The campus was loud.
Students everywhere. Voices overlapping. Laughter. Someone shouting across the quad about a party. Backpacks hitting the ground. Footsteps on pavement.
Liam walked through it all, hands in his pockets.
Yesterday had been good. Really good.
After the yacht, after everything with Jane, they'd cracked open more drinks and just stayed out there. Talking. Laughing at nothing. At some point they'd all passed out on the deck.
The next morning they'd gone back out on the water. Just swimming. Floating around. Kelvin and Priscilla splashing each other like idiots.
Jane laughing at them, her head thrown back, completely losing it every time Kelvin tried to dunk Priscilla and she twisted away at the last second. The sun was warm, the water was cold, and nobody was talking about anything that mattered.
Then they'd split up. Kelvin and Priscilla went off somewhere. He and Jane just sat on the deck and talked. About nothing. About everything. It was easy. Comfortable.
