Jefferson Lake (MBBF Spin-Off)

Chap. 53

"Let's go to the beach."

She turned to stare at me for a few moments, her eyebrows furrowed together. "The beach?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Where even is the closest beach?"

"St. George is about 2 hours south."

She came to a stop, her head tilting to the side as she studied me. "Lee, it's cold outside. And it's not even 7:00 yet. And you want to go to a beach that's 2 hours away, with no mode of transportation to get there?"

"I have a car."

"A car that's located off-campus," she reminded me. "And that you'll have to go through Parker to gain access to."

"I have a set of spares," I dismissed. "Why do you always overanalyze everything? Don't you ever want to do something spontaneous?"

"I'm just hesitant about the reasoning behind it."

"There is no reasoning," I declined. "That's the point. You wake up, you drive out to the beach, and you have the best fucking day of your life. Because none of it was planned and you didn't spend every waking moment fine tuning the details. You just went with it, spontaneity."

She let out a long sigh. "I was supposed to go to the play on campus this afternoon at 2:00."

Fuck this.

"Fine."

Her eyebrows pulled together.

"Do whatever you want."

"Don't be like that," McKenna declined, her voice tight. "Not all of us can just wake up at 6:30 in the morning and drive off to the beach on a whim. I had plans today and you knew that."

"You don't even know what the play is about," I pointed out. "So why the fuck are you going?"

"To broaden my cultural horizons Lee, why does it matter? I made plans and I can't just bail on them because of you."

"Sorry to be such a bother."

"Why are you being like this?" McKenna asked me, letting out a frustrated sigh. "I thought we were going to go do breakfast, go downtown or something."

"Maybe I just wanted something different," I shot back. "Maybe I'm tired of doing the same damn things, and I wanted to do something different with you. Experience new things with you, live a little."

With you.

"I'd love to have new experiences and get out and see the world. And I'd love to do those things with you."

I opened my mouth to comment, but before I could she grasped my cheeks between her hands, her eyes boring into mine.

Which was a pretty big feat for her petite frame against my tall one.

"But not like this," she declined. "Not when you're frantic and anxious. Not when you're trying to run away from yourself and trying to escape reality. That's not how I want my experiences to be remembered."

I paused, swallowing back the lump in my throat.

She let her hands drop back down to her sides.

"We'll go to the beach," she promised, her eyes still locked on mine.

She rose up and lightly pressed her lips to my cheek.

"Just not today."

~*~

I stepped into the backroom of the Art Room, my lunch already in hand.

The lights were already flipped on, which sent off some red flags.