Sanctuary

“I think you’re ready,” Taryn said confidently as she led Shae through the front doors of Radnor. They had just spent the entirety of their Friday afternoon studying for the daunting math exam that was assigned for Monday. Although Taryn felt ready, she knew Shae had absolutely no idea what he was doing. And she had long since wanted to make up for skipping out on their first study date.

“I don’t know,” he said as they boarded the elevator. “I get test anxiety so I guess we’ll see what happens in class on Monday.”

“I’ll be right next to you. You’ll be fine. When in doubt you can casually glance over at mine.”

“Taryn, I am appalled,” Shae joked, looking down at her with a smirk. “Are you really suggesting we cheat?”

“Just putting it out there,” she said, shrugging as the elevator doors opened. She crossed the lobby with Shae in tow, pulling her key out of her jacket pocket.

“Well, I for one-“ Shae started. He stopped quickly as Taryn’s index finger flew to her lips.

“Shh. Hold on.” She heard a familiar voice coming from Alex’s room. His door was cracked slightly, and as she paused outside of it, she saw a flash of blond hair. Hallie.

She leaned in, struggling to hear what was being said.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Hallie was whispering furiously. “Please don’t act like you care about her.”

“Seriously? Look, I just feel sorry for her. I feel like without you and that Shane kid, she doesn’t have friends.” Taryn’s stomach plummeted. They were talking about her.

“Do you hear how dumb you sound? Honestly, I don’t know why she hangs around with you.”

“Hallie. I’m trying to be honest here. Seriously, is she okay? I just want to make sure.”

“She’s fine, no thanks to you,” Hallie retaliated. “How about if you want to help her, just…stop flirting with her….or hooking up with her or whatever the hell you guys do.”

“Oh, please,” Alex scoffed. “We didn’t hook up. I wouldn’t do that.”

Taryn’s face burned as she pivoted on her heel and made a beeline for her room. She shoved the key into the knob, her eyes fogging over with embarrassment.

“Taryn,” Shae said slowly. Shit. She had forgotten that he was with her.

“Hm?” she said, putting on a smile as she pushed her way into the room.

“Forget about him. He’s an asshole.” He sat down in her desk chair, watching as she furiously shoved her backpack underneath her bed.

“Oh, him? Yeah, whatever. I haven’t talked to him in weeks anyway. And now I know why.”

“You don’t need that.”

“Nope. And as far as I’m concerned, it didn’t happen.”

“Good. So what are your plans for this weekend?”

Shit. “Um…well tonight I’m supposed to meet up with Shane. And that’s all I got so far.”

“Shane? What for?” His eyebrows were wrinkled in confusion. "I haven't seen him at all this semester."

“He has this speech thing that he wants to practice and asked me to help. That’s all.” She grabbed her purse from her closet, rifling through it.

“That’s lame. How about…you come back to my house with Danielle? She’s helping my mom organize a fundraiser or something, so I could use the company.”

“That’s so nice of you, but…”

“But what? You said yourself you’ve got nothing going on this weekend. Seriously, it’ll be fun. We can get off this tired campus and especially away from that dickwad RA of yours.”

She hesitated. She didn’t really have an excuse at that point – at least, not one that Shae wouldn’t see right through. And clearly he wasn’t totally buying her Shane excuse, if his pointed expression was any indication.

“Okay. Yeah, I’ll come.” His face relaxed into a grin, watching her as she pulled a duffel bag out of the bottom of her closet. “And you said you live near a harbor, right?”

“Yeah…it’s not really anything special.”

“Just promise to take me there, okay?”

“Okay,” he laughed. “I think I can manage that.”

***

“So tell me again why you need three different kinds of flowers for a children’s fundraiser?” Taryn joked. “It’s not like they’ll notice them anyway.”

“Hey, it’s the gesture that counts,” Danielle said, adjusting her sunglasses.

“Yeah, Taryn, and they have cancer. Way to be heartless,” Shae joked.

“They’re flowers!” she laughed.

The three were strolling down a dirt path, Shae’s shortcut to the harbor that he had been telling Danielle and Taryn about. It was absolutely beautiful, reminding Taryn immediately of the clearing that she frequented. The sun broke through the trees just enough to warm them, but not blinding or burning like she hated so much. Beautiful weather, too, a solid twenty degrees above what Brighton had seen during the week. An “unusually warm weekend”, the forecast had said. And Taryn was ecstatic. The only sound aside from her flip-flops on the dirt was the distant cawing of birds and the slight rustle of trees around them. Taryn wondered how Shae could have ever wanted to leave this place, let alone for somewhere like Brighton.

She smiled widely, listening to Danielle and Shae talk vividly of plans for the pediatric fundraiser at the end of the month. She could see a widening in the trees a short distance ahead, and bright glare shining into her eyes. Before she knew it, they had almost reached it.

“So this is it,” Shae said, beckoning grandly with his arms. “My skate buddies and I used to come down here and cool off over the summers.” It was a small stretch of beach, leading to a set of three piers, one after the other. Two of them had small boats tied up, drifting peacefully in the deep blue water. The last one didn’t, and Taryn headed for it.

“This is amazing,” she said breathlessly. A few younger kids were laying on the sand, trying to tan as best they could. She carefully stepped around them, hurrying onto the pier. A warm breeze blew into her face and she grinned excitedly. She had never felt this way about a place before. Not even the clearing. It was heavenly.

She felt Danielle throw her arms around her shoulders, hugging her close. She turned, pulling Taryn with her as Shae pulled out his camera. “Cheese!”

Taryn laughed, posing wildly with Danielle as Shae circled around them. Eventually Taryn grabbed the camera from him, laughing as he threw Danielle over his shoulder and posed with her, too. Even Danielle tried her hand at photography, commanding Shae and Taryn into various poses and laughing as they disobeyed. She pivoted, jogging over to a young girl splayed out on her towel in the sun. “Excuse me, would you mind taking our picture?”

The girl agreed, following Danielle to the pier. She jumped on Taryn’s other side, pulling her close. “Okay, let’s do a nice one first. I need a new profile picture.” Taryn laughed as the girl took picture after picture. She hugged Shae and Danielle close, suddenly overwhelmingly grateful that she had become so close to them this year.

“Okay, last one,” Shae said. “Make it goofy. Three…two….ONE.” And with that, he pulled them backwards, watching as they stumbled and fell into the water with a squeal. He grabbed the camera from the amused girl, thanked her, and turned around, snapping away as he watched Taryn and Danielle splash around.

“You suck,” Danielle laughed, pushing her hair away from her face. “Now get your ass in here.”

He tossed his phone in the sand near his shoes, pulling off his shirt and diving off the end of the pier to join them.