Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
And, sure enough, news articles from only a few days ago began appearing. This was literally just proposed, the rig being set to be built miles off the coast of Beacon’s Beach. It was so new there was no wonder why it hadn’t even pinged my radar yet. It also meant there was still time to stop it. Unfortunately, California wasn’t one of the states that banned these kinds of operations. New York was, so I had set my focus on other environmental causes when I was over there. But things were different now. And no matter how badly the ocean scared me, I still had to fight for it as hard as I fought for clean air and protected land.
I closed out of the article and went back to Google. I wanted to make sure of one more thing. I typed the same search as before but added a single word to the search bar.
Redpine.
I held my breath as the page loaded. For some reason, the Wi-Fi decided to be a dramatic little diva and stall on me as the first website started to populate.
“Damn it.” I closed out of the tab and reopened another one.
Same thing. I looked at the bars of Wi-Fi at the top corner of my screen. All five were there. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting.
Still, the screen stayed blank, the little wheel spinning, my heart thumping.
Finally, finally, the page started to load.
A hand on my shoulder made me jerk up and give a squeaky shout. I managed to swallow most of it down before I spooked the entire library, although I did get a couple of curious glances from nearby students.
It was Ryan. He smiled down at me. He wore his rowing crew’s shirt, a dark purple with gold bands around the sleeves and collar, FU Rowing written across the front. He had on a backward baseball cap, with a tuft of dark brown hair slipping through the strap.
I closed out of the web page.
“Hey, dude, I didn’t know you were here.” His tone was as close to a whisper as Ryan could manage. His eyes drifted to the open chair next to me. “Mind if I join? I’ve got an accounting class I have to work on.”
I was about to say that I actually did mind. I was so damn close to turning him away. It would have been the thing that most made sense. Throwing the tempting and poisoned apple into the ocean so I wouldn’t even think about taking a bite of it.
“Sure,” I said and moved my backpack off the light blue bucket chair. Ryan’s face lit up, as if he’d been expecting me to turn him away too. I noticed that whenever he got really excited, his face would curve and shape in a way that reminded me of a bouncing golden retriever, tongue lolling out and happy to be there.
If we were sitting any closer, I would have reached over and given him some head scratches.
“What are you studying?” he asked, voice still hushed.
“Chem,” I said, tilting my formula-filled notebook so he could see it.
“Damn.” His eyes went wide, then glossed over a bit. “It all looks like hieroglyphics to me. I don’t know how you understand any of that.”
“Yeah, sometimes I don’t, either. Chemistry isn’t my favorite. I like the more practical subjects: biology, ecology, zoology. The things I can see and touch.”
“I’ll give you—nope. Nope.” He put his hands up. “I told myself I wasn’t going to make any more dumb jokes.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Ry, I like your dumb jokes.”
“Really?” I nod, secretly happy at how big his smile got.
“Alright, well, I was going to say that I can give you something to see and touch.”
Then the cocky motherfucker put a hand between his legs and squeezed. The chairs were built so that the arms were high, his crotch shielded from everyone but me.
I nearly started drooling. Thankfully, I kept it together by the grace of Cher and laughed instead.
“You are dumb,” I said, with no actual teeth behind the word.
“And you’re cute as fuck.” Now it was my turn to smile way too wide for my face. My cheeks hurt. I worked to tamp it down. He didn’t need to see a visual representation of the kaleidoscope of butterflies fluttering around my rib cage.
I looked over his shoulder and could see a couple kids looking in our direction. They were students in my microbio class. I recognized them, having talked to them about a possible demonstration I was thinking of throwing. One was named Jessica, the other Trina. And were they staring now? I looked away.
Glanced back at them.
Trina was definitely looking at us. She leaned forward and whispered something to her friend.
Fuck. Were people already talking shit about Ryan and me being together? This was exactly the kind of crap I worried about. The judgmental glares and the undermining comments. Hell, maybe it was all in my head. Maybe they were gossiping about whatever thirsty boys bothered them in their DMs.