Every Summer After

After Sam goes to college, Percy finally hears from him after two weeks. However, he is terse and distracted on the phone, and his emails and texts continue to be short and uninformative. Charlie suggests that Percy start swimming again to help her cope, and they begin meeting in the mornings for him to supervise her training. Percy, needing a goal, decides to swim across the lake again; Charlie also wants to see her do this up close. They begin to have coffee and breakfast together after Percy’s swims, which seems to make Sue uncomfortable.

Swimming offers Percy a break from worrying about Sam, but her insecurities resurface at other times, as Sam remains uncommunicative. Percy grows bitter and resentful about him having gone away at all, and she accuses him of leaving to get away from her. She also grows irritable with the people around her.

Percy eventually completes the swim across the lake as planned, and Charlie rows alongside her. Post-swim, Charlie flirts with Percy, and this time she flirts back. She brings up how Charlie was her first kiss. He asks her if she still writes, revealing that he read her stories after coming across them in Sam’s room. Charlie thinks her writing is good and encourages her to work on something to help distract her from Sam. It strikes Percy that Charlie has been trying to help her in multiple ways all summer.

Charlie suggests that they watch a horror movie at a nearby drive-in on the coming Sunday, as it might cheer Percy up. On Saturday, Percy gets an email from Sam detailing how much harder the course is than he expected. He misses Percy intensely but is unable to concentrate on work as much as he needs to. He wants to establish boundaries, limiting phone calls to just one per week. Upset, Percy calls Sam immediately, but a girl picks up the phone and informs her that Sam is busy. Percy insists she put him on, and a drunk Sam asks if they can talk tomorrow before the line goes dead. Percy cries herself to sleep.

Sam sends Percy an apology text the next day and asks to talk, but Percy doesn’t reply. Charlie picks her up in the evening and flirts with her all the way to the movie. Percy realizes that Charlie has been paying her quite a bit of attention. He asks about her puffy eyes, and Percy tells him about Sam. Charlie is angry at the thought that Sam is breaking up with her, but Percy is not sure if that is what is happening; in either case, she just wants to forget about Sam and have fun.

Percy enjoys the movie, and she and Charlie have a fun conversation the entire way home. She invites him in for a drink, and when Charlie comes on to her, Percy reciprocates because she is desperate to feel wanted. They have sex, and Percy falls asleep immediately after. When she wakes up, she realizes that she is in bed with Charlie and has a panic attack. She asks Charlie to leave, dissolving into self-loathing. Charlie keeps checking on her thought the day, even as Percy has another panic attack. Charlie apologizes for what happened, and they don’t speak of it again, though Percy feels terrible for hurting Charlie too.

Back in the city, Percy’s parents tell her they are selling the cottage because the financials are not working out. Percy tells Sam, with whom she has only been emailing, following the night with Charlie. Sam offers to help move her things into his cottage over Thanksgiving, and Percy can stay there. Once they are both settled into their initial weeks at college, Sam’s communication becomes longer and more detailed. He apologizes for having been short with her earlier when he was overwhelmed. He loves and misses Percy, who is his best friend, and the only person with whom he can envision a future. Percy, who has not told anyone about what happened with Charlie, works herself up to tell Sam the truth over Thanksgiving.

Percy emails Sam that she has something important to talk to him about over Thanksgiving, and he responds that he does too. Percy arrives in Barry’s Bay and busies herself with sorting things out in her room before the house goes on sale. Sam arrives, and Percy greets him tearfully. He gives her his three updates: He loves her, he can’t bear the idea of coming back to the cottage without her, and he wants her to marry him. Sam presents Percy with his grandmother’s ring, and as much as she wants to say yes, she cannot. She lies, saying she thinks they are too young and she cannot trust Sam to love her forever when he asked for a break just recently. Though Sam insists he was wrong earlier, Percy sadly resists him. She suggests that they take a break for a while.

Percy finally tells Sam that she slept with Charlie, apologizing for her mistake through tears. She explains that insecurity about her relationship with Sam not only led her to seek comfort from Charlie but was also why she broke up with Sam. Sam initially doesn’t respond, but he finally breaks the silence by asking her how it was.

Percy is dumbstruck by how cruel Sam sounds, and she dresses quickly, rushing to leave. Sam accuses her of running away again. Percy responds that she didn’t think he wanted to see her. After she suggested a break, she emailed him and sent him numerous texts that went unanswered. Sam yells at her, asking how he was supposed to react after she slept with his brother.

Percy realizes that Sam already knew that she had slept with Charlie. She rushes out to her car, but it is gone. On autopilot, she continues walking to her old cottage as Sam yells out for her. She has another panic attack, and Sam catches up to her and helps her calm down. Percy, sobbing, collapses in his arms and blacks out.

After Thanksgiving, Percy tells Delilah everything that happened with Sam and Charlie. When Delilah comes home for Christmas, she spends all her time with Percy and helps her feel better. She promises to tell Percy if she ever sees Sam on campus.

Delilah keeps her word and calls in March. She met Sam at a party; he was really drunk and hit on Delilah, but she firmly rejected him. A stunned Percy accuses Delilah of flirting with Sam; she says that Delilah has always been “a bit slutty” (289). A hurt Delilah hangs up on Percy, asking her only to call when she is ready to apologize.

Percy wakes up alone in Sam’s bed. She calls Chantal to tell her that she still loves Sam. Chantal asks Percy to tell him, and if he doesn’t think she is good enough, Percy can come straight home, where Chantal will be waiting.

When Percy goes downstairs, Charlie is waiting for her; he is the one who moved her car. Sam is out by the water, and Charlie assures her that his brother doesn’t hate her. He asks Percy if she hates him, and she admits that she doesn’t—she didn’t hate Charlie even right after what happened between them. To Percy’s question, Charlie confesses that Sue knew they slept together, but she was mostly angry with Charlie. She was the one who asked Charlie to call Percy after she died, knowing that Sam would need her.

Percy heads down to the dock to find Sam. He reveals that Charlie told him what happened over Christmas break that same year because Sam was in such rough shape after their breakup. Charlie thought that knowing what happened might help with Sam’s confusion. Charlie told Sam that Percy loved him deeply and regretted what happened immediately, and that she had a panic attack right after. Sam apologizes for being cruel to her the day before; he thought he had moved past what happened, but hearing her admit it felt like hearing it again for the first time.

Sam was always jealous of Charlie, and when Charlie first told him, he didn’t take it well. He was angry with everyone. However, Sam soon realized that despite him having loved Percy ever since he met her, he never expressed this to her. If Percy had known this, she would have never felt insecure and turned to Charlie. Sam apologizes for the lack of communication on his part.

After hearing about Charlie and Percy, Sam began to drink heavily and sleep around, in an attempt to hurt Percy like she hurt him. He ran into Delilah at a party, which Percy says she already knows about. Sam stopped sleeping around after this and focused solely on his academics, living like a robot. Eventually, his anger toward both Charlie and Percy faded away.

When Percy claims that she deserved his behavior, Charlie insists that no one deserves to be treated that way, as betrayals don’t cancel out each other. He thought about reaching out to Percy multiple times but eventually decided it was too late. Percy insists that she never moved on. She remembers how Sam confessed his love to her the previous day, and she realizes that he has loved her all these years despite knowing what happened with Charlie. She confesses that she, too, has loved him since they were 13: He has always been the one for her.

Sam pulls the friendship bracelet that Percy made him out from his pocket. It is the surprise present that he promised her if she swam across the lake. Although she didn’t swim all the way, he thinks that she deserves the consolation prize. They agree to try again at their relationship and decide to go for a swim.

Percy and Sam move into a condo together in Toronto; Charlie also lives close by. They all lead busy lives but still manage to meet and spend time together occasionally. They discover that they enjoy spending time together, though it takes some work and a couple of arguments between the trio for them to get to this place. It also takes time for Sam and Percy to find their footing with each other and trust each other again, but they make it work and reclaim their friendship too.

A year after Sue’s passing, the brothers and Percy take her ashes out on the Banana Boat to disperse them on the lake. Afterward, they head back to the cottage, where a party is being held in her memory. It is being catered by Julien, who now owns the Tavern after having bought it from the Floreks. Percy’s parents will be in attendance, as will Chantal, and even Delilah, whom Percy finally apologized to and reconciled with. After everyone leaves, Percy plans to take Sam down to the basement, where a horror movie will be playing, and propose to him with a ring made out of embroidery floss—the same material that she made his friendship bracelet from when they were 13.