Lost Sanctuary

Chapter 1

Barely two weeks into the final semester of the year and it already felt like an eternity, with another eternity before the end. Time passed in a trickle of coursework, reading, lab work, office hours, and late nights at the bar. Nina Baker felt her passion for the field she loves wane. The wonders of the world buried under mountains of overly prescriptive and formalised assessment, much the same as that she had been subjected to the length of her formal education.

The humid summer air clung to every inch of her skin as she made her way to her three pm class. Geomorphology with Professor Sachs. Her satchel hung low on her hip, knocking incessantly against her leg as she skipped up the steps of the building. The doors opened into the cool quiet of the air-conditioned entrance. Few students were milling around by now, as it neared quarter-past the hour. As she entered the lecture hall, Nina's eyes fell almost immediately to the two empty seats beside her best friend, Jess, sitting in the fourth row. A quick scan of the rest of the small lecture theatre found Sam sitting five rows up and a couple of seats over. They had always sat together in this class, in their unassigned assigned seats. Nina slid in next to Jess, mumbling her apologies to those she had to climb over on the way. She and Jess shared a look, before her glance cut back to Sam. They'd have to discuss it later. Right now Sachs was eyeing her pointedly.

'... Morphodynamics are an increasingly pertinent field of study in the wake of climate-related geological and hydrological transformations', the Professor continued on.

As the two friends packed their bags, Nina dared a look back toward Sam, who was packing up her bags slowly and watching them both out of the corner of her eye.

'What happened last night?'

'You know what happened.'

Jess and Sam had been friends since they met at a summer camp five years ago. By the time Nina joined their circle of friends the relationship had already changed, though they hadn't been ready to admit it.

'She loves you.'

'We learned the hard way that that's not enough to make me love her back.'

Nina spared her one last look before she headed out of the hall and out of the building with Jess striding ahead. From somewhere deep in her bag a chime drew her attention. She dug out her phone and read the short missive from her mother, reminding her about their plan to go dress shopping the next day. The groan that clawed its way out of her unbidden, pierced the silence between them.

'What?'

'My mum.'

'What does she want?'

'To dress me up, of course.'

'You know this wedding could be kind of fun. If you let it be.'

Nina's eye's rolled involuntarily.

'Or it could be hell.' The smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth ruining her façade of cold resentment. Her father's wedding had presented her mother with the perfect opportunity to parade her around as an example of her impeccable parenting, in painful contrast to her stepmothers, whose son had followed a different, less conventional path.

'I'm going to see if I can catch Lakeith at his office hours before he runs off, but I'll see you at Lola's later, right?'

'Of course. I'm planning on getting shitfaced tonight.'

'That's the spirit! See you later.'

Even with the shortcut across campus the walk to Professor Lakeith's office took 7 minutes. By the time she arrived he was locking his door. At the sound of her shoes on the polished floors of the building, his gaze rose to meet hers, his appearance rumpled—even for him. She supposed it had been a long week. He sighed through his nose.