“Tori…” I was in the hall when Trisha called me again. “Have you called your mother?”
I thought for a minute. I hadn’t been here a full week yet. There was no need for me to call her. Wasn’t like she was helping out with my cash flow problem, and she damn sure wasn’t footing the bill for this place. Why would I call her?
“She call up here asking for me?”
She say when she’ll send my money?
Collin looked up from his folders. “Don’t you have a cell?”
I shook my head, scratching that same spot again. “Nah.” My eyes fell to his shoes.
My phone was turned off over a week ago. I told myself I’d get another when I found a job out here.
“Here.” He walked deeper into the office, then came back and tossed me an orange bag. I unfolded it to see it was a BSU soccer bag. He pointed behind me. “That one’s gonna fall apart any minute now.”
I took off, shaking my head, studying the bag in my hand. There was no way I was going to walk around this high saddity place with this bright ass bag. I already knew I wouldn’t fit in; no way in hell was I trying to stand out.
I hated Blakewood State University already.
-Then-
She’s here…
Damn.
She sat on top of the perfectly green rolling hill, a few yards away from the famous Blakewood State University landmark sign. The name of my soon-to-be alma mater could be seen from the closest major highway. It was the place my crew hung out, even at night, allowing the light posts to illuminate the historic landmark.
Aivery Cooper sat on the perfectly manicured grass with one leg folded over the other and an elbow resting on her knee while pretending to gaze into the sunny sky. Her golden shoulders sat high in a stark white tank t-shirt as her face hid behind oversized Chloé sunglasses.
I hiked up the hill toward her, wanting to get this over with. It was a meeting I’d been dreading all summer. It wasn’t until I lowered myself a few feet away from her that Aivery turned toward me, almost as if she was done with an internal countdown.
“Hey, you!” she breathed out with a big smile. “It’s so good to see you!”
When she reached for me, I didn’t hesitate to return her hug. It was what she expected. What we’d always done. When we let go, Aivery shifted to face me, sporting a zealous beam.
“I see you liked the sunglasses.”
“Oh, my god! Yes. It was so sweet of you, Ash!” Her high pitch belied her bubbling emotions. “All the girls in my room when I arrived were so fucking blown away! And my mom…” She squealed. “She wanted to come over to your apartment before we unpacked! I had to tell her you were likely in practice or working out.” Her head tossed back slightly, giggling.
I nodded. “Glad you liked them.”
Aivery’s face sobered quickly. Her dark, thick eyelashes met, weighing her lids down, and I knew what was coming.
“I’m sorry for…everything, Ash.” She sucked in a breath. “I hated every moment of this summer. Hated we weren’t together.”
“How was Europe?” I asked, curbing the apologies.
Her smile returned, but reserved. “It was sweet. Oh, my god! The French ice cream is to die for! I didn’t remember it from the last time I was there—I mean, I was only four—but I’ll never forget it again. I told my Dad I want him to send you and me back for my graduation gift. We must go to this cute little parlor named Pozzetto.” She sucked in another excited breath. “Wow! What if we can fly in their ice cream for the engagement party or the wedding?” She turned to me with her mouth open. “Oh, my god, Ash! That would be amazing! French ice cream at our engagement party? We can hire a photographer to take pix of us at Pozzetto this summer and we can use those for the engagement party invitations—”
My hand shot up in the air, killing the noise she wistfully dreamt up that quickly. “First, it’s called glace over there; not ice cream. I’m not a fan of it. Second, I don’t need your father paying for me to go anywhere. I can foot my own bill. You know that.”
“I’m sorry—”
“And I’m not done.” I tried to measure my tone. The plan wasn’t to hurt Aivery. She needed honesty, not my anger. My head shook as I found her eyes through the dark lenses. “I think it’s fair to say there won’t be an engagement party, much less a damn wedding.”
“Ash—”
“I’ve had plenty of time to think over the summer, and I’m sure you have, too,” I needed to make clear. “I think it’s best we go into our senior year clear on the terms of our relationship.”
“Which is?”
“We’re best off as friends.” Aivery gasped. I nodded, looking directly into the eyes she couldn’t hide with Chloé’s. “Our senior year of undergrad starts this week. There’s no need for us to go into it with the baggage we have. This summer was a great demonstration of how we’re better off apart.” During the week of finals last spring, I discovered Aivery lost her virginity to an alumnus of Blakewood, who so happened to have made me his nemesis since the first day I stepped foot on campus my freshman year when he was a senior.
Yeah.
They fucked before she and I became official, but after we’d started dating. So, while I was waiting on the pussy, settling just for her heart, she gave the pussy to an upperclassman who wanted me dead—or to disappear in the most dreadful way. She knew of my history with the guy when she and I agreed to being boyfriend and girlfriend, and purposely kept it from me. That was until I ran into him at a party last spring and he told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was the first to have the pussy of the girl I thought I was going to marry one day. “I’ve got a lot riding on this year. We owe it to each other to not create this…farce about who we are to each other.”
“Why would it be a farce?”
“Because it ain’t true. We’re not together...haven’t been since the spring.” I made sure to catch her fleeting eyes again. “And I’m okay with that.”
Tears spilled from beneath the frames of the sunglasses. “I didn’t think me announcing who I gave my virginity to—well before you and I made it official—was important to our relationship.”
“But after we’d started dating. After we’d kissed is when said virginity was given!” I shouted then quickly whipped my head away, regretting my fucking tone. “I’m a fuckin’ fool,” I grumbled, body vibrating with violent energy. He’d set out to humiliate me and the fucker did it. “I can’t go another year—my senior year—with the League over my head and you on my arm. I won’t live a lie. I’ve taken the summer to recharge and figure this shit out.” Her small shoulders vibrated from her quiet sobs. I had to make this clear to her. “I could never go back to what we were after learning that.”
Aivery’s frame whipped toward me. “Well, I’m not giving up. I love you. My heart and life belong to you. I’m supposed to be Mrs. Spencer in two years. My parents and family are expecting it. I’ve wanted it since the day I agreed to be your girlfriend, Ashton Spencer! Now, I may have made the biggest mistake of my life that I’ll forever regret, but I’ll be damn if I’ll make an even bigger one. I’m not letting go of the love of my life without a fight! I’m not doing the last year of my college career not having everyone on this campus know who I am to you.”