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Chapter 5: Midnight Fire Pit

Lochlyn was sitting in a chair looking out at the dark water. After dinner her dad went and got the fire pit bringing it onto the beach so they could spend some time hanging out by a fire. He always said that it wasn’t summer until you had a fire. She just laughed at him but there was a little bit of truth in there. Things really didn’t feel exactly like summer just yet. She was so ready to just work and not worry about school at all. She had one more year left and then she was going to actually have to think about what she was going to do in real life. That was not something she was happy about. Everything dealing with the future was too scary and pressuring.

Her parents had gone inside a few minutes ago since it was pretty late but reminded her to put out the fire and just leave the pit there for her dad to grab in the morning. She slid her phone out. There was a this tiny part of her that John had messaged her back. She didn’t want to seem to eager so she instantly swiped away all the notifications and took a deep breath.

“I’m not going to check.” She said out loud. Nope. She could wait. She waited all night didn’t she? What was a few more minutes? Lochlyn shoved the phone in the drink holder and stood up stretching. She had to work tomorrow but not early enough that staying awake was going to cause her a problem. She just needed to find something to keep her busy. Lochlyn looked up at the stars and smiled. She missed them when she lived in the city. They weren’t the same there. You couldn’t see them really at all. Here it was like a painting of the sky.

Her phone made a beep and she turned her head. There was no way it was him. While she was trying to ignore her phone? No. The curiosity was killing her so she gave up and went back over to the chair and snatched the phone up. The ding was simply a notification for some game she had stopped playing months ago. She groaned and then laughed at herself. She was being ridiculous. One she didn’t even know this person. Two he was just some dude on a dating app. And three she shouldn’t be this ridiculous. It doesn’t matter if he texted her back or not.

She decided it wasn’t any of those things but she was going to check the app because she wanted to. Lochlyn clicked open the app and bit her lip. Okay, it’s going to be reasonable if he didn’t respond. She looked over at the messages section and saw that there was a little pink dot. She clicked on it and under messages there was new message. She smiled and clicked the conversation.

So you’re a local huh?  

She rolled her eyes. Wasn’t that what she said to him.

Yes. Born and raised. So are you one of those guys that used the app to find people to hook up with while on vacation?

She wasn’t sure if that was a bit rude but it was too late now. She had already hit send. Loch settled back into the beach chair. She sighed as the waves crashing on the sand started to relax her. She had never actually tried on dating apps before. She wasn’t exactly what she would considered the ideal of beauty standards. Yes she was an active person but that didn’t mean she was super small or size 0.

She would be lying if she said it didn’t make her feel pretty good that someone was messaging her after seeing pictures of her entire body. Usually she had only posted partial ones or pictures that made her look good.

Is that what you’re looking for?

She felt her phone vibrate and looked at his message. She was…looking for a summer romance especially since she wasn’t going to be here in the fall. She really just wanted to have a good time and meet people. It wasn’t like they were asking each other to commit and be married right?

I want to have a fun summer romance. Just like every basic girl.

“We’ll see what he has to say about that.” She said turning the screen off. She wondered how Oakley was doing hanging out with the Mister. Lochlyn didn’t want to bother her, especially if they were having alone time. She could text her in the morning.

Her phone vibrated and she unlocked the screen.

A fun summer romance? What are we in an anime? Or a teen show?

She laughed at his message. He was right. She sounded ridiculous but she still felt that way.

You could have just said sounds nice. You don’t have to be judgey.

She sighed and closed her eyes. It felt so good sitting outside in the breeze. She was going to wind up falling asleep out here if she didn’t go inside quickly. She dragged her body out of the chair. She felt the vibration but didn’t check her phone. She slipped it in her pocket and made sure the fire was put out. Loch then went back up to her house and creeped up the stairs to not wake her parents up. She slipped into her bedroom and got changed for bed. She snuggled under her sheets and placed her phone on the dresser. She bit her lip and checked the message.

I’m not judging just curious. I’m going to bed. Sleep tight Rom Com.

There was a small smile on her face as she turned the phone over and slid back into her covers. She fell asleep with that same smile.