Last Semester
by Corine Mekaouche
Genre: Comedy, New Adult, Romance
College.
Party. Drama. Life.
When
Johanna ‘Jo’ Gold, witty college life blogger and senior at Rutan
University, decides to move in with three male strangers her last
semester of school, her life unexpectedly turns upside down. While
dealing with her new roommates, A.J., the pompous rich kid who feels
trapped in following his father’s footsteps; Rob, the prematurely
engaged former womanizer who tries to force Jo out of the house at
all costs; and Drew, the 21-year-old virgin genius whose encounters
with women have been more than limited, Jo learns that change isn't
always easy and it's up to her to learn how to survive the remainder
of her time at Rutan the best that she can. Along with searching for
her missing mother, figuring out a clever way to pay for school
tuition on her own, and dealing with the childish pranks brought on
by a certain roommate, Jo’s issues seem more complicated than the
average 21-year-old. Can Jo endure the dramatic perils of college
while planning for life after graduation?
Navigating
through college isn’t easy especially when you don’t know what
the future holds, but Jo is determined to conquer her present even if
it means figuring out what being an adult is all about. With
graduation around the corner, Jo and her roommates have some growing
up to do and the last semester is all they have.
College
is complicated.
Partying
is a necessity.
Drama
is guaranteed.
Life
is just beginning.
“Breathe, Rob! Just breathe!” I demand
in a panicky voice from the back seat as we swiftly pull up to the entrance of
the hospital. Clutching his chest in pain next to me,
he heaves out a few spouts of air, but it’s not enough to help him.
Shit!
I watch my roommate Rob’s cheeks turn from a shade of deep pink to a dark crimson red. “A.J.! He’s getting worse!” I yell to my other roommate in the driver’s seat. He rolls his eyes then turns around.
“Calm down, Jo!” he exclaims. “I can’t think when you’re yelling like this!”
Drew, our other roommate, and usually
the voice of reason, says nothing as he quickly jumps out of the Range Rover
and runs into the hospital entrance.
“Can’t. Breathe,” Rob manages to force
out of his mouth, then before I know it, his body falls limp and his head
somehow ends up on my lap. His eyes roll to the back of his head.
“I think he’s dying!” I whine and
suddenly I’m losing my breath.
Releasing a loud groan, A.J. climbs out
of the SUV and casually walks into the hospital as if nothing is wrong.
Why is he so calm and I’m flipping the
hell out?
I begin to shake Rob’s shoulders but he doesn’t respond and I’m almost positive that he’s not breathing at all now.
It’s official.
I killed my roommate.
Okay, maybe he’s not dead yet, but if
death was a road, he just made a left turn for the worse then ran over a few
annoying potholes and some week old roadkill...and probably drove off a cliff
or something...
Ugh! I don’t even know what I’m saying
anymore! I feel guilty for doing this to him and I feel even more guilty
because I kinda hate his arrogant, smug ass, but just because someone is an
asshole doesn’t mean that they deserve to die, does it?
The back door opens and I see A.J. and
Drew standing outside with a wheelchair. A.J. roughly wraps his arms around
Rob’s body and begins to pull him out of the car. “Fuck! He’s like the size of
an ogre,” he complains as he struggles to get Rob into the wheelchair. The fact
that Rob is as useless as a wet noodle right now makes it difficult for A.J. to
adjust Rob’s body in the chair. I cringe just watching it.
“I knew this was going to happen one
day,” Drew says shaking his head. “The inevitable always happens.”
Shooting Drew a snarling glare, A.J.
grits his teeth. “Just roll the goddamn chair into the hospital,” he instructs.
Drew turns the chair around and begins to jog into the emergency room with
Rob’s body leaning to one side. A.J. looks at me in the SUV, annoyed. “Well,
are you coming?” he asks and I just freeze.
Do I stay? Do I go? I don’t know what
to do with myself!
Taking a quick yet deep breath, I climb
out of the SUV, shut the door and join A.J. on the other side of the vehicle.
“I’m horrible,” I blurt out and I can
feel wetness welling in my eyes. “I’m a horrible person.”
“Dammit, Jo! I hate it when girls cry,”
he complains as he shuts the other back door and begins to walk into the
hospital. He pauses in his tracks when he notices that I’m not following him.
I’m frozen.
The
geek and the dreamer, Corine Mekaouche has always had the vision of
becoming a writer. While growing up in the New Jersey suburbs, Corine
spent her childhood immersed in music, novels, and writing. To her,
the arts was the best escape ever. For college, she attended Rutgers
University majoring in English and minoring in Theatre Arts. Somehow,
Corine survived the college experience and became somewhat of a
grown-up yet still kept the vision of being a writer alive because it
may be all she’s qualified for. So, she wrote and wrote until Last
Semester, a new adult novel about college life and growing up, was
born. Currently, she is writing other novels and plays for future
release. When she’s not writing, loudly singing to songs in her car
or dancing in random places for no apparent reason, Corine is being
an awesome wife and a mom residing outside of the wonderfully flawed
New York City.
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