Four young women find their way through college on the Northwest Coast. Friendships will be tested, hearts will be broken - but maybe true love will find them after all!
This is the first of four stories - and yes, there will be foul language, sex (...
So, I expected to have to help all my friends do some emotional clean-up after Spring Break, but everyone spends the following weeks trying to act like nothing happened in Florida. I mean, yeah sure, Nancy is overly committed to swimming, Angie is partying more than usual, and Luke and Nate spend all their time training and practicing all the damn time. They have a scrimmage game coming up at the end of April, so they sort of have to. But they all manage to get by on their own. When I got home from Florida, I made sure to warn Miss Maggie on the upcoming emotional storms passing by the house and I stocked up on alcohol, tea and shake-n-bake mixes to last at least 2 months, assuring Miss Maggie that they would be eaten within a fortnight. But that hasn't happened.
You'd think that would leave time for me to get down and dirty with Dean, but he's been in a mood lately because he's pissed that I went to Florida for a week with my friends instead of spending the week with him. This of course leaves time for me to study, work, run, and make jigsaw puzzles with Miss Maggie, but where's the fun in that?! Well, putting together puzzles with old Mags is actually hilarious. She gets really pissy when a puzzle piece won't fit the way she wants it, and she swears up a storm before she leaves the table and makes me fix her mess. She has me on the floor laughing whenever she calls the jigsaw puzzle "a piece of shit puzzle" or "son of a bitch".
It's the beginning of April, and I'm working late on a Thursday night. It's a slow night, Dean is in his office not to be disturbed, and I'm trying to get through Paradise Lost without falling asleep when Seth from my economy class walks in and heads straight for the bar.
"Oh, it's you," he says and looks at me with hopelessness written all over his face.
"It's me! What can I get you?" I smile at him. I'm positive that I didn't cause his hopelessness. Our economics professor, Mr. Petersen is a hardass but we don't have any essays to hand in this week, so I don't think it's that either.
"Give me a... just a beer..." he pauses. "And you can tell your little punk-friend that she isn't all that and that one day she will be sorry that she doesn't treat people right!"
I pour him a beer. "My punk-friend?" I ask hesitantly. I don't have any punk friends. But at least I now know it's someone else causing his misery.
"Angie. The one who always changes her hair-color and wears long skirts?"
"Oh! Yeah, that's Angie. She's not punk. She just doesn't respect her own hair. It'll fall off if she continues to dye it all the time."
"She thinks she's so cool, doesn't she?" he cringes.
I don't know Seth very well. In class he seems very serious and maybe a bit nerdy. He's blonde and slender, and he always hangs around the same frat guys who are all very business-like. I can't imagine how he knows Angie. Unless... Oh, for fucks sake, did they have sex?! He does have that innocent look that she likes so much...
"What did she do to you?" I ask Seth with genuine curiosity. Angie is not an oversharer when it comes to her personal life, but I know her enough to know she uses sex to forget her feelings. Well, she uses sex for anything, even just to pass the time, but Seth?!
"Nothing! She didn't do nothing to me, okay?" Jezzus, what crawled up his behind, I've never seen him so frustrated.
"Okay." I pick up my book again, but immediately change my mind and grab my phone to text Angie.
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