Swipe Right

Chapter 1: Goodbye School Hello Summer

It was her last day on campus and Lochlyn was very much over packing. Her parents had just come up last weekend to grab the rest of her stuff, so she didn’t have to completely fill her car. Her roommate s***h childhood best friend Oakley had just left two hours ago. She was now alone in their tiny dorm room having to put the finishing touches on their junior year of college. It had been such a long and wild year that Lochlyn was rather excited to leave the city to head back home. Don’t get her wrong, Loch loved the city. Who wouldn’t? She had everything she ever wanted within a two-minute walk from campus. If she wanted to go to the store she didn’t have to get in a car. Of course, it was loud and crazy, but it made it feel full of buzzing life.

She grew up on the Eastern Shore where the loudest sound was the crashing of the waves. Growing up she wanted nothing more than to leave the Shore as fast as she could. But when she went to college, she realized that crab feasts on Friday nights and watching the sun go down over the Bay was just as acceptable. Living at the beach had other benefits, especially living in a tourist trap. There were dozens and dozens of people coming with their families or friends on vacations. It made for very fun summers.

Oakley and Lochlyn spent most of their summers chasing after the hottest guy they could find. Oakley usually won. It never really upset Lochlyn that the guys she found the most attractive were not interested in her. It did upset her when they used her to get to Oakley. It happened every single summer. It even worked its way into school years. Lochlyn met Alton in her Chemistry class. It was this typical cute lab partner story that was way too good to be true.

Both Alton and Lochlyn couldn’t find lab partners and so the professor put them together. Lochlyn didn’t even know you had a lab partner when you were in college. She was very much not a science major. After seeing each other twice a week and having to work late into the evening on their lab reports Alton and Lochlyn grew to have those weird feelings for each other. Of course, Lochlyn felt them almost instantly since Alton was stupid hot. She wasn’t sure when Alton had started to feel the same way. It didn’t really occur to her to notice that Alton only kissed her after Oakley brought her new boyfriend into the study room. Looking back now she should have seen the signs.

After 6 whole months of dating Lochlyn thought maybe they would be something. Like all relationships that Lochlyn has ever had it all came to a screeching halt. The three of them had been watching a movie in their dorm room. Loch fell asleep not really into the movie like Alton and Oakley. She woke up to Oakley having a fit. Alton was trying to kiss her professing his love to her. Lochlyn just sat and watched completely stunned. She didn’t know what to do. What do you even do in that moment? Once Alton noticed she had woken up and saw he informed her that he didn’t like her and just wanted Oakley. This made Oakley send more curses at him then Lochlyn could count before she shoved him out the door and locked it behind him.

Lochlyn could tell that Oakley was worried that this was going to be the time they ended their friendship. It had happened to her before. They had many girl friends throughout their time here at school but most of them stopped talking to Oakley and then Lochlyn when they realized she wasn’t going to abandon her friend. It wasn’t either of their faults that 1. Men were stupid and 2. Oakley was considered the epitome of hot.  

Lochlyn would always see her as the girl who went searching for worms with her. The girl who learned how to surf with her. Oakley was her best friend and it didn’t matter to her what she looked on the outside. She hoped Oakley felt the same way. She often started to ask her but quickly decided that the potential of Oakley saying it did matter was too much of a risk to ask. She didn’t want to cause any problems, potential or not.

So, this summer was going to be different. Lochlyn decided she wasn’t going to go hot guy chasing with Oakley. Plus, it was perfect, Oakley was still dating the most current boytoy A.J. He wasn’t from the Shore, but her parents were letting him stay in the guest house. Now that Oakley was tied down. She wouldn’t feel the pressure to go and flirt with all those guys who didn’t even see her as a girl. Instead she was going to download that app that everyone had been talking about. The one where you swipe right or left. She wasn’t going to let her imaginative self-take over. She was going to be reasonable.

Lochlyn shoved the last box into her trunk and slammed the door down to make sure it latched. She took one last glance and gave her dorm room a big middle finger before sliding into the front seat of her car. “It’s time to head home.” She smiled and backed out of the parking lot. It was a beautiful day outside, she decided to drive with the top down. She had forgotten her hat in her beach back, so she had to settle for having her hair in a messy bun on top of her head.

It took her almost 4 hours to finally come across the Bay Bridge. She knew that she was going to lose so much time waiting. She should have planned her time better. She had to hit the bridge right at rush hour. Though to be honest the bridge was always full of traffic. One time she had been driving back to school at 1 in the morning and it was still crowded. Almost home. She thought to herself. It was never that easy especially since it was May, and everyone was starting to travel back and forth more. It didn’t take her too much longer than normal to finally pull into her parents’ driveway.

She climbed out of her car and could smell the salt in the air. It was finally summer. There was nothing better for summer than the ocean. Her parents owned a decent house right on the water. It had been her grandparents before them. It wasn’t those huge vacation mansions you saw that sprouted up all around them. Oakley lived on the Bay side. Her dad was a waterman. He loved setting out crab pots along with working his oyster beds.

She wouldn’t change any of it. It was nice to have two ways of life. During the school year Lochlyn could live her best city life but in the summer, she got to enjoy all the best parts of Beach country life. She was determined it was going to be the best summer yet.