Rory Daniels has never done anything particularly spectacular.
She's lived comfortably in the same old town in Illinois for all 17 years of her life, until her parents sit her down one Tuesday afternoon and give her the news that no teenage girl ev...
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02 BEACH TALKS
The house is too quiet when I open the door and it takes me a moment to figure out what's missing. Our apartment back in Chicago was eternally empty, both my parents either working or sleeping, but through the windows you could always hear the city life below, whether it be the taxis driving by at 5pm or just the sounds of people living their lives around you.
I didn't realise how comforting white noise had become to me, a security blanket to my loneliness.
I shut the front door behind me but don't kick off my shoes, instead standing in the doorway of my home, my eyes glancing around the white walls that I doubt we'll ever get round to decorating.
Looking down at my bag which, even though it was the first day of semester today, is filled with assignments, I sling it back over my shoulder, opening the door and leaving the unfamiliar and empty building.
I head left down the street, the same way I did on my first night here, hoping that I will somehow stumble across the beach again. To my surprise I find the beach pretty easily and I immediately sit down on the sand, getting out my assignments and heaving a sigh.
The sound of the waves crashing down onto the sand echo throughout the small bay and the birds singing fill my ears instantly making me feel more comfortable.
It's not the same noise I'm used to, but somehow it makes me feel like I'm home.
I don't know how long I'm sat there, trying to work out the topics I've missed a whole semester on, before a shadow drops over my books and I glance up, squinting ever so slightly against the fading sun.
"Don't you have a house to go to?" His deep voice asks and I'm not sure if I'm relieved to hear a mildly familiar voice or annoyed that the guy who really didn't seem to like me earlier is interrupting my work.
"Alex?"
He hums in agreement as he drops down onto the sand beside me, crossing his legs and turning his head to face me slightly.
"So that's a no to being homeless then?"
"Of course it's a no." I roll my eyes.
"Touchy," he mumbles under his breath and I glare at the side of his head, all my anger at my parents and just life in general being directed at him.
"Did you come down here just to annoy me?" I snap.
Alex frowns, his finger making a pattern in the sand. "Believe it or not but I came to see if the new girl sat alone on the beach was okay. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered."
I sigh, glancing over at him. "Sorry. You just caught me in a bad mood."
"No shit," he mumbles.
I avert my gaze, clicking my pen and shoving it back inside my pencil case as I lapse on things to say.
