"We just got here."

"Are you having fun?"

"Not really. Are you?"

"It's hot and it's loud and someone just grabbed my ass."

"You want to go back to the dorm?"

"What about Ryan?"

"He's at the library."

"It's a Friday night. Doesn't he ever go out?"

"He's a machine."

"Let's go to the beach." She said.

My red cup was half full of beer. I dropped the nozzle back onto the keg and handed the cup to the guy behind me in line. We'd been there forty minutes, standing in line for the keg while the house filled and contracted around us, packing more and more people into a dimly lit basement.

"We survived our first frat party." I said once we were in the car, fresh air blowing in my face.

"So are you, totally, like, going to rush?"

"Oh totally. That's how I want to spend every Thursday night."

"Surrounded by blondes dressed in bras and bad taste?"

"Pressed from all sides by sweaty guys with their shirts off."

"Spending all night asking 'What's your major? Where are you from?'"

There was nothing much to do. We checked into a hostel and made up stories about ourselves. We were writing a book about McDonalds and we were driving around the country so we could say that we'd eaten at every one of them. Or we'd just come from the East Coast and wanted to see if the Pacific tasted as salty as the Atlantic. We told strangers that we'd run away to join the circus but that we couldn't find one we liked as we sat drinking beer at a taco stand on the beach that didn't card. No one believed a word we said but it didn't matter. It was our joke on the world.

That night we took off our shoes and walked on the beach until we got to the lighthouse. We sat and dug our feet into the damp sand. We held hands when we walked and she'd squeeze my fingers when I made her laugh.

The next day we drove further north to where the beaches disappeared and became sea cliffs. We pulled the car over and stood on the shoulder high above the ocean.

Sunday we were sitting on the lifeguard's stand, the beach empty before us. It was threatening rain and everyone had packed up and left. The last of the sun sat below the clouds, burning the tops of the waves.

"Why so quiet?"

"Let's stay." She said.

"Here?" I asked, surprised.

"Why not?"

"I don't want to miss class this close to midterms."

"Ok, Ryan."

"I'm not that bad."

"So lets stay."

"If I fail those midterms, they'll kick me out of school."

"It could be the best thing that happens to you."

"How's that??"

"We could get on with our lives, really start living. Imagine if we were free of all these bullshit hoops we're jumping through all the time."

"What would we do?"