Status: First story! Hope you enjoy :)

Sanctuary

"I Did What I Did Because It Was Easy."

It was Monday, her last class was over, and Taryn was pissed. It had officially been the longest day of her life, as far as she was concerned. Whether it was because she was missing the scenery at Shae’s house or because she had nearly failed an exam, she wasn’t sure. But she was certainly not in the mood to deal with anyone or anything.

“Just the girl I was looking for,” she heard a voice as she stepped off the elevator. She fought the urge to roll her eyes as she came face to face with Alex. He was filling up a water bottle, clearly amped for a workout.

“Sure,” she said sarcastically. She kept walking, forcing a smile at him as she passed.

“No, seriously,” he said, trying to catch up to her. She pulled her keys from the pocket of her bomber jacket, quickening her pace. “I was going to talk to you about something.”

“Oh, so we’re friends now?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t we be?” he asked innocently as she pushed open the wooden door. Hallie sat at her desk chair, her eyes widening as she glanced at Taryn entering with Alex.

“Nevermind,” Taryn replied quietly, throwing her backpack on the bed. She tossed its contents into her desk drawer, shoving her journal back into it. “I have somewhere to be.”

With that, she turned around, pushing past Alex and hurrying the way she had just come.

“Hey,” he called after her, catching up one step at a time. Jesus, this guy was relentless. “Did I do something?”

“Forget it, I’m just having a shit day, that’s all. I’ll save you the trouble,” she said, pushing the elevator button.

“Well, do you want to talk? I’m here for you, you know. I care.”

“Do you? Or do you just temporarily care? And, let me guess, when someone asks you about it a week from now, you’ll say it never happened.” She bit her tongue angrily before continuing. “My money’s on the latter.”

He paused, contemplating what to say next. She whipped her head around, glaring at him. “Yeah, I heard that. With my roommate, nonetheless.”

His face softened. “Look, Taryn, I didn’t mean it to sound that harsh.”

The elevator door opened, but she didn’t even see it. “Save it, Alex. I’m sorry I ever wanted to be your friend.”

“Look, Taryn, what do you want from me? I’m trying here. I honestly care if you’re upset.”

“But not enough to admit something happened between us, right?” The elevator doors slid closed. Her palms were burning with anger, and in the distance, she saw Hallie poke her head out into the hallway.

“What are you talking about? I’m not even sure if that happened, you know? We were both drinking a lot, and sometimes I black out, and - ”

“Are you fucking serious?” she whisper-shouted. “You really are an ass, and I hope you know that.”

Another student walked by, paying no attention as he fiddled with his earbuds. Alex leaned in, lowering his voice. “Listen, just come to my room. We can talk about it.”

“No,” she said angrily, hitting the elevator button again. “All I wanted was to be close to you, and I’m sorry if I mistook what happened as something meaningful. My bad.”

“You’re a cute girl, Taryn,” he said sadly. “But you’re…my resident. Please understand that.”

“Then please understand why I’m done talking to you,” she said as the elevator doors slid open again. She bit her tongue again, fighting back a wave of tears. “Say hi to Kelly for me.”

He frowned as she boarded the elevator, averting his gaze until the doors slammed shut.

Fuck him. At least she had plans to be at Shane's all night.

Her phone chimed with a call, and she frowned as she contemplated whether to pick it up.

“Hey, Hallie,” she finally answered after what felt like forever.

“Listen, Taryn, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about what Alex said last week. And I’m sorry you had to find out for yourself, but please understand that I’m not on his side at all.”

“Hallie, it’s fine,” she replied, trying to sound upbeat. “I’m not angry with you. You defended me, which is more than I can say for a lot of people.”

“He’s a douchebag, Taryn, and I’m sorry if he actually meant something to you. Unfortunately, I know the feeling. But it’ll be okay. At least this surfaced now and not after something worse couldn’t happened.”

“True. It’s just going to take some time for me to suppress the urge to bash his face in whenever I see it.”

She heard Hallie giggle on the other end of the line. “That makes two of us. Tell you what, why don’t we have a roomie movie night tomorrow? Ice cream and popcorn and all the girl-power movies that we can handle.”

“Sounds great,” Taryn said as she stepped off the elevator on the ground floor. “See you later tonight.”

***

A few days later, and Taryn was feeling a lot better. Alex had seemed to back off, and now that most of her nights were spent with Shane, she didn’t feel the need to impress anyone for the time being. She was free to focus on herself and her grades, which, quite frankly, was what she needed then.

But, as per usual, her life thought otherwise.

Her cell phone chimed, yanking her from a daydream. It was Thursday night, and Taryn had been working on a paper for no less than three hours. She was desperate for a distraction.

She opened a text message from Stacie, waiting as her phone downloaded the image. The message said nothing, save for an obnoxious string of exclamation points and smiley faces. A few tortuous seconds later, the picture loaded and Taryn squinted to see it. It was a close-up of Stacie’s hand, but the image quality was shaky at best. She could barely make out the color of her nail polish, let alone the diamond ring on her finger.

Wait, WHAT?!

Her heart pounded as she quickly packed up her backpack and stormed out of the library. Shaking, she dialed her brother’s cell number and waited anxiously for him to pick up.

“Taryn, it’s almost midnight. What the hell do you want?” He sounded tired, but Taryn sure as hell wasn’t going to let him sleep anytime soon.

“YOU PROPOSED?!” she shrieked, nearly scaring the kid near her to death.

“She told you? Wow, that was fast.”

“James. Don’t give me that shit. What in the world?!” She tried to control her voice, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t hide the shock.

“What do you mean? I realized I love her, and at dinner, I just asked her to marry me. No big.”

“I hate you so much sometimes, you know that?” She quickened her pace, hoping Hallie was still awake to talk to. “Where did this come from?! You’re, like, the king of ‘no strings attached’.”

He chuckled on the other end of the line. “Well, you know how they say there’s that one that will make someone eventually want to stop all the bullshit? It’s her.”

“As romantic and great as that sounds, are you absolutely sure?!”

“Well, you guys are, like, best friends, aren’t you?”

“Of course, she’s great. But…look at Mom and Dad, James.”

“I’m not scared, Tare.”

“Shouldn’t you be? Like, half of all marriages end up divorced…and that’s not even taking into account your age.” She picked at her nails anxiously.

“I’m not worried. I’m not Mom or Dad, and I’m not part of a dumb statistic. What matters is how much I love her and how far I’m willing to go to make this work. And screw the age thing. You know me. I go with what I feel, and God knows this feels so right at this moment.”

“My big brother, the infamous James DeMarco…I can’t believe those words just came out of your mouth,” she said, her heart suddenly aflutter with excitement. As cautious as she was, she was suddenly so happy to hear about this. With all the decrepit relationships around her lately, she was grateful to hear of a beautiful new beginning.

“Just when you thought you had me figured out,” he said, chuckling.

“Well, I’m happy for you…slightly concerned, but happy.”

“Thanks, sis. I might need your help breaking this to the parents.”

“You haven’t told them, either?! James, you know they won’t take this easily.”

“Maybe this will encourage them to work on their marriage, if we’re lucky,” he said hopefully. “Either way, I wanted to start with you…you know, to boost my ego first.”

“Um, well technically you didn’t tell me anything. I found out from your fiancée. I should be appalled and offended.”

“But you’re not, which is why I need help.”

She paused, marveling in the anxious silence between them as she imagined him squirming.

“Promise that when you guys pick a wedding date, I’ll be the first to know?”

“Deal.”
♠ ♠ ♠
Chapter 43!

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Song: 'Back Where I Was' by The Hereafter