Sweet Surrender [18+]

e i g h t e e n

Lauren often wondered why university officials shortened Thanksgiving week instead of giving faculty and students the entire week off. Attending classes for two days seemed pointless to her because most students were anxious to head home to see family and stuff themselves with turkey and mashed potatoes. The other students remaining on campus or in town itched to be free from classes and forget about anything educational.

After Lauren's morning class, she and Michelle took a leisurely walk around campus and ended up in the library. With time to kill before her afternoon class, Lauren tried to read a few chapters in her Advanced Product Marketing class as Michelle resumed reading a book about two feuding families with supernatural abilities.

From the corner of her eye, Lauren watched Michelle frequently look up from her book, study her for a seconds, and resume reading. Clearly Josh's sister wanted to talk about something but was either too afraid to bring up the subject or didn't want to interrupt Lauren from studying.

"Are you excited about going to Colorado?" Lauren finally asked, closing her textbook and giving up on studying. If she was being completely honest, she would rather chat with Michelle than read mundane information about marketing techniques.

The teen's eyes sparkled with excitement as she exclaimed, "Yes!"

Realizing her answer was a little too loud for the library, Michelle quickly covered her mouth and looked guiltily around her, hoping she didn't disturb anyone.

"Don't worry," Lauren reassured her, chuckling softly. "Why are you so excited about the trip?"

"There's an art museum that I really want to go to, but I'm not sure if there's gonna be time," she explained, talking a mile a minute. "I know Mom and Cara want to go shopping because of all the holiday sales, and Dad would rather go to a historical museum or something than an art museum. I doubt there's gonna be enough snow to go skiing, but we wouldn't have time anyway to spend an entire day at a resort, ya know?"

Lauren took a deep breath for the teen, processing everything Michelle just said.

"If there's time and if your parents don't mind, I'd go to the art museum with you," she offered, opening her notebook to a clean page.

"Really? That would be so cool," Michelle gushed, tucking a strand of hair behind her hair, but then frowned momentarily. "But don't you want to hang out with Josh and his friends?"

Lauren shook her head. "We'll see each other Thanksgiving day, but he needs to focus on the game."

"You're a good girlfriend."

Not really, Lauren thought to herself as she started doodling with a pencil.

"My brother really loves you," she revealed shyly. "Girls came over to the house all the time when he was in high school, but he didn't love any of them."

Lauren bit back a smile. "Oh?"

"I kinda like watching people. Does that make me weird?"

"No, of course not," she replied quickly, wanting to alleviate the teen's fear. "I do the same thing."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. Especially when I'm at the bar, and it's kinda surprising what people do when they think they're not being watched."

Michelle smiled with relief. "Josh acts really different when he's around you, and honestly, anyone can tell he's completely in love with you."

"You sound like April," Lauren mentioned as her pencil flew over the paper. "She's always giving me advice and analyzing my brain. I keep telling her that she should study psychology."