Lifeguard

one

"C'mon! Please Sage!" Hayley keeps nagging me.

I roll my eyes and flip a page in my textbook, "I said no H."

A few girls from my sorority are taking a beach trip for spring break and they've been asking me to go with them for weeks.

"Why?" Gabby raises her eyebrow, "So you can sit here alone all break and do homework?"

"Seriously," Jasmine adds, "Everyone else is either going out to party, or to visit their family. You'll be all alone in this house."

I just continue to read, not answering.

"Sage, we know you wanna go. Stop punishing yourself for what happened! It was six months ago! Let yourself have fun again!"

I bite my lip, the memory flooding back.

Around six months ago, our sorority got invited to a frat party at another college, so we went. We all got hella blacked, not considering the whole designated driver situation. The other girls decided they'd just Uber back to campus, but I refused to leave my car in a different city. So, I drove, with three other drunk girls. I nearly made it back, but right before you pull into campus, you have to go up this hill, and as I was driving up it, a car was coming towards us and I didn't process it until seconds before it nearly hit us, so I swerved, and we went down the side of the hill. Miraculously, nobody was killed, but I hurt my wrist and had a gash on my forehead, one girl had a serious concussion and had to stop playing for our varsity lacrosse team for a while, and she ended up getting kicked off for missing too much of the season. Then, one girl broke her leg, and the last girl was put in the hospital for weeks and nearly died. That last girl happened to be Hayley. I honestly don't know how or why she forgave me. I haven't even gotten close to forgiving myself. Our whole sorority almost got shut down because the blame for drunk driving was placed on all of us. Luckily, it was saved. I, myself nearly got kicked out of the sorority, but my sisters fought to keep me in. Ever since then, I haven't let myself go out to any parties or big sorority hangouts. I've forced myself to stay home and study for my classes. During this time, I've become more introverted in the sense that if an opportunity pops up to go out, my first reaction is to say no. It's almost like my self punishment has changed me.

Jasmine nods, "I agree with H. You need to move on. I know what happened was tragic, but everyone's still alive! Sage, you were always the most fun to be around because you'd always be up to anything! Let the old Sage sneak back in and come with us!"

Gabby smiles, "We know the old Sage still lives inside of you! Come rage with us at the beach!"

I sigh and shut the textbook, "You're not gonna leave me alone until I say yes, are you?"

All three of them shake their heads.

I stare at them for a few seconds before giving in, "Fine. Fine I'll go."

"Yay!" They all squeal in excitement.

"Eeep!" Gabby exclaims, "Alright, you should start packing! We're leaving tomorrow!"

"Okay, okay. I'll start packing. How long are we staying?"

"Six days," Hayley answers, "My cousin's lending us his beach house. He usually rents it out to people, but it's free for us to use right now!"

I chuckle at her excitement, "Cool. Now, leave me be. Y'all are crowding me."

"Hey!" Jasmine protests, "This is my room too!"

I nod, "Yep. I'm kicking you out of your room."

"Fine. But I need to pack, so use your alone time to get your shit in a suitcase."

"Gotcha."

And with that, they walk out and shut the door behind them.

I sigh, climb off of my bed, grab my textbook, and place it on my desk.

This should be an interesting week.

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a/n:
hey beauties! once again, I have a new story for y'all! anyways, this is a short first chapter, but I promise things will start picking themselves up in the next one. I hope you guys will enjoy! love you ❤️

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