After Summer by Hailey Abbott Page A

time?”
    “I guess so,” Kelsi mumbled, even though she hadn’t had him over since the Halloween disaster. It was weird, but for some reason, Kelsi didn’t feel like she could open up to Ella about Tim. She felt close to her sister, who was an expert on love, but Kelsi was afraid that Ella would judge her.
    Kelsi quickly suggested dinner, and the girls headed down to partake of the best of Smith cafeteria dining.
    “This is gross,” Ella said, poking at an unidentified fried substance baking under an orange heat lamp.
    “Yeah,” said Kelsi, grabbing Ella by the arm and pulling her toward the leafy greens of the salad bar. “This is going to be your best bet.”
    “No wonder I didn’t see your Freshman Fifteen,” Ella teased, rubbing her hand along Kelsi’s middle.
    The girls ate and laughed, and Kelsi deflected any Tim questions, and then they returned to Kelsi’s dorm.
    Kelsi flopped on the bed. She was exhausted. But apparently, organic spinach had done Ella some good. She seemed to have caught her second wind and was ogling a pair of Taryn’s jeans that were dangling out of her dresser.
    “So are we going out or what?” Ella asked, shaking backher blonde ringlets. “I need to go out and have some wild times so I can have stories for Ryan when I get back home.”
    “Oh, right—I totally meant to ask you,” Kelsi said, turning to her sister. “What’s going on with this Ryan guy? How are things?” Kelsi was secretly mourning that her sister had parted ways with sweet, attentive Jeremy, but she knew better than to bring that up with prickly Ella.
    “Good, but of course his main goal in life is to try to get into my pants,” Ella replied in her usual blunt manner, and then laughed. “My whole plan is to keep him waiting, to hold out, until I know he’s serious about me. I mean, that’s the only way to test a guy, right? They’ll sleep with just about anyone otherwise.” She nodded wisely and Kelsi felt her heart sink as she thought of Tim.
    There was a knock on the door, and Kelsi wondered if Tim had decided to show up after all. He’d gone on a road trip with a frat buddy for the long weekend.
    She hurried over, opened the door, and felt her heart leap.
    Bennett was standing there.
    On impulse, she slipped into the hallway and shut the door on Ella’s curious stare.
    “Um, hi,” she stammered. She wished her unpainted toes weren’t poking out from beneath the frayed cuffs of her jeans. Bennett, of course, looked effortlessly hip in his dark coat, faded cords, and scarf.
    “Hi,” he said and smiled.
    “Taryn’s not here,” Kelsi said. “I thought you guys were going to see your grandparents.”
    “Yeah. We leave tomorrow,” Bennett said, studying her.
    “Oh.” Kelsi felt that zing of connection again, and she didn’t know quite what to do about it, so she looked down, and wished again that she wasn’t barefoot. The dorms at Smith were old and she could feel the November chill through the soles of her feet, even inside.
    “I came to give you this,” Bennett said.
    When Kelsi looked up, he was handing her a CD. On the cover was a sketch in pencil with a dash of color. It took Kelsi a minute to realize it was a drawing of her.
    She stared at it, too shocked to say anything.
    “After we hung out that night I kept thinking about how alike our taste in stuff was,” Bennett said, his eyes intent on hers. “So I decided to risk it and make the inevitable mixed CD. You’ll either hate it and think I’m lame, or love it and dig some awesome bands.”
    “I don’t know what to say,” Kelsi said, which was true. She blinked as if that might clear her head. She felt dizzy, and worried there was too much color in her face suddenly.
    “Well,” Bennett said, and there was a laugh—not a mocking laugh, more like a fond laugh—in his voice. “You could say, ‘Hey, Bennett, if you’re not too busy, would youwant to come in and chill a little? Especially because you haven’t ever