Together

99. Maybe blood does matter

And I'm losing all my senses every night
Darlin', don't you know that I would die, I'd die for you?
And I don't want to want somebody new
Darlin', don't you know that I die every night for you?
-LEON

Kiara sits at the kitchen table, overwhelmed with the amount of applications spread on it. She sighs, glancing up at her mom, who's sitting next to her. Anna's absorbed in her phone, but that doesn't mean her attention isn't focused on the task at hand.

"Oh, see!" Anna chimes, flashing the phone's screen in Kiara's face. "They have a great environmental program."

She reflexively pulls her face back, looking at the instagram page for a the environmental sciences program at Duke University.

The second Kiara got home from school Anna had demanded she get serious about applying to the other schools on her and Mike's wish list. She'd already applied to San Diego State University over a month ago, but had been slacking with the others she promised her parents she'd consider.

She didn't want to go anywhere else, but that didn't deter her parents insistence that she apply and "keep her options open." It was frustrating to be dismissed repeatedly and she was hoping she could just push off actually submitting anything until it was too late to expect to even be considered. Anna was far too uptight for that to be an option though.

"Mom, it's inland, not even on the coast," she complains. It felt like Anna was constantly pushing schools that were closer to home, and Kiara was beginning to feel smothered. It was bad enough having Anna and Mike on top of her every day, she couldn't handle it if they were less than a plane ride away.

"You can do environmental studies without being on the coast, Kiara," Anna reminds with a raised brow.

"Not if you want real experiences while you learn," she argues. "San Diego is perfect for that reason alone." They really were. Top in ocean studies, specifically.

Anna let's out a frustrated breath. "You expect me to believe that your decision is because it's on the coast and not because of who will be going there as well?" she says with heavy skepticism.

Of course, JJ was a part of her decision. God, she couldn't stand them being in different houses half the time, the last thing she wanted was to be a thousand miles the other direction from him for months at a time.

JJ was decided and committed to San Diego thanks to his scholarship. He could technically go to other schools but he and Kiara both liked the idea of heading to the other side of the country together, free from OBX and all the bullshit that comes with it. He applied the same time as her, and though his acceptance was almost guaranteed with the scholarship he was being offered, still had to wait for an acceptance letter.

They promised to open them together when they both came in.

"It's not the only reason," she bites back. "Besides you didn't have a problem with San Diego when we went there this summer," she challenges. "And I thought you liked JJ, now."

Hearing that Anna was pinning her decision for her choice of college felt like an old thinking pattern and she had no intentions of letting that be the case. And it honestly wasn't fair. They couldn't be mad that he had no plans and then upset when he actually did something for himself and she wanted to join him.

"I do like him," Anna counters. "I just don't want you to make a decision based on where your boyfriend is going. This is a big decision, Kiara, and it's your future not JJ's."

Kiara rolls her eyes. She wasn't the kind of girl to base anything solely off her feelings for a guy. She'd always made that clear. She was her own person and made her own decisions. It's why she was always planning on going to college, even before JJ had a shot at a scholarship for surfing. She had dreams and she wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of them.