Read Something Like Summer for Free Online Page B

and tank top, and with the air conditioner going
full blast, it was no wonder. The ankle was just as swollen as
before, but now it had graduated to a deep shade of
maroon.
    “ Good that you’re here,”
Tim croaked, sounding very much like Leon before he cleared his
throat. “I think it might be worse than I thought.”
    “ Yeah,” Ben held the book
up, brandishing it as if it were a medical degree. “I think you
have a third-degree sprain. Either that or it’s broken. You really
need to get to a hospital.”
    “ Probably should,” Tim
nodded with glassy eyes.
    “ Er, I know this is a
really stupid question, but are you all right?”
    “ Yeah. After you left I
dragged my ass into the kitchen and remembered some pills from last
time. They’ve got me feeling--” he gestured with his right arm
before letting it flop onto his forehead-- “Oh man,” he
finished.
    Ben cast around for a
phone. “I’ll call an ambulance.”
    “ No, fuck that,” Tim
muttered. “I’m not dying or anything. We’ll take my car. You can
drive, right?”
    “ Yes,” Ben said a little
tensely. He could drive, but he hated it. Since winning his driver’s license
with solid “D” in driver’s ed, he had driven all of three times,
each occasion forced on him by his parents.
    “ Well get me up and we’ll
be on our way.”
    Tim appeared cold, but his
skin was hot when Ben wrapped an arm around his back to help him
up. Maybe it was a side effect of the pills, or maybe he had a
fever. Either way, Ben was relieved that they were finally taking
action. Getting Tim to the car was very much like all those movies
Ben had seen where a drunken man hung like a limp doll on a
supporting friend. Just how many of those painkillers had he
taken?
    There was a brief and
harebrained argument where Tim insisted that no one but him could
drive his car, but eventually he was safely buckled into the
passenger seat and Ben was behind the wheel. He put the key in the
ignition and turned it, Beck’s voice exploding out of the stereo
system. Ben jabbed at the controls until the voice died, leaving in
its wake the noise of the engine, which sounded powerful. This
wasn’t the usual sports car noise that, frankly, sounded a bit
unhealthy. Instead it was a subtle, constant hum that rose
delicately into a growl once they were cruising down the
road.
    “ Nice,” Ben said, not
knowing if it really was but feeling it was a good
guess.
    “ Yeah, she’s my girl.” Tim
proudly patted the dashboard.
    “ So this is a, uh--” Ben
squinted at the steering wheel, hoping for a hint. “Firebird?” he
said, once he spotted the three diamonds.
    “ Pff,” came the reply.
“Please. This is a 3000GT!”
    “ Right.” Ben risked a
glance over to see Tim wearing an expression of mock
offense.
    “ What kind of a guy
doesn’t know his cars?” Tim pushed.
    “ I’ll give you three
guesses,” Ben said evenly.
    Tim was silent for a
moment. “So it’s true?”
    Ben let a slow smile play
over his face. He loved this part. It always felt like revealing to
a disbeliever that he had magical powers or something.
“Yup.”
    “ Hmmm.”
    That took Ben off guard,
since it wasn’t the usual response. Normally, one of two things
would happen. The guy would either play it off like he wasn’t
surprised and name some random gay uncle or somebody else he barely
knew to show that he was both worldly and accepting of such things,
or he would slide straight into being offensive. Tim had done
neither and opted for a musing “hmmm.” Whatever that
meant.
    “ You have some sort of car
name, right?”
    Ben chuckled. “Yeah.
Bentley, but I don’t know anything about Bentleys
either.”
    “ So, Benjamin Bentley, do
you know my name as well as where I live?”
    “ It’s Ben, not Benjamin,”
he replied, avoiding the question.
    “ Benjamin it is,” Tim
teased. “Hey! Easy on the curves! Jesus!”
    “ Sorry. So where are you
from? I mean, I haven’t seen you in school before