Chapter Text
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“Nothing really.”
“I’m outside, let’s go to the beach.”
Devi threw her bag through the back window of Paxton’s jeep and jumped in the front seat.
“Did you bring my suit?” Devi asks as she pulled on her seatbelt. Devi’s mom would never let her wear a bikini, so she had to save up her money from working at the summer camp to buy it. She usually hid it at the back of her underwear drawer but since she’d been going swimming with Paxton more days than not, she just kept it in his car.
“Yep, I threw it in the laundry.” Paxton pulled out onto the road and Devi started messing with the music.
Her and Paxton were both working at the same summer camp, so they spent most days together. Paxton had spent the last two summers working at the camp and Devi wanted to make her own money, so she had applied too. It was also convenient because she always had a ride to work instead of asking her mom or Kamala. Paxton had promised to teach her to drive this summer, but she always chickened out whenever he offered.
Devi always insisted on picking the music when they went anywhere, and Paxton didn’t mind. She settled on Ariana Grande’s album and turned up the volume as Motive filled the car. Paxton rolled down all the windows and stuck his arm out to feel the breeze. It was one of the hottest days of the summer, so Paxton’s shirt was mostly open, and Devi had her new sunglasses on. This was the first summer that Devi was making real money and she tended to spend most of it by the time the next pay day had rolled around.
Once they got to the beach Devi jumped in the backseat and Paxton got out to stand guard. Devi was a pro at the quick change at this point and quickly shimmied into her bikini without having to take off her dress completely.
Once Devi hopped out of the backseat, Paxton grabbed the drinks cooler and Devi grabbed their towels and a speaker. Usually the beaches were packed on hot days, but Paxton had a special superpower of finding an empty part of the beach to spend the day. They found a spot to settle and Devi started applying sunscreen.
“Did you hear Kenny is sick again. Mono.” Paxton said with an eye roll and Devi groaned.
“You think he’s going to be out all week again? Taylor should just fire him and hire someone else at this point.” Devi tossed Paxton the sunscreen and laid down on her towel.
“Yea right, Taylor probably gave him the mono. He’ll never fire him.” Devi laughed and closed her eyes.
“I don’t even understand how they find the time to mack. Those kids never stop.”
“Yea well, next week they’re going to be our problem again.” Usually each camp leader had about 5-10 kids to watch but with Kenny constantly gone they always ended up with more kids.
“Honestly, fuck Kenny.” Devi grumbled and Paxton nodded. “Did you see Eleanor’s insta post? Her and Trent are like embarrassingly in love.” Devi asked as she pulled out her phone to show him a boomerang of them kissing on some hike.
“I think it’s cute.” Paxton grinned as Devi made a vomiting face. “I invited them to come today but apparently they would rather be aloneeee.”
“That’s so nasty.” Devi said and Paxton laughed.
“I’m going in, you coming?” Paxton asked but Devi shook her head.
“Nah man, I’m working on my tan.” Devi said but really, she just preferred laying on the sand and watching the water than actually being in it.
“Your loss.” Paxton replied, shoving her as he got up to go swimming.
……
“Okay, the thing is that I just don’t think I’m coordinated enough for this.” Devi said as she stood on Paxton’s skateboard. She felt a little embarrassed at how wobbly she was and that she was wearing her bike helmet that she got when she was ten. Paxton had his car door open and Lizzo’s album was playing. Juice blasted into the street and Devi knew people would complain soon.
“I’m literally holding on to you. You can’t fall.” Paxton said as he led her down the road.
“I feel like I could still fall.” Devi said as she started tipping back and Paxton’s grip tightened as he pulled her forward.
“I won’t let you fall Devi. Would you just trust me for once?” He asked playfully annoyed.
“Shut up, I literally trust you all the time.”
“You shut up.” Paxton countered.
“Wow, real mature.” Devi replied sarcastically.
Devi was too busy arguing to notice them start to go faster. Of course, that is until she did notice. Then she was falling again, and she was falling fast. Paxton managed to grab her before she fell on her face and swung her off the skateboard. Devi held onto Paxton as the skateboard started rolling down the street without them. They looked at each other and immediately started laughing.
“I think you might be right about the coordination thing.” Paxton said and Devi shoved him away from her.
“Or maybe you’re a bad teacher.” She grinned at his shocked face as she ran to grab the skateboard.
“I’m never teaching you anything ever again” he retaliated.
“Come over here and help me loser.” Paxton crossed his arm in defiance.
“Tell me I’m a good teacher.”
“Stop being a baby.”
“Wooooow, even more insults. Bad teacher and a baby.”
“Fine, you’re a good teacher. Now let’s get on with this.” Devi said as she started to get on the skateboard again.
“Thank you.” Paxton replied satisfied. He grinned and went to help her again.
……..
Usually, they were separated during their days at camp since each group rotated through activities but on Fridays all of the kids got to go to the community pool. Those were obviously Paxton’s favourite days because he got to hang out with Devi, but he also loved getting to teach some of the kids how to swim.
Usually, Paxton stayed in the shallow end with the younger kids and Devi sat at the deep end with the older kids. Vacation by Dirty Heads was playing over the pool speakers and Devi had her legs in the water as she chatted with some kids.
“Yea, high school kind of sucks. What you gotta do is find a popular kid and force them to be your friend.” Devi told some kids who were going to be freshmen in the fall.
“That’s terrible advice.” Paxton laughed as he came to stand next to her in the pool. He had switched with Kenny who was now watching the younger kids. They had given up on learning to swim and were mostly just playing and splashing water at Kenny.
“Really? You got anything better?” Devi asked crossing her arms.
“Yes. Find something that makes you excited to go to school, for me that was swimming, for D it was being my best friend. And also, don’t give a shit about what other people think of you.” Paxton told the kids and Devi kicked his arm. “Oh shit, I mean just don’t care what other people think.”
“I meant the best friend thing.” Devi rolled her eyes.
“You were literally obsessed-“ before Paxton could finish Devi had jumped in and shoved Paxton’s head underwater.
Paxton managed to push Devi away from him and had his arm out separating them.
“Hey, you better stop, or your top is going to fall off again.” Paxton laughed and Devi’s face started burning up. Yes, the bikini was cute, but it wasn’t the most reliable bathing suit she had. Rough housing had led to a very embarrassing incident that Devi was trying to forget.
“I’m going to kill you.” Devi lunged at him and Paxton managed to grab her arms.
“Hey anger issues, chill out.” Paxton said with a grin. Devi managed to pull her arms away and splashed Paxton.
“Go do your job loser!” Devi yelled as she turned to go back to her post.
……
Devi swung the door open and was surprised to see Paxton. Usually he just texted her when he got to her house.
“Let’s go for a drive.” Paxton said as he held up his car keys.
“Okayyy.” Devi said as she grabbed her backpack from the door.
“Here ya go.” He said as he tossed the keys to her. She just about dropped them and didn’t move from her front door.
“Naaaa, I don’t think today’s the day.” Devi said nervously. She had failed her drivers test last month because she hadn’t practiced enough. It was the first time she hadn’t prepared, and it was also the first time she had failed a test.
“Come on D, your test is in a few weeks and don’t you want to have your licence by the time school starts?” Paxton asked as he opened the drivers side door. He motioned for her to get in and she groaned before going to the car.
It wasn’t legal for Paxton to teach her how to drive but her only other option was her mother which hadn’t worked out. Devi was pretty sure she failed her test because driving with her mom had made her so anxious that getting behind the wheel made her want to throw up even when her mom wasn’t around. She had even done drivers ed but that apparently wasn’t enough because she still failed.
“Are you sure? What if I scratch your car or something?” Devi asked as they both got in the car.
“Then I’ll literally kill you, so don’t scratch my baby.” Paxton said as he gently caressed his dash.
“That’s not really helpful.” Devi muttered as she nervously changed the seat settings.
“We’ll go to the school parking lot. It’s just down the street and the lot will be empty.” Devi nodded as she turned the car on. She kept her foot on the brakes as she looked at Paxton desperately.
“Listen to Tai, you’re going to be A-O-K.” Paxton said as he turned up the music. “Also, don’t forget to signal, you lost so many points for that.”
Paxton didn’t look nervous at all which made Devi feel a little bit better. If he could be confident in her driving skills than so could she. Devi signalled and did a very exaggerated shoulder check before she pulled onto the road. There were no cars around the whole way to the school so the only thing she had to deal with were some stop signs and one set of lights. She totally could do this.
Devi’s whole body relaxed once they pulled into the parking lot and she didn’t have to worry about hitting things or people anymore.
“That was pretty good actually. How did you fail?” Paxton asked.
“Probably because I suck at driving?” Devi told him as she put the car in park.
“Shut up, you had issues with the parallel park, right?” Paxton asked as he got out of the car.
“What are you doing?” Devi asked as he closed the door.
“I’m going to teach you how to parallel park.” Paxton grinned sticking his head through the window.
Devi waited as he grabbed stuff from out of his trunk. A bin full of blankets and an empty cooler he had forgotten about. He set them up as pretend cars and he went to the driver’s side.
“Okay, line yourself up.” Paxton said as Devi slowly moved the car, so the bin of blankets was lined up with the back of the jeep.
Paxton gave her instructions and ran around indicating for her how far to back up and how much to turn the wheel and eventually she got into the spot.
“I don’t think they’re going to let you guide me into a spot on the test.” Devi said annoyed that it took so long.
“You just gotta keep practicing, eventually it’ll just be second nature.” Paxton said as he got back in the car. “Pull out and this time I’m not going to help you.” Paxton said as she groaned.
“I hate this.” Devi said getting frustrated.
“You won’t hate this once you can drive yourself anywhere you want. Now start moving before I force you to practice highway driving.” Paxton said as he relaxed into his seat.
Devi wanted to hit him and get angry, but she knew he was her only hope of passing her test in a month, so she contained herself and kept practicing.
When the day of Devi’s test came around, she felt pretty confident she was going to fail again. Paxton had given her a pep talk before he left her house the night before, but it hadn’t helped with her nerves.
“You got this, okay? Just make sure you signal, and don’t forget the emergency brake when you do the hill park.” He told her as he held her shoulders. “By this time tomorrow, you’re going to be fully licensed because you’re a great driver.”
Devi was just as shocked as her mother when she pulled into the DMV and had almost no deductions on her test. Nalini didn’t know about Paxton teaching her to drive but she managed to convince her that is was because the tester was a lot nicer than the last one. She had smiled the entire time she got her new license and had raced back to the car. She knew Paxton would be waiting for her at her house and she was beyond excited to tell him that his methods had actually worked.
Paxton was leaning on his car checking his phone when they got home. She had to stop herself from running to Paxton to tell him the good news. She got out of the car and Nalini kissed her head before going into the house.
“How’d it go?” He asked as she crossed her arms and pretended to look disappointed.
“I passed babyyy!” She screamed as she whipped out her temporary license.
“I fucking knew it! You never trust me.” Paxton grabbed her and spun her around.
“Where do you wanna go? I’m driving.” Devi said and Paxton laughed as he got in the passenger seat.
…..
“Can you spot me ten bucks?” Devi asked as she searched through her backpack for some money.
“You have literally worked all summer, how are you always broke?” Paxton muttered as he pulled out some change from his console.
“I just don’t have any cash on me.”
Paxton gave her a handful of change and Devi looked at him annoyed.
“Quarters? Really?” Devi struggled to hold all the coins and Paxton shrugged.
“Take it or leave it, but if you want boba I suggest you take it.” Paxton grinned and Devi rolled her eyes as she realized she couldn’t open the door holding all the change.
Paxton laughed as he leaned over to open the door for her. “Get me a milk tea.” He said as she hopped out of the car.
“If I even make it there without any hands.” She grumbled.
By the time she got back with their drinks, Paxton had all the windows down blasting Young Dumb & Broke by Khalid.
“Really?!” She had to scream for him to hear her over the music. He lip synced to the lyrics as he pointed to her and dramatically danced to the music. “You’re so annoying!” She screamed as he took a big sip of his tea. He pointed at the drink as if to say that it tastes good and gave her the ok sign with his fingers. Devi just rolled her eyes and sipped on her mango slush. She guessed it was worth the embarrassing amount of quarters she gave to the cashier and having to listen to Paxton call her dumb and broke.
“Are you going to make it to Trent’s this weekend? Last party of the summer.” Paxton asked as he turned the music down.
“Have you met my mother? She’s not going to let me go to Trent’s house for a party.” Devi replied looking through Paxton’s Spotify.
“Since when do you tell your mom about going to parties?” Paxton asked snorting.
“I’m trying to turn over a new leaf this year. No more lying, especially to my mom.” She said as she put on Savage by Megan Thee Stallion and Beyoncé.
“What if she knew I was taking you?” Paxton knew the party would suck without Devi there.
“Yeaaaaa, my mom might like you now but not that much.”
“Come on D, it’s the last party of the summer. You have to go!” Paxton pouted as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“Fine, fine, I’ll figure out a way to go out but there’s no way she’ll let me stay out past 11.” Paxton smiled at her and agreed to be DD so he could get her home by 11.
By the time the weekend rolled around, Nalini didn’t even seem bothered by Devi leaving. Her and Kamala had been going crazy planning her wedding and Devi tended to be unhelpful in that area. She was only good for the grunt work, which she was sure there would be a lot of once it got closer to the day.
All she had to say was that she was going to Eleanor’s house for a back to school hangout and Nalini quickly agreed to get her out of the house. Technically she wasn’t lying because they had to pick up Eleanor at her house and they were having a back to school hangout. It was just a hangout with most of the school and alcohol.
Devi acted as casual as possible as she closed the front door, but she sprinted as soon as the door closed. She didn’t want to risk her mom seeing her actually getting in Paxton’s car instead of Fabiola’s. Devi had been asking her mom for a car for weeks but still nothing. Her mom was convinced that she should have enough money saved since she had a summer job, but summer camps didn’t exactly pay top dollar and Devi was pretty irresponsible with her money this summer. She figured she had two more summers to hustle before she went to Princeton.
“You look so pretty in that dress.” Paxton said as soon as she got in the car.
Devi blushed and couldn’t control her smile. “Shut up loser.”
Paxton smiled back at her as they went to pick up Eleanor and Fabiola.
Trent’s house was packed full of people, but he was standing at the door waiting for Eleanor. He hugged her tightly and dragged her off to the back of the house.
Paxton went to grab them some drinks and handed Devi and Fabiola beers. “Bread soda.”
Devi rolled her eyes and shoved him away. Fabiola had learned a long time to ignore their inside jokes and she wandered off.
Paxton was always treated like a god at parties and everyone wanted their time with him. Paxton gave people his typical cool guy head nod and pulled Devi outside where it was less crowded.
“So, you excited for school to start?” Paxton asked and Devi looked confused.
“Sure, I guess.” Paxton looked nervous which made Devi more confused. “Why are you making weird small talk?”
“I just guess this is the last time we’re hanging out before school starts.” Devi’s confusion became anger very quickly.
“What is that supposed to mean? Like things are going to change when school starts?” Devi questioned starting to get upset.
“No, chill Devi. I mean I do want things to change but not the way you think.” Now Devi was back to confused.
Paxton looked frustrated and looked around them. No one was around or paying attention to them. Paxton turned back to Devi and got way closer to her than she was used to. Kiss Me More by Doja Cat and SZA was playing in the house but it sounded far away.
He touched her cheek and lifted her mouth to his. “Is this okay?” He asked nervously.
Instead of answering Devi pushed her lips against his. Paxton smiled against her and pulled her tight to him.
……
“You want me to pick you up tomorrow?” Paxton texted and Devi smiled when she saw the message.
“Sure, if you don’t mind.” She replied quickly.
“No worries, we’re both going to the same place. Better for the environment and all that”
“I’ll make a driving playlist.” He sent back a smiley face and an ok hand.
Devi couldn’t wait for tomorrow. This was going to be the best summer of her life.