The Year Without Summer Book Novels & Stories

Beatrice said in a low tone and Maria screamed again. "I'm 101% sure you haven't checked your email, girl, we are at the top already!" She screamed and Beatrice still couldn't understand her words properly. "Maria Sebastian, talk to me calmly like a reasonable person" Beatrice said in a cold low tone as she was pinching her eyebrows in frustration. "I checked my mail today and I found out, the school has given us a year cut off, as a prize for being the best student of the year over our seniors. So, if we resume next week, we are among the finalist, just one session left and we are done with school"

The third of July bonfire has been a tradition since childhood. Summer glanced up from the wicker chair she was curled in, looking past me instead of at me. The mention of Jenny's name should have pulled some reaction from her, but no. Nothing. Summer liked Jenny, always had. Well, maybe more like tolerated her. Jenny was a local woman I hooked up with once a year while we were on vacation. Nothing serious, friendly even. Of course, I didn't plan on sleeping with her this trip, not after everything with Summer, but Jenny had hung around our circle since we were teens and to leave her out felt unnecessary.

She swallowed hard, trying not to think about what might have been. “And then the house fire… where he swore he heard someone calling for help. Eddie says that those were his last words, an insistence that someone had been in there.” She shuffled back through the yellowed pages, re-reading that part. “The house was supposed to be rented for the full summer, through an agency. But the person who rented it never showed up, and never asked for a refund. It was a cash transaction, so not traceable.” Also not unheard of in those days, before everything was done through apps and online.

She also told me how much money she had saved monthly. [Zayn, I’ll keep waiting for you to come back.] I did not go home during the New Year because I was busy. During the summer break of the following year, I went back to my hometown. But Layla was not around. She had gone to Northcall for her postgraduate studies. She had mentioned that in the text she sent me. “Did you get used to living abroad? You’ve lost weight.” Madeline’s eyes teared up as she inquired after me.

Ivan will move on, and all of this will just be a strange summer memory we both pretend never happened. Honestly, I was beginning to regret coming back here at all. I just wanted a break. A peaceful, quiet vacation. But instead, I got swept into something I never saw coming.

How could they when she was the big-man-in-charge? Leaving the idea of reading behind, I pushed back the covers to my bed and sank in. Gentle coolness caressed my legs as I slipped in deeper. They were white satin, as summer heat couldn't be avoided, even if some could control the weather. Very few Tonitura, weather dragons, lived with us, thus making the heat all the more insufferable knowing someone somewhere could keep it at bay. Winter was more my scene. The stars were brighter, the sky clearer, plus, winter didn't have mosquitoes. If I could eradicate all flying insects except for bees and butterflies, they would have died out more than 300 years ago.

She disliked such a farewell scene. It was not such a bad idea to make a long journey to go to a beautiful city alone. … Time passed. It was already four years later. It was summer in Nokocola Bay. The sun in July felt like a fireball, beating down its rays to scorch the earth. Nokocola Bay was a coastal city, but this did not lessen the heat in the slightest. Summer walked from the classroom to the office and was already sweating on her back. She used a book in her hand as a fan to cool herself down.

Her movements were precise and formal. "I-I had something I needed to take care of. That's why I came back this year," I mumbled with my head down. I instinctively covered my arm with my other hand, trying to hide the scars on my skin. However, it was summer, and my clothes were thin. Sadly, there was no way to cover them completely. "Were the wounds on your arm caused by the people who came with you today?" the woman pressed on, her piercing gaze sending a chill down my spine.

He was afraid he might die before he could confess his feelings and give me the perfect proposal he had promised me. That was why he kept reminding himself to go to Fall University and confess to me on Richmond Road—the place where he had first met me, and it was true love at first sight. Yet ironically, the repeated reminder was the very reason that caused his memory loss. Now, three years had passed, and I had suffered so much, living with a version of Ethan whose memories were frozen at eighteen years old. No one understood better than him that eighteen-year-old Ethan had been a complete jerk, just wearing a mask of obedience.