"Oh no," Jack said softly, already in motion as the words left his lips. He sprinted after Kelsey, weaving in and out of the people in front of the hotel and casino. "Kelsey! Kelsey!" The tall girl walking away from him didn't slow down, turn around, or acknowledge him in any way.

"Kelsey, please wait," Jack begged as he reached her. He put a hand on her shoulder.

She shook it off and kept walking.

"Please, let me explain," he continued, walking with her. "She fell in the casino. She had too much to drink, and she caught her heel and fell. She turned her heel or something, sprained her ankle." He walked around to her other side to avoid the bumper of a parked car. "She can hardly walk, her ankle's the size of a grapefruit, did you see it?" He reached out for her arm.

Finally, Kelsey stopped walking and whirled to face him. "This doesn't really cover the bigger question, though, does it, Jack?" At his blank look, she shook his hand off her arm impatiently. "What the fuck is she doing here? In Las Vegas? Last time I checked she wasn't part of the UCSM swim team."

She was actually standing still, waiting for him to answer, which Jack took as a marginally good sign. "She's kind of been an unofficial coach, the past few weeks," he explained. "She's been a real help with some of the girls. Since she's been working out with the team--"

"She's been working out with the team?" Kelsey gasped. "How long has that been going on?"

Jack swallowed.

"You know what? I don't want to know." She continued walking. Kelsey noticed that a few people had stopped to watch her and Jack, perhaps recognizing her, even in the darkness of the parking lot. They'd reached her car, anyway.

She unlocked it, and opened the door.

"Kels, wait," Jack said softly. "We need to talk."

"No, Jack, I need to leave, right now." Kelsey wiped away a tear, but not before Jack saw it. "I can't do this right now, not here. Please let go of me. Please."

Reluctantly, Jack took his hand from her elbow, where he'd placed it when she unlocked her car. He sighed as she got in. "You're in no shape to drive, sweetheart," he began, leaning down. He pulled back quickly when she shut the door, nearly taking his head off. "Will we talk at home, then?" he asked, peering earnestly through the window.

She stared straight ahead, not even acknowledging that she'd heard him.

"Kelsey!" He banged the hood of the car in frustration as she backed out of the space, making her jump.

She roared off into the cold Las Vegas night, leaving Jack standing helplessly, staring after her. After he could no longer see her car, he walked back to where his friends were waiting for him. Zach had helped Marian over to a bench, and the four of them looked at Jack expectantly, looking around for Kelsey as well.

"Oh, man, did she leave?" Jeff asked. "Shit."

"Jack, I'm so sorry," Marian, said.

Jack shook his head. "It's not your fault," he said. "She gets this way sometimes. She just wasn't expecting to see you with us, that's the main thing, I think." He ran his hand through his hair. "I just wish I knew she wasn't going to drive straight back, you know? I mean, she's so upset right now--" He broke off and looked at his friends.

"I'm going to head back to the hotel, you guys," he said. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be very good company anyway. Just go without me, okay?"

"You sure?" Zach asked. "Why don't we all go back, then?"

"No, please," Jack said, shaking his head. "It's barely nine o'clock, who knows when you'll come back to Vegas? Go out and have a good time. The meet doesn't start until ten tomorrow, you still have some time." He looked at his friends. "Seriously, I'll feel better if you do."

"I'll stay with Jack," Marian said. "I can hardly walk, I should head back to the hotel, anyway, right?" She looked up at Jack. "Unless you'd rather be alone?"

Jack shook his head again. "No, of course, come."

So they separated, and Jack and Marian took a cab back to their hotel near the university. Jack couldn't help worrying about Kelsey, and sent her some texts, but this worried him, too. She'd be distracted to receive texts while driving, which wouldn't be good, especially at the speeds she'd be going between Las Vegas and Los Angeles in the dark.

When they arrived, Jack helped Marian to her room, though she insisted she could walk on her own. He got her some ice, and helped her wrap her ankle in an ace bandage. At least this helped to distract him from Kelsey, alone on the road in her little roadster. Jack was holding onto a slim hope that maybe she'd checked into a hotel for the night, but he didn't really believe that. He knew her, and he knew she'd want to get back home. In addition, she hadn't answered any of his texts, which probably meant she was driving.

"Jack?" Marian's voice was soft. "Do you have to go back to your room right away? I mean, do you want to be alone?"

He looked at Marian. She was in her sweats, leg propped up as she lay in bed. He shook his head.

"I wouldn't mind getting out of these clothes, though," he admitted. "How about if I get into my sweats and come back?"

Marian nodded, turning on the TV, and Jack dashed to his room, changed, and returned. He sat next to her on the bed, asking, "What are we watching?"

Marian shrugged, saying, "I don't know, I've just been flipping around." She handed Jack the remote. "Here, find whatever you like."

Jack clicked until he found a documentary about Africa, and they watched in silence until Marian said, "You can go if you like, I know you're distracted."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Jack asked, looking over at her.

"You've checked your phone, like, twenty times in the last three minutes, even though it's set to ping, right?" Marian gave him a sympathetic look.

"I'm sorry, I guess I'm not very good company," Jack apologized.

"Don't be ridiculous, of course you're worried," Marian sympathized.

"It's just that Kelsey's my first girlfriend, my first relationship," Jack explained. "I don't want to screw it up. And I'm so worried about her. I mean, what if she gets in an accident? What if she drives off the road? She might not get found until daylight, you know? She was so upset when she left, so hurt, you should've seen her face." Jack sighed.

Marian took a breath like she was going to say something, but was silent. Then, a few minutes later, she took another breath, and again, said nothing. Finally, she turned to Jack.

"Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe she's wrong here, and you're right? That maybe she should be talking to you and not the other way around?" Marian asked. At Jack's bewildered look, she huffed out a breath of irritation and continued. "It's just that, looking at your situation from the outside, it seems like you're putting in a lot of effort to make things work, way more effort than she is, that's all."

Jack sat up to look at her. "Hold on, hold on, that's not true. She's been through so much, you know that. She had the most terrible summer, the most awful thing happened to her, and it's been so hard, you can't even imagine," Jack said, unable to hide his anguish. "She comes off to the world as this strong person, but she's really fragile, and she's so vulnerable. And I hurt her without even meaning to, sometimes--"

"Jack, that's my point!" Marian interrupted, unable to contain her frustration. "You don't mean to hurt her, and she must know that, but she expects you to apologize, over and over, even though you haven't done anything wrong." Now she, too, was sitting up, trying to emphasize her words. "It just seems like every time we talk you're in the dog house about something or other, and it's usually something stupid, like doing homework with a classmate, or helping a friend who's turned her ankle? I mean, come on!"

She put a hand on Jack's arm. "Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe you don't need to be the one who apologizes every fucking time, Jack?"

Jack blinked at her, hazel eyes wide with shock. "But, we might not stay together then," he said softly.

Marian remained silent, then raised her eyebrows.

"Most people don't stay with the person they're in their first ever relationship with," she finally said, just as softly. "Ever stop to think of that, Jack?"

Jack pulled his arm away from her hand, leaning away from her on the bed, shaking his head slightly.

"No," he said. It had honestly never occurred to him that he and Kelsey might break up someday. But when you got right down to it, Marian was right. How many people stayed with their "first love?" He wasn't even Kelsey's first, was he?

Not even his parents were with their firsts.

Marian sighed again. "Look, Jack, I'm not saying I think you're going to break up, I'm not. I'm not even saying I think you should, okay? I'm just saying it's not outside the realm of possibility, you know?" She smiled a small smile, nudging his leg with her own. "It wouldn't be the end of the world, you know?" She gestured to herself. "Look at me. I was engaged to Joaquin, for crying out loud, and here I am, nearly a year later, still breathing and everything.

"Has she ever actually said she's looking for a forever thing to you?" Marian probed. "I mean, do you even know if you're making all of this effort for something that's mutual? Or is she just laying out these hoops for you to jump through for fun? You just seem to be the one making all the effort, to someone who might just walk away at any time--"

Jack's phone pinged with an incoming text, and he grabbed it.

It was from Toby. "Just checking in. How you holding up?"

He sent back a selfie of him and Marian. "Just getting my learn on, watching some NatGeo about elephants," Jack sent back with a smiley.

Jack sat back, his shoulder touching Marian's, considering her words.

Could it be that he and Kelsey might break up, might not stay together? He'd never really thought much past the filming of her movie and graduation in June. He'd done very well on his LSATs and the GRE, and already had a couple of early applications in, with a few more to follow that were due early in the new year. He had a few nebulous plans about staying in the LA area to be near Kelsey, or of her maybe buying a house in New England if he got accepted there, but nothing really concrete. He mainly had his head down, his focus on getting his diploma.

But he had to admit that more and more of his future plans included the beautiful girl he'd taught to swim last summer. She was in his mind during most of his waking hours, and many of his dreaming ones as well.

Now Jack felt stupid. He was only twenty one, and he was in love with a supermodel, a superstar, a movie star, a cover girl, a sex symbol, and all those other words that were thrown around when talking about women as famous as Kelsey was. She could have anyone. Probably no one who saw them together expected them to last. Only him, foolish, childish, Jack, wandering around like a lovestruck schoolboy.

Was it possible that he didn't fill her thoughts the same way? Could it be that they weren't "meant to be"?

Jack didn't know.