Summer had to peel herself away from the window to answer his question — it wasn’t like she could call over her shoulder to him. Ducking in beside him, she peered into the fridge, and swallowed hard. So many good things to eat. She gave Derek a questioning glance, and picked up an apple. She wanted to ask him something, many things, but here — it wasn’t as easy. Stepping back, she spotted a pad near the fridge and held it up to him.
Derek moved away from the fridge slightly so that she could pick out what she wanted. He was stunned when she only took an apple. That was all she was going to eat? She looked like she needed to inhale a horse to get back to a healthy size. He looked at the notepad and nodded. “You can write on it if you want.” He hoped it would make all of this a lot easier.
The pencil for the pad had rolled away a bit, hiding behind the toaster. She rubbed the apple against her face, enjoying the coolness, the way it smelled, before taking a little bite. She thought she might cry when the juice hit her tongue. She forced herself to only take two bites before she put it down and printed, ‘my name is Summer.’ In between every sentence, she took another bite.
‘was it wrong to pick the apple? I don’t have any way to repay you.’ She stared at the paper for a long time, fingers clenched around the fruit, before she wrote the next line. ‘I should not have asked you. I’m sorry.’