Page 5 of Coastal Runaway

Luke left the “2 chicks, 2 dicks, and Luke” chat.

Nolan added Luke to the “2 chicks, 2 dicks, and Luke” chat.

Nolan

You can’t shake us that easily, sweetie.

Luke

When did you change the name of the chat to that? Wtf.

Maeve

Last night when he was drunk. He laughed so hard he peed his pants.

Nolan

It was worth a little pee.

I’m on my way home now, just called an Uber.

@Nolan, don’t call me that.

@Everyone, get a life and stop being so concerned about my whereabouts.

Nolan

Sorry, Michelle Keegan, it won’t happen again :)

The grumpy twins need coast to coast coffee this morning, apparently.

Aiden changed the name of the “2 chicks, 2 dicks, and Luke” chat to “You’re All Paying For My Therapy, and Luke”

This was a daily occurrence in this chat: Nolan thinking that he was the class clown, Aiden egging him on, Maeve keeping the peace, and Luke and I completely ignoring each other.

Being part of a big family means that very little of your business actually stays your business. There were six Kelly children in total, three boys and three girls. Owen and Ryleigh were the oldest; fraternal twins who practically finished each other’s sentences, but had entirely opposite personalities. Aiden was born two years later. Followed by Nolan and I, another set of fraternal twins, eleven months after that. Maeve was the youngest, and was the only one who got the “only child” experience when she completed the last two years of high school in the newly emptied nest.

My parents definitely knew how to get busy after they got married and, apparently, didn’t believe in wrapping it up.

Nolan and I were still close, but there was a rift since I moved to Malibu. It was subtle, but still there. Nolan liked to act like he was the life of the party and shrugged things off, never showing on his face how much a situation affected him, but I could see the hurt in his eyes every time that he had to choose between LA with me or Connecticut with Luke for the summers.

Luke.

Avoiding Luke turned out to be pretty easy from the other side of the country. I hadn’t uttered one word to him in the three years since I took off and never looked back. He didn’t chase me and didn’t call. I got the memo loud and clear. I just wanted to forget it ever happened.

Luke was blocked on all social media, and I knew that he didn't ask Nolan about me. Neither of us told Nolan what happened on the night of the graduation party so they were, of course, still best friends.

In fact, I heard through the family grapevine that only a few weeks after I left town, Luke was in a committed relationship with Kiara Brighton.

Because of course he was, she’s perfect.

It was the last reminder that I was forgettable and that it was dangerous to let his sweet words intoxicate me.

The only person who knew what happened was Maeve. When she arrived in Malibu four years ago, I broke down sobbing. We spent the summer healing and swore off boys forever—that lasted all of two weeks before we met some surfers who showed us the time of our lives. Maeve and I haven’t talked about it since. She gave me the space to heal, and we bonded more than we ever had before.

Once I committed to CCU, more than half of the family was on the west coast. Dad and Maeve started to visit as often as they could, and everyone started preferring a California winter to the bitter cold and snow of Connecticut.

When Owen graduated, he took over a junior leadership role at KavTech LA. Ryleigh, well, she’s kind of a free spirit and moved around the country in her van, only popping in on major holidays. Then, Maeve shocked no one by coming to CCU on a full cheerleading scholarship, so dad now spent seven months out of the year at his LA office.