Chapter 418: Loss of control with Summer
Summer continued cleaning my injuries for the next five minutes.
She stayed on her knees beside me while I sat on the dirt with my legs bent, letting her work through the cuts and bruises one by one. Every time I thought she had finished, she found another scrape on my arm, shoulder, or neck that I had not even noticed.
"You do not have to do all of that," I said, wiping sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand.
The heat had not gone down much even with the sun getting lower. My tank top clung to my back, and dirt kept sticking to the sweat on my arms.
"Symbiote or not, you should not get used to pain and injuries just because you think you will recover," Summer said.
She cleaned a shallow cut near my elbow with a cloth, speaking without looking up.
"That is not a good way to think. One day, something might not heal as quickly. Or you might be too exhausted to notice how badly you are hurt."
"I guess..." I looked down at the dirt between my shoes. "Yeah. You are right."
I had started treating pain like it barely mattered. Marlon hit me, I got bruised, the Symbiote healed most of it, and I came back the next day. It was easy to forget that the collar weakened me for a reason. In a real fight, I might not get a chance to recover somewhere safe afterward.
Summer moved closer to check the side of my neck.
Her expression changed the moment she saw the marks there.
"What happened here?" She asked.
I touched the redness carefully and winced.
"Probably your dad trying to tear my head off."
Summer sighed through her nose.
"He really needs to stop acting like you are indestructible."
"He is trying to make me better."
"He can do that without leaving you looking like this."
She took out another small cloth, wet it with water and antiseptic, and started cleaning the scratches along my neck. The cuts were not deep, but Marlon’s fingers had dug in hard when he threw me down earlier. There were thin red trails across my skin, and a few had dried with dust stuck to them.
Summer leaned in to get a better look.
The moment she did, a cold shiver ran down my back.
An unexpected shiver born from the sudden proximity of her body and the quiet warmth radiating from her. I glanced at her face so near mine and found myself studying every detail: the delicate curve of her features, her aqua-green eyes lowered in concentration, and the faint sheen of sweat glistening across her fair skin under the light.
She wore a low-neckline top with short sleeves, and the way she was leaning toward me gave me a clear, unintended view of the hollow of her collarbone and the soft edge of her white bra just visible beneath the fabric. The closeness felt both accidental and charged, leaving me momentarily still as the warmth of her presence settled over me.
What the hell was wrong with me?
It had started after Maribel. My body still felt too warm, too alert, like the Symbiote had turned every sensation up until I could not ignore anything around me. Summer was close because she was treating my injuries. That was it.
She was helping me.
But my pulse had started racing anyway.
Memories from earlier pushed into my head without permission. Maribel’s room. The heat in my body afterward. That urge to go back even when I knew I should not.
I clenched my hand around the water bottle.
"You okay?" Summer asked.
She had stopped moving the cloth. Her eyes had lifted to my face.
"Yeah," I said too quickly. "Just... it is enough."
I tried to pull back.
Summer caught my arm before I could move away.
"No. These could turn into ugly scars if you leave dirt in them." She frowned toward the marks on my neck. "Honestly, my dad takes too much advantage of your fast recovery. He hits you harder because he knows you heal."
"He is not wrong," I said. "They will heal soon. Really, you can stop—"
"I said do not move."
Her tone was sharper than usual.
I shut my mouth.
I did not want to push her away. Summer was only trying to help, and she did not deserve me acting strange around her because I could not get my own body under control.
Just breathe.
There was no way I was supposed to be feeling this restless.
Something had to be happening with the Symbiote. Maybe the stabilization with Maribel had affected it somehow. Maybe taking off the Anti-Symbiote collar had brought everything back too strongly at once. It would be understandable but it never happened before with Summer so this was new.
Whatever it was, it was not normal.
Summer put the cloth aside and pulled a small tube of ointment from her bag.
I watched her hands instead of looking at her face.
This was normal treatment. The scratches across my neck were not shallow, and she was just making sure they did not get infected. I had told Marlon to stop holding back during training, so I could not really complain when he listened.
Still, Summer’s closeness made it hard to stay calm.
Without the collar, my senses had recovered completely. I could hear the ocean beyond the buildings, people talking farther down the Boardwalk, the soft creak of wood beneath somebody’s steps. I could smell salt in the evening air, dirt from the training ground, and the clean scent of the supplies Summer had brought.
Everything felt too sharp.
Summer’s fingers touched the side of my neck as she carefully spread the ointment over the cuts.
I flinched before I could stop myself.
"Sorry," she said. "Did that hurt?"
"No," I replied. "It is fine."
She studied me for a second, clearly not convinced.
"You are acting weird."
"I am just tired."
"That is a bad excuse. You have been tired after every session with my dad."
I did not have an answer for that.
Summer raised some of my dark hair out of the way so she could see the scratches near the back of my neck.
"You should cut your hair one day," she said. "It gets in the way whenever I have to clean you up."
I swallowed and stared toward the ocean.
"M...Maybe," I said quietly.
Then, as if the closeness wasn’t already overwhelming, Summer leaned further against me. Her chest pressed softly against my cheek, the warmth of her body sudden and impossible to ignore.
"What the... the collar," she murmured, her voice tightening with concern. "How hard did you tighten it around your neck? It’s deep red..."
"It’s nothing," I said quickly. "It’ll disappear in a day—"
"It’s not nothing." She scowled, eyes sharp. "Getting used to pain isn’t good, Ryan. You should still fight it, still try to dodge it as much as you can, no matter how fast your Symbiote helps you recover."
"Right, right. Just... drop it, please." I cut her off, fists clenching hard at my sides.
That only made her more upset.
"You don’t even care what I’m saying. You won’t even look at me," she said.
Please don’t do that.
Thankfully she stopped talking. Instead she lifted the towel and began gently running it, then her bare hand, across the back of my neck.
"This is so red... and there are even puncture marks..." she whispered, sounding genuinely shocked.
Yeah. Because once the collar locked into place it drove needles straight into my skin and injected whatever chemical cocktail was meant to weaken me. She had probably never noticed before because of how long my hair usually covered it.
"Ryan... this is..." Her fingers brushed lightly over the small puncture wounds again. "You should—"
Before she could finish, something inside me snapped.
I grabbed her wrist and shoved her down onto the ground in one sharp motion. Summer didn’t even have time to react. One second she was kneeling beside me; the next I was looming over her, her body pinned beneath mine, eyes wide with pure surprise.
And then I kissed her.
My lips crashed against hers hard. A muffled little "Hmm?!" escaped her as her green eyes flew open. I caught one of her hands and pinned her wrist to the floor with the other, holding her down while I pressed deeper into the kiss, tasting the soft pink of her lips.
Summer whimpered, knees folding slightly, eyes fluttering shut as a flush of red spread across her cheeks.
I kissed her for maybe ten intense, breathless seconds before finally pulling back.
"Haa..."
She gasped for air, but I didn’t give her long. I dropped my mouth to her neck, sucking at the warm, slightly sweaty skin there.
"Haaah!" Another sharp gasp left her, lips parting.
I released her hand and slipped my own under the hem of her top. My palm met the soft bare skin of her stomach almost instantly, sliding upward toward the edge of her bra while I sucked at her neck again.
"Haa—! Ryaan—!"
The sound of my name torn from her throat hit me like a slap.
My eyes snapped open. Reality crashed back in.
I jerked away so violently that I rolled backward, scrambling onto my knees and throwing both hands up in front of me. My face twisted in pure shock.
"So—Sorry...!" I shouted, the word coming out disbelieving.
Summer was still on the ground, upper body propped on her elbows, the hem of her top pushed up enough to show a strip of her stomach. Her face was beet-red. For a second she looked at me with something close to resentment, then her expression softened when she saw the horror on mine. She quickly tugged her top back down.
"...What the hell was that?" She asked quietly, wiping her lips with the back of her hand.
"I... I don’t know..."
I don’t know.
I pushed myself to my feet and ran before whatever had just taken hold of me could go any further.