Page 28 of The Trouble with Runaway Brides

And so, I agreed to his stupid plan. He made love to me for the last time that night. Then he walked me to my doorstep at curfew and kissed me for the last time. The next day, he flew to New York City and two days later, I flew to Mississippi, not knowing that what he was afraid of would end up happening anyway.

“And the cousin?” Blake asks. “You didn’t sleep with him? Did you?”

Tears gather in my eyes when I think of that night—my biggest regret.

It was the first year, first semester, and I couldn’t stop thinking of Lance. My heart was broken, and I wasn’t dealing with it well. My dormmates started taking me out and I got a fake ID pretty quickly so I could drink. Not that I always needed it. I could get alcohol at any frat party during the weekend.

Easton was in a different dorm on the other side of campus, and I rarely saw him except for a couple times at the student center.

One night, we ended up at the same frat party and I’d already had a lot to drink. He was a pledge, so he was completely wasted from some drinking game the older members had made them all play.

We hugged and it felt so good to feel a piece of home. I missed Brinley since she’d decided not to go to Mississippi in the end. I missed my parents, Lance especially, and all of Lake Starlight. I held Easton so tightly and I cried.

He hurried me out to the back patio, where the crowd hadn’t overflowed yet.

“Tell me… how is he?” I asked, desperate to know if Lance was as miserable as me.

“He’s okay. He’s good.”

“Good?” The word sounded like a strangled cry from my throat. How could he be good while my life was spiraling into an abyss?

“You know the pressure he has on him. He has no choice. He studies a lot. He’s joining a fraternity, but I doubt it’s like this.” He looked up at the house with music that was making the walls vibrate.

“Has he sent you pictures?” I stared at the pocket of his jeans where his phone was. I wanted visuals of where Lance studied, where he slept.

“Kenzie.” Easton shook his head. “You just need to move on.”

“I can’t. Don’t you see that? I’m a mess.” I downed whatever was left in my Solo cup.

“Come on, let me walk you back to your dorm.” He took the cup and threw it on the grass.

“I don’t want to.” I yanked my arm from his.

“We’re both wasted and I’m not gonna let you stay here since I’m leaving.”

“Why are you leaving?”

He shrugged. “Because I’m done. I can’t blow my ride here, which will happen if I join this fraternity.”

In that moment, he reminded me of Lance. Thinking ahead, being responsible. I was proud of Easton.

“Okay,” I said. “Take me home.”

We walked across campus and there weren’t a lot of people around. We talked about everything we missed about Lake Starlight. Sweet Suga Things, Terra and Mare, all the people who would wave when they saw you even if they didn’t know you that well. We talked about high school and how hard it was to be so far away. Turned out we both had pondered returning to Lake Starlight and attending college in Anchorage because we were so homesick.

When we got to my dorm door, I asked him if he wanted to come in. Not so anything could happen between us, but because I missed talking to someone from home, someone who knew what it was like. He came in and my roommate had a bottle of tequila with limes and salt out, so we took a couple shots.

I asked to see the pictures Lance had sent him, and Easton must have had a weak moment because he pulled out his phone and handed it to me. I scrolled through them, seeing Lance’s dorm, his roommate, the fraternity. Lance had cut his hair shorter, and he didn’t have his usual smile, but he was smiling. God, that pissed me off so much for some reason. Here I was, falling apart, barely keeping myself together every day, and he was smiling.

I clicked on his Instagram. Easton tried to take the phone away, but I saw Lance tagged in a picture. He was in a suit and there was a tall redhead in a black dress at his side. They were all smiles and my heart sliced open, emptying out onto the floor. “Who is this?”

Easton grabbed the phone. “No one important.”

I crumbled to the floor and Easton hugged me, telling me she was no one. But after only months, Lance was moving on while I was paralyzed at a standstill. Soon, Easton’s familiarity, after being with strangers, felt like shelter and safety to me. Our heads were buried in each other’s necks, and slowly, our heads moved back. Then my lips were on his and we stared into one another’s eyes and… in truth, I don’t remember the rest, but we didn’t sleep together. We woke up dressed, still lying on the floor of my dorm room the next morning, when my roommate returned.

Easton grabbed his shit and kept saying fuck over and over. Right before he left, he said, “You know I have to tell him, right?”

All I could do was nod.

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