Apex

30 | extinction

AUGUST 6     

ALLIX

I couldn't remember the last time I felt so happy.

I'd never wished on stars or manifested happy endings in a journal, but now with my head resting on Dakota's lap, I understood why someone might resort to doing so. The happiness I felt was soft like the sunrise out on the harbor, quiet and warm. It also convinced me that when the sun inevitably set, there was still light to be found.

God, I sounded like a love struck optimist.

A cool morning breeze whispered through the screen of the open window, and I shivered.

"Should I get you a sweatshirt?" Dakota asked, trailing his fingers down my bare arm. The electricity crackling beneath my skin was almost enough to keep me warm.

"Only if you're prepared to never have it returned to you," I teased, sitting upright to allow him to shift out from under me.

As Dakota walked over to his closet, my attention shifted to his laptop that sat open on the duvet. It played a raw cut of Brenna floundering around in what appeared to be a giant fish tank.

After watching for a few moments, it occurred to me that sometime in the next year, Apex would stream on GBC. The publicity the show was receiving now would be nothing compared to weeks following its release. The spotlight would return to Friday Island, bigger and brighter than before. I hoped I wasn't around to see it. 

With summer winding down, the six of us would soon go our separate ways. New York City felt so, so far away, and I wondered if it would result in me drifting away from everyone again.

I didn't want to be an island anymore.

"Here." Dakota gave me an oversized UCLA sweatshirt and sat back down on his bed.

"Thank you." As I pulled it over my head, I vaguely remembered wearing it to sleep when I was miserably intoxicated on the 4th of July.

Dakota gently untucked my hair from the neck of the sweatshirt. "When is work?"

"Noon." I reached up and toyed with the hem of his Olympic National Park t-shirt. "So I can stay a little while longer."

He smiled softly, and my heart sang. To say that we'd spent a lot of time together during the last week would be an understatement. Whenever we weren't working or upholding other obligations, we were with each other. If it was anyone else, I would've been concerned that this was too much too soon, but we'd spent so much of the summer chasing big secrets and hiding important truths. I didn't want to do that anymore. Especially when it came to Dakota.

He pulled back an inch. "Didn't you say you had a call with an academic advisor from NYU at 10?"

I nodded, but brought my lips to his for a quick, gentle kiss. It was the polar opposite of the feverish and mind-numbing intimacy of last night. "It's to plan out my credits so I can still graduate on time."

"Do you need time to prepare for that?"

"I don't. I also don't want to think about that right now. I'd rather focus on what's right in front of me."

"Allix." His thumb brushed against my cheekbone, and my eyes fluttered open.

I hummed in response.

The soft yet pointed look Dakota gave me was enough of an answer. Huffing, I decided against putting up walls. I fell back against the pillows and stared up at the rotating blades of the ceiling fan.

"Would you ever consider transferring? Somewhere closer to home?" Dakota asked.

"I've already considered it, but NYU wasn't the problem." I glanced up at him with a sad smile tugging at my lips. "I figured out the problem, and I just have to hope that I know how to handle it now."