Page 27 of Coastal Runaway

We decided to take an American Literature lecture as one of our last required general courses. We thought it would be fun to take together. The class had mostly underclassmen and we thought it would be an easy A.

Unfortunately for us, we got stuck with the one professor who didn’t believe in the easy way out. It was only the second week of classes and she had already assigned two essays and a quiz. She even had mandatory clicker questions in the beginning of the class to mark attendance so if you weren’t here then your grade got marked down.

When the lecture was released, we walked with the hordes of excited freshmen out into the sunny September sun. I tilted my head up to the sky and took in the warmth. While sometimes I missed where I grew up, I really came to love the mild weather here on the west coast.

“Are you coming over for Love Island tonight?” I looked at Maggie.

“Is that tonight?” She looked at me with guilt on her face, “sorry babe, I made plans with that cute new guy on the track team.”

“Wow, throwing away our tradition for a boy. I thought you were a girl’s girl.” I crossed my arms to look mad, even though she knew that I wasn’t.

“Next week I promise!” She laughed, swatting my arms.

“Okay, okay, but make sure you’re caught up. Have fun tonight.” I gave her a hug and she skipped off. I yelled after her, “and make good choices!”

She flipped a dismissive wave in my direction. Guess it’s just me tonight.

When I got home, I ordered enough Chinese food to feed my entire family and broke out a bottle of wine, ready to take in the drama of the new bombshells entering the villa.

Halfway through the newest episode, I heard the door open and voices drifted into the living room. Nolan and Luke came strolling in with a couple of girls that I recognized from parties that we’ve thrown over the years. Nolan had his arm draped over one of them as she giggled and leaned into his side.

When they noticed me, Luke paused as if he was caught doing something wrong but Nolan smiled wide.

“Sup, Keegan Russ.” He plopped down on the couch with me, his girl scooting on his lap possessively like I was a threat and not his sister.

“You gotta stop with the nicknames.” I rolled my eyes.

“Aw, but it’s so fun.” He winked.

Luke walked towards the couch but didn’t sit, his girl nervously stood next to him.

I looked at him suspiciously and gestured towards the couch. We called a truce which meant we could be in the same room together and not set it on fire, right? They sat side by side and the perky blonde next to him draped his arm around her.

“I see you still have a thing for trashy reality TV,” Luke said with a ghost of a smile.

“Uh yes. Where else can you shamelessly watch people embarrass themselves to this degree and not feel bad about it because they’re making tons of money?”

“I love this show too.” Luke's date answered, pointedly only to him and not the group. I thought I might have hated her.

No, you don’t, Luke can bang whatever mindless airhead he wants.

Nolan chimed in, breaking my attention away from the couple sitting opposite of me on the large sectional, “Remember that time Keegan forced us to watch an entire season with her so we started making bets on the couples?”

“Yeah, she ran us dry that year. I think I lost like two hundred dollars when my favorite couple got voted out,” Luke laughed.

“You guys kept voting for the boring ones. It’s not my fault that I love the drama like the rest of America,” I laughed.

“You hustled us,” Nolan scoffed.

“And I would do it again.” I nodded and took a sip of my wine.

After the show ended, we found ourselves on the beach around a fire pit that the boys dug in the sand. I felt a pang of sadness as Nolan sat making out with the girl he brought over. Now that Sinclair was off the table—good riddance—I didn’t have any other solid hook ups that I could rely on.

Luke plopped down next to me in the sand, alone.

“What happened to your girl?” I asked, acting like I didn’t get a little pleasure when I looked around and didn’t see her here anymore.

“Wasn’t feeling it,” He said, staring into the fire.