A quiet promise in the dark that we won’t have to lay low forever.
Maybe one day we’ll move to Noosa, Porter says.
One day we’ll find that spark again.
I pin my hopes to thatmaybe.
I can’t bear the thought of letting go.
So for now, a sleepy good night is better than goodbye.
the twenty first chapter
MARK
And then there’s Olsen.
O for Olsen. O for orgy.
O for orientation week.
If I’m gonna behave, I should probably swerve all three.
It starts on the second day of semester.
As per tradition, the university campus is hosting a Club Day.
Every imaginable student organisation has pitched a stall.
I stroll along the grassy verge of the quad.
Dessert club, cinephile club, paddle boarding club.
Too many to count.
Astronomy club piques my interest.
I circle back to grab a flyer.
“Blonde!” squeals a girl behind me. “We got us a blonde!”
It takes me a second to realise that she’s pointing my way.
My hair is more of a golden brown.
But I guess it’s lightened quite a bit over summer, now that I’m a beach guy.
Blondes Have More Fun, says the banner above their table.
“Blondie. Blondie. Blondie,” her friends chant.
I join in awkwardly when they form a conga line.
But it’s not the girls who turn my head.
“Who isthisgorgeous man?” asks a tall handsome stranger with a clipboard.
“Tell me your name at once.”
