{18+ COLLEGE ROMANCE COMPLETED}
What sucks more than being rejected by the girl of your dreams? Finding out afterward that she's moving in with you.
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The night that Beau Martin spends with Collins Bryant is the best one of his life. He wants to...
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MADIE, IN HER JEAN SHORTS, cropped tee, and worn-down Converse, ran into a group of seagulls on the pier, making them take off in flight around her in a tornado of wings. A massive smile lit up her face, and when she looked back at me, she threw her head back and laughed.
I felt it deep in my bones. A rattling of happiness.
This was the same pier that we stopped at a year and a half ago. The same pier. Same city. Same ocean beneath the wooden planks. Same bag of cheeseburgers in my hand from the same little restaurant.
Different Madie, though.
Different me.
These days, we were growing shockingly close to being well-adjusted college students. We studied in the library and pulled too many all-nighters. I kicked my butt into gear and passed all my midterms, sometimes even letting Madie help me. On the weekends, we worked at The Grounds and made-out in the broom closet whenever we got the chance. And at night, we completely ignored calls from the people in prison who once haunted us. We learned to let go.
And hold on to the important things.
This moment was important.
Terrified. I'd been nothing short of terrified the last time we drove this route. I had this girl in my passenger seat who I was wild about, but the idea of making her mine wasn't even fully-formed yet. All I wanted was not to let her down as a friend. Protect her. Tuck her into the Pacific coastline, hide her between hills of sand, and never let anyone hurt her again.
God, I loved her. I might have even loved her that day we were here on the pier. I couldn't say when I started to love Madie. I knew when I realized it, but that love had been in me before that.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked, walking over to me in a crooked line, dizzy from twirling amongst the seagulls.
"I'm trying to figure out when exactly I fell in love with you." A breeze ruffled my hair, and I raked a hand through it. "It might have been on this pier."
"Really?" She looked wildly around, eyes skating across Pismo Beach. "So soon?"
"I don't know." I shook my head. "But I remember daring to put my arm around you while we sat on that bench—" I pointed to the wooden one, the only one not completely covered in bird shit. "And as soon as you melted into me, I realized I never wanted to move again. I just wanted to sit there forever, listening to the waves crash against the pier."
Madie settled next to me, leaning against the railing. I immediately felt her warmth, the brush of her arm against mine. Subtle touches that lit me up inside. I reached into the paper bag and pulled out a cheeseburger for her.
"That was the first time I kissed you, too," I added.
"Was not," Madie protested with a smile as she took the sandwich. "You took ages to kiss me."
