Keep Me Wild

1

As if the school year hadn't been long enough, summer was going by at an alarming rate. Days felt like seconds, the days were melting away in the blazing heat the way she was and she dreaded the end of summer. Only a few weeks had gone by, but at the pace it was going- she felt as though it would be another summer spent doing relatively nothing interesting.

Skylar had this terrible habit of being relatively calm, a habit she was trying at all costs to change. She wanted to live a little, develop a bit of a wild side- have an adventure. Despite all of those everyday thoughts of hers, she found herself lounging on the beach, day after day, reading novels and taking in sun. The main benefit was that she had developed a beautiful bronze tan and her freckles had come out to caress her face and paint themselves across her skin- a trait of hers she cherished when the sun came around.

Living in New York meant you got every season and everything that came with it, summer seemed undeniably short after having suffered winter and its snow or spring and its mud. Living in New York, also meant that you potentially spent your summers in the Hamptons. Luckily enough for Skylar, the Hales were a family who had invested and developed software for decades and had made quite the fortune. Now that Skylar was 21, she got to spend her last few years studying at Harvard, hoping one day to take over in the company her family had spent over 50 years building. Skylar spent her school year studying hard, aiming to be nothing less than the best. Every second of spare time was used shadowing her parents, acting as an intern in order to help them. She fetched coffees, prepared board meetings, collected statements, she did everything she was asked and rarely flinched. One day she would take over, it was a legacy she had no choice but to participate in. Lucky in a sense, to have it all figured out for her and knowing there would always be a large amount of money coming in, that the luxury she was raised in would likely remain.

Summers in the Hamptons were something she would never trade for the world. To say she was thrilled her parents had allowed her to venture to their water-front mansion alone, unattended for the entire summer had thrown her over the moon. Her parents, unfortunately, had to stay in the city for work as they both neared 80 hour work weeks. Her grand parents had retired in the south of France, otherwise they most likely would have spent the season entertaining her the way they had done practically every year for as long as she could remember. The older they got, the more they had relinquished tasks related to their business, they had spent an outrageous amount of time raising her. She would never be as bold to say they had raised her entirely, but deep down they had. They had done everything a parent should have ever done, having lived in a time where they valued the littles things in life. Something so simple, yet something her parents hadn't done. Her father had grown up wealthy as his parents' business had been rather successful from the start, and her mothers parents were both lawyers for very important people. Both came from money, and they treated her and raised her as such. Her grand parents had understood the value of life, and Skylar liked to think that despite being raised with such money, that she was humbled by their influence.

Thinking about being humble while she sat on the private beach that was on their 1 acre land was...a tad contradictory. But anyone would understand that, wouldn't they? Laying down on one of the lounging chairs, perfectly situated between the water and the beach house at an equal distance- done logically so she could bolt in either direction in the same amount of time- reading a novel, was hardly humbling. The sun was finally heading down and Skylar stretched with a tilt of the head creating a small cracking sound that seemed to release the entire strain she'd put her neck through for the day. She reached for her phone that was tucked carefully in her beach bag under her chair and scrolled through the missed messages. Maddy had sent her half a dozen texts ranging from "Omg where are you!" to "You better not bail on me tonight!" and "You are DEAD Hale if you don't show!". Could you have ever guessed they had plans? Skylar chuckled lightly to herself, Maddy was alway such a dramatic soul.