She must've done something shady.] [My girlfriend goes there too. She's Summer's roommate, and she says Summer bullies her!] [I can't let my girlfriend live with someone like that.] [Help me out, guys. Let's make sure she doesn't stay at Aria Academy of Music after the festival.]

“I can’t stand you. I don’t know how Arielle does it.” Tessa’s mouth fell open. So did mine. I never knew Summer was this sharp-mouthed and fearless. She had a rare kind of spirit working with her. “Save your crocodile tears for later. You’ll need it for when he’s going to finally kill you,” she continued nonchalantly. “Then you can cry in hell.” “Keep talking to my girlfriend like that and see what I’ll do to you," Blake warned Summer. “Oh, please,” she said, unfazed. “What if that gun’s empty?”

Without warning, he stepped forward and roughly grabbed the elderly woman by the arm, making Adrian scream in terror from her embrace. “What are you doing?!” Hazel cried out in panic. She tried to lunge forward, but the two burly thugs standing beside Grayson quickly seized both her arms. “I’m sick and tired of having to keep coming here to collect your uncle’s ridiculous debt,” Grayson said as he yanked Cassandra toward him. He forcibly tore Adrian from her arms and tossed the toddler onto the sofa, making Adrian’s cries escalate into frantic, hysterical sobs. “I’m taking your aunt as collateral. The younger ones should go out and earn the money to buy her freedom, shouldn’t they?”

AFTER EVERYTHING Maxwell's POV ✦ There is a particular time of evening, in the last of the summer light, when the quality of the air changes in a way that is difficult to describe to someone who has not paid attention to it. It becomes denser and more golden, and ordinary things — a table on a terrace, the sound of the city at the distance it occupies from our house, the sight of Anne moving through the kitchen visible through the open back door — acquire a quality of significance that they carry only for a moment before the light shifts and the ordinary returns. I had learned to notice those moments rather than allow them to pass unattended.

Nobody is going to come to me. Talking about me, my name is Theodore Reigns. I'm 16, about to enter Junior year in two months when the school reopens after summer break. But to be honest, right now I think it's highly unlikely cause I'm here attending this three day Art camp for next year's senior students, that too in disguise as Elena Griffin, Eastwood's best artist, and so if I get caught, I guess I won't have to go to school again.

⸻ The version of Sienna in the video froze. Completely still. ⸻ Even from the monitor, her reaction was obvious. Shock. Recognition. ⸻ Real Sienna leaned closer to the screen. “What…?” ⸻ On the video, the man stepped closer. He showed her the object again. Something small. Something metallic. ⸻ A necklace. ⸻ Her breath caught in her throat. ⸻ Because suddenly— A sharp pain shot through her head. ⸻ Images flashed in her mind.

The air crackled with unspoken tension as I stormed toward Cameron, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it might burst from my chest. My hands curled into fists at my sides, my nails biting into my palms. He had no right. Noah had been nothing but kind to me, a rare source of steady comfort in the chaos of my life. And Cameron—vindictive, cruel Cameron—had deliberately targeted him just to remind me of my place.