Dark Intentions - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,8

and that's required, but how the hell was I supposed to make enough space in my schedule to work for free for someone for forty hours a week for a whole summer or semester, just in hopes of landing a mediocre paying job as a copywriter, or maybe an assistant to an assistant to an assistant editor?

But that's the thing about being in your early twenties. You don't really know what's going on and just have to figure things out. So, I continued to live my life kind of in limbo until I decided to pursue my master's degree in journalism. That way I could possibly get a job doing something with writing and put my fiction on the back-burner.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" Allison snapped her fingers in front of my face, and suddenly I remembered that we were having a conversation, about what I couldn’t remember. "Do you want to hear about Redemption?"

"Yes, I do. Everything," I said.

"Well, I went there, I met with this woman called Cassandra and she laid out the rules after my application was approved.”

"Application?" I asked.

She nodded her head vigorously, "Yes. I think I have filled out smaller applications for college."

"Wow. What did it require?"

"Just a lot of information about who you are. It's all very confidential, but yeah, you also have to submit this video, talking about your intentions for going to Redemption. I have a feeling that they just wanted to see your face, make sure you're not a troll.” She laughed and stumbled up to the counter to get more wine.

"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

"Ah, because you would have told me not to go?"

"Yes, that's true.” I nodded.

"Listen, you're always the sensible one doing your own thing. So, you know, I don't know where you stand on that kind of thing."

"I don't know where there is to stand on that kind of thing," I said with a shrug. "As they're all happy and consenting, I don't know, why does it matter what anyone thinks?"

"I don't know. I know that you talk a good game. You're all open-minded and whatever, but I know who you are, Jacqueline."

"And who am I?"

"You are Jacqueline Archer."

I nodded. "Is that supposed to mean something?"

"You're shy, you're not that outgoing, and you'd like to be in these long, boring relationships where all you talk about is what does this all mean?"

I knew that she was quite intoxicated, but the words still hurt.

Allison knew all about the men that I couldn’t stand and the ones who had broken my heart, and I hated the fact that she was throwing it in my face.

"Okay. I'm sorry.” She walked over. "Don't look like I just kicked your puppy. You were pretty much just getting into one relationship and then another. I wouldn't say that you are that sexually adventuresome."

"Yeah, that's true,” I admitted.

"And that's why I went without telling you."

She poured herself another glass and offered me one. I wanted to say no, but I didn’t want to confirm her opinion of me as being kind of straightedge.

"So what was it like?" I asked.

"Well, Dean and Melanie were the ones that brought me, so I was kind of with them. Met their friends, the ones they play with."

"Play with?"

She nodded.

“Is that what it's called?" I asked.

"I've actually met a couple there who I had previously met at one of their barbecues, if you can believe it."

"Wow.” My mouth dropped open.

7

Jacqueline

Dean and Melanie are as plain as white bread. We met in Dartmouth, they graduated a year ahead of us, and I was never really that close to them.

But I'd see them at parties. They’d been together for almost four years by the time they graduated after meeting at freshmen orientation.

After college, Dean got a job on Wall Street at an investment bank and Melanie got a very prestigious internship at an art gallery in Soho. A year later, they held their three hundred person wedding and bought a house in Greenwich, Connecticut, where schools are good and the commute isn't too bad into Manhattan.

"The last I heard from Melanie was that they had two kids and besides being a stay-at-home mom, she had opened a Pilates studio,” I said.

"Something tells me that this story will probably be a little bit more memorable." Allison laughed.

"So did you reach out to them?"

"I've been in touch with Melanie for a while and she told me. I remember her mentioning that they were doing something like this back in