"Watch your step.", Miles warned me as we walked through a dark narrow alley sandwiched in between two buildings made with brick burgundy walls. I'd say we were just about half a kilometer away from campus. The malodorous stench of stray dogs and muddy puddles filled the thick evening air.
"Miles, I'm really not comfortable about this. Where the hell are we going?", I asked frustratedly.
"Reeeelax. Geez, loosen up a little. You're in good hands.", she assured me.
Sure, I am. This Beach House place better be legit.
The alley was a long, straight road with crooked rocky pathways that led to the opposite side of campus. Already, I could see the sky being painted pink and orange like a pretty canvas as the sun began to set. I glanced at my watch. 5:27pm.
"So how come you never tell me anything about you?", I asked in an attempt to make the journey less painful than it already was.
"What do you mean?", she answered me with a question.
"I mean, you're like this terrible interrogator who keeps forcing juicy gossip out of people like me.", I half-joked.
"Haha, I don't force juicy gossip out of people. I initiate it. It's not the same. People just naturally like to talk about themselves. Gives 'em some kind of an ego boost.",
She leaped over a broken pipe with leaking stagnant water that went crawling over the gravel, her woven bracelets bouncing erratically around her skeletal wrist. Attached to a few of them were tiny bells and tassles. The sound of them made echoes that bounced back and forth on the hard brick walls.
I scoffed at her in disagreement, "I am not egotistical."
She turned her head to me and formed a mocking expression on her face.
"You've got a really twisted perspective on things, you know that?", I said as I casually slapped her left shoulder.
"Why, yes. Yes, I do.", she smiled as she adjusted her dangling bracelets.
"So, what's up with your little obsession with arm candy?"
"Obsession. Ha! Now that's an understatement.",
She tilted her head up to face the pink sky and let out a huge sigh. "Accessories aren't always about vanity, Avery. Sometimes, it could also be about...utility.", she smiled.
"Yeah? Like how?", I asked with sudden curiosity.
Right in that moment, she stopped in her tracks as we reached the end of the alley.
From a distance, I could spot a white two-storey Miami-style house with orange-tinted windows on the upper storey and a rooftop strung with strobe lights. It wasn't an actual beach house like I had expected. The gravel on the ground had just gotten a little bit more powdery in consistency which probably made it look like sand. As for the ocean? Well, that was nonexistent except for a huge irregularly-shaped swimming pool right around the corner of the house.
"Come on. We're here.", she said ignoring my question as she made way to the crowd, waving at a few people, mostly guys with cans of beer in their hands.
Great. Just when I smelled like I had just pooped myself out of nowhere. Yep, just perfect.
"Milsey baby. What took you so long?", a tall older-looking guy with a buzz cut head and lean biceps approached Miles.
Geez. Did everybody in this school work out in the gym like mad athletes?
"I went recruting.", Miles explained as she grabbed me by the elbow. "This is Avery. She bought a picnik mat from the university bookstore.", she said, as though buying a picnik mat from the university was some kind of a unique and special talent.
YOU ARE READING
Keeping Up With Avery
RomanceSeventeen-year-old Avery Foster had a decent life. She earned fairly above average grades, had a close circle of friends and was finally dating her high school best friend, Braden. But as Avery enters college, things slowly spiral out of control as...
