Prof: Newfound Lake is a story I wrote for the Summer Lovin' contest. Sadly, I finished it a few days too late for submission due to life and my high standards. I have no patience to sit on this for a year for the next contest, so please enjoy my first self-contained, short story.
The main characters, Evan & Jane are in the 21-22 age range, though it was never specified in the story. All Characters engaged in sexual activity are 18+
**********
Newfound Lake
*****
JUNE
******
Evan made his way into the busy kitchen to grab another beer. His friend Zack had convinced him to come out to one last party before he went away for the summer. Evan wasn't really sure why, as Zack ditched him within 15 minutes to talk to some girl he had been wanting to bang. It must have gone well because he was on his own for the rest of the night, which he was used to by then. Normally he wouldn't be feeling as awkward as he was but every year he found himself more ready to leave his hometown and everyone in it behind.
On the way to the backyard, he saw a semi-familiar face go by him, glancing up and giving a small smile like she always did. He had known of Jane since 1st grade, all the way up through high school. The college he went to was big enough that she could be going there too as far as he knew. He saw her at most of the parties he went to and they had quite a lot of mutual friends. For whatever reason, they had never said more than a sentence to each other; maybe a few paragraphs if he counted the 5th-grade school play.
Jane always seemed to be on the move, heading to some other more important thing where no one else was invited. He had always thought it was a little funny that a girl could be nicknamed 'hippie' while appearing to be so stuck up. They had even managed to not speak at the office supply store that they worked at during college. The same one that Evan had just been 'laid off' from. He followed Jane, realizing that they finally had something to talk about.
He made his way out the front door, hoping she hadn't left yet. There were only a handful of partiers out front and soon he found her sitting alone at the far end of the porch, face buried in her phone. He hesitated for a few moments as a strange childhood nervousness gripped him. He had a small, quick crush on her when they were 14, nothing at all serious, but to Evan, Jane had always been unapproachable.
She had dirty blonde hair halfway down her back that was usually straight or pulled back into a ponytail; always a bit messy as she was always running her hands through it. The hippie label was probably due to her style of dress as she seemed to have specific tastes that evolved to include some more regular clothes now and then. That night it was tight tan work pants and a yellow shirt with flowers all over it that looked like it had been passed down from the 60's. All of these details would leave many guys to believe that Jane was more approachable but he didn't see her that way. In his opinion, the most unattractive quality about her was how aware she was that she looked like a model without having to try.
Jane lit up a cigarette and noticed Evan walking towards her. She resisted an eye roll, as she didn't have the greatest opinion of him either. He had always seemed to have this arrogance about him that only she noticed. He was wicked involved in school and even made people, like her, look bad at work. Evan was a classic overachiever, which was only made worse by her friends never having a bad thing to say about him.
He had hooked up with a few of her friends over the years, which disgusted her as they would gush about him as if he was god's gift or something. Evan was definitely hot but everything about his personality came off as fake to her. She felt justified in her assumptions about him as she considered herself to be a great judge of character; except when it came to the guys she dated. He would probably end up being a future serial killer, as too many people liked him, it just wasn't normal.
Despite all of her reservations, she offered, "Want one?" in reference to her cigarette.
"No thanks, I don't smoke. Cigarettes at least," he said casually. Jane took it as moral superiority.
"Normally, neither do I but it's been a struggle lately."
"So you got laid off too, huh?" he asked her, as that was the only reason he had for their interaction.
Jane laughed bitterly. "I don't know anything about layoffs. My ass was straight fired like a week ago," she explained.
"Seriously? What happened to you?" he asked.
"You first, why would they let wonder boy go?"
"Wonder boy?" This was easily the longest they had ever talked alone. Evan wondered if maybe there was a valid reason for his avoiding her over the years that he had somehow forgotten.
"Sorry, why did you get laid off," Jane asked more politely. Maybe Evan rubbed her the wrong way but he wasn't who she was really upset with.
"I got a voicemail telling me they were making employee cutbacks; getting rid of all the part-timers. I ran into Bill when I went to grab my last check."
"I always liked Bill," Jane interrupted.
"Yeah same, anyway he managed to keep his job. He told me that fucking goon, Chad was behind the layoffs right after he was promoted to manager. Bill overheard him talking about replacing everyone with his buddies and 'hot chicks'."
Jane looked thoroughly embarrassed when she admitted, "I didn't know anything about that, but I'm not surprised." She gave him a calculating look before she decided to tell him her story. "I was kinda dating that goon for almost a year. By the way, that's a great description of him, goon, I'm stealing that. So, I found out like a week ago that he'd been seeing a couple other girls while we were supposed to be exclusive. I dumped him right away. Later that night, he posts on my wall that HE's breaking up with me, and to not bother coming in to work again."
"Damn, that's fucked up," he said. He figured she was one of those girls always going after the assholes but at least she didn't put up with their shit.
"You wanna know what's even more messed up? I hate social media. It just seems like a waste of time to me, no offense to anyone else. I only created an account because Chad said it made him feel more comfortable dating me," Jane was definitely still in the anger stage which was understandable.
"I hope you deleted it then," Evan said.
Jane looked up at him and actually smiled. "Right after I saw the post."
"You manage to line up another job for the summer?" he asked.
"No, everywhere I've tried is already full up before June. I'm totally screwed. I need to be making money all summer before I go back to school. What about you?"
"I don't know about anything around here during summer. I'm usually away until September."
"Let me guess, you and the fam vacation in Italy every summer or something?" Jane said with a smirk.
Evan almost became defensive until he realized that maybe Jane was just teasing him. "Who the hell do you think I am? I'm away every summer because I've had a job up north since I was 15," he explained.
"What job?" she asked, clearly desperate.
"My uncle has this restaurant on the lakeside. It's usually three times as busy during the summer, so I go up to help out," he explained.
"Wow that actually sounds pretty cool," she admitted.
Evan hesitated before he made the offer, "Look, he's always telling me to bring along a friend or two to help out for the summer. You'd get free room and board. I know we don't know each other that well but you definitely seem desperate."
