Chasing Summer

By K.C. Aria

A shining young woman.

A cotton candy summer.

Could this relationship ever be what she hopes it is?

Edna isn't quite sure she's ready to grow up. College was fun, but the prospect of starting her 9-5 job, and losing time to create her art, is intimidating. Especially because it's the one thing in the world that she wants to pursue professionally.

So when she meets someone who appears to share that dream, it's all she can do to hang onto them. After all, finding similar souls is hard, as an adult.

But what if her new friend isn't all that she seems?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mannarino Publishing
• Release date: Jul 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201247188

Book preview

CHASING

SUMMER

a short story

K.C. ARIA

Copyright © 2021 by K.C. Aria

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Cover Image from Pexels

Mannarino Publishing

I THOUGHT IT seemed strange when she vanished on me. The first time it happened, I chalked it up to a trick of the light. We’d been walking away from everyone, and everything, down a long sidewalk with picket fences along the property lines. The sun had been glaring.

It never glared off her, though:

Summer.

That day, I’d been walking ahead of her. I was always ahead, my stride faster than anyone else’s. I’d grown to walk quickly, just to escape the teasing of having a name like Edna (my dead grandmother’s name), among other things. I was used to people falling behind.

I wasn’t used to them having that as an excuse to run away when they did.

I’d said her name as I’d turned around. I’d been talking to her, mid-sentence. Something about an ice cream place, not far from where we were. The residential areas near the beach always seemed to stretch on forever, but they always had something interesting to do in town. And she’d never been here before.

When I went to look for her, though, she was gone. Not a brush of her white sundress. Not a hint of shade from her white parasol. Not a patter of footsteps as she hurried away. All that was left was a patch of mid-afternoon sunlight.

It was like she was never there.

WE MET ON the beach.

This was my last summer vacation before heading off to my first ever job as a portrait painter. At first, the idea of being an adult had thrilled me. All that independence seemed like an open hand to explore the world, an invitation to finally do what I loved, and be taken seriously.

Once I graduated, though, the responsibilities felt daunting. Suddenly, I wasn’t just dreaming