Halls of Ivy

Chapter 12

The five-minute cab ride back to our dorms was silent. Aiden held my hand in his as he looked out the window the whole time, occasionally rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. He seemed strangely unaffected by the whole ordeal. Not mad or fuming over it and not upset or worried that he'd get in trouble for it either. We got out of the car and swiped our ID cards into our dorm complex. We were a few feet from our building when he suddenly stopped and looked up. What was he doing now? He was acting so weird I had no clue what kind of mood he was in now or what he wanted to do for the rest of the night.

I walked up to his side and gently nudged him with my shoulder.

"Hey– whatta looking at their killer?" I said playfully.

His lips curled into a smile but he never took his eyes off the sky. "The stars are incredibly bright tonight. We should go to the beach."

The beach? Were we really that close to a beach? And how would we even get there? There was no way I would let him drive us after the few drinks he'd had at Finn and Elliot's.

"The beach?" I half-laughed. "What are we going to walk there?" I took his hand that was resting by his side and leaned my head against his shoulder. He looked down at me and looped my hand and then the other around his neck, and then wrapped his arms around my waist. I liked this position. It felt like we were about to slow dance in the moonlight.

"It's not far at all. Its twenty minutes tops. I'll call a driver to bring us." He smiled and brought his lips down onto mine.

~

About thirty minutes later, Aiden and I were pulling up to a dark and empty parking lot in front of Lido beach. Apparently it was a smaller, quieter beach than the tourist favorite, Jones Beach. Aiden told the driver we'd be a few hours but if anyone told him to move to just give him a call. I had assumed Aiden called Uber to pick us up, but the driver was dressed in a full black suit and addressed Aiden as Mr. Duncan. Maybe he was Jay-Z rich?

A half-moon lit up a small portion of the short sandy beach we had parked near. Aiden was carrying the bag we threw together filled with a sheet, blanket, two plastic cups and, gulp— Jameson. He offered to stop and pick up something I'd rather drink, but I told him not to worry about it. Maybe it would help me heat up. There was a gentle breeze coming off the ocean that made the night feel damp and desolate. Besides the patchwork of stars above us we were all alone on our little patch of sandy heaven.

We took off our shoes once we hit the sand and walked to the front of a lifeguard stand that had been taken down and left on its side. The sand felt slightly wet and chilly in between my toes but I had changed into jeans and a long sleeve so I was comfortable enough. We laid the sheet out and sat down with the blanket over our legs, our backs up against the base of the lifeguard stand. Aiden took out the liquor and poured us each a cup. The whole scene felt so unreal. If someone told me I was going to be snuggling up at a beach with a guy at the end of my first week in college I would never have believed them. I would have thought it was some sort of cruel joke because stuff like that only happened in dreamy romance novels or my occasionally sappy daydreams. Hopefully I knew what I was getting myself into. If Aiden somehow turned into the next Long Island serial killer, my dad would be so disappointed in me. "Whatever you do, don't go anywhere by yourself with any guys you just met," he warned the day before I left for Holden. My dad slipped me a bottle of pepper spray that looked like a lipstick case and told me to be careful. Not that I remembered to bring the pseudo weapon with me.

"To living by the beach," Aiden said as he lifted his cup to mine. I loved that he liked to cheers to things, it was always something my dad did before every family meal. Instead of saying grace before dinner, we made up our own toasts according to whatever was going on at the time.