Eighteen year-old Zach Curtis has lost everything: his girlfriend, his job and his scholarship. Nothing in the world matters anymore, until he receives a rude awakening from a stranger.
Petite and awkward, Terra Quinn is living the life with her bes...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
– Zach –
Now that I'm friends with Luke, he's been trying to make me go out more often. I've been rejecting his request for over ten times now, yet he hasn't given up. I think it's supposed to be normal, between friends.
With such persistence, it is impossible to say no forever, which explains why I'm sitting in a semi-crowded, poorly lit bar at eleven o'clock at night with a pint of beer that will cost about ten percent of my weekly rent.
"Isn't this great?" Luke exclaims happily, evidently feeling accomplished for finally succeeding at getting me to leave my room pass class hours.
"Which part of this am I supposed to feel great about?" I ask indifferently.
"The people, the company, or just the sight of life in general." He elaborates. "I don't know about you, but camping out alone in the student dorms can be kind of depressing over time. You kind of want to get out for a bit and have a slice of life, you know?"
"Isn't the student dorm supposed to be crowded and full of parties?" I ask while rotating the glass in my hand in a random pattern.
"It is supposed to be like that, but the wing where I'm staying in just had almost half of the population move out. I heard that they are rearranging accommodations, so maybe it'll be less isolated eventually, but right now, it's like a ghost town." Luke laughs to himself, "Aren't you by yourself too?"
"Yeah."
"Don't you get lonely?" he asks.
"Three years ago I would." I answer, "But a lot can change in that time."
"You're making yourself sound like a mystery, I bet chicks dig that." Luke teases. "Me on the other hand, I'm getting owned by more attractive, slick and macho-looking guys."
"That sounds very specific." I comment.
"You know who I'm talking about." He rolls his eyes. "I felt like Abby completely forgot about me the minute this James dude starts talking, going on and on about some kind of inspiring and feminist-supporting message, making all the girls drool for him."
"I guess he's trying really hard." I say.
"Not just that, he's probably trying to win the hearts of all the girls there, including Clarice, who the last time I checked, has all the power to determine if you make it or not." Luke points out. "He's extremely cunning to have thought of that."
"You don't like him then?" I ask.
"I probably would if he'd stop shoving his perfection into my less-perfect face." He sulks, self-consciously assessing his reflection against the surface of the glass table. "Like, seriously, nobody asked for an empowering speech, he just decided to give one because he felt the timing was right, and everyone listened because he's James. Imagine if I tried to give a speech though, not even the ants would listen to me dude."
