It was no wonder my private detective had found fan pages on the Internet dedicated to them. It was impossible to Google anything about this private college in this small, midwestern town without tumbling across these boys. I’d avoided it until recently because I’d always been scared of the repercussions. Not knowing anything was better than being informed and having that knowledge held against me at every single turn. It’d been safer to pretend the third and final roommate didn’t exist, even though he was always and forever at the forefront of my mind.
“Mr. Peters called you Ollie. Did you lie about your name just so you could move in here? Are you some kind of stalker? You know there are laws against that, don’t you?” Vernon’s voice was soft and critical. I nervously cleared my throat and lifted a hand to twist one of my gold curls around my finger. It was a nervous habit I’d had since childhood that I couldn’t seem to shake.
“My name is Olivia, but I’ve gone by Ollie since I was little. Mr. Peters has all my legal information. He knew exactly who I was when he agreed to let me move in here. Frankly, I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about it. Girl or boy, you were getting a new roommate, regardless. You’re only going to be stuck with me for a year. What’s the big deal?”
Vernon hummed and lifted a finger, which had the nail painted black, to tap his full bottom lip. “It just seems weird. Mr. Peters never objected when we told him to find us a new male roommate. He actually seemed to appreciate that we weren’t looking to change up our dynamic. And how come I’ve never seen you around campus? Even as big as this campus is, our paths were bound to cross at some point. I never forget a face.”
I kept fiddling with my hair as I tried to calm my racing heart. One would think I would be a better liar by now, considering how often I did it. But I wasn’t. My nervous energy always gave me away. I was simply hoping that since he didn’t know me at all, Vernon wouldn’t notice. Just because I knew pretty much everything about these boys didn’t mean they had the first idea who I was or why I was so desperate to get close to them.
I didn’t want to tell him I transferred over the summer with every intention of getting as close as possible to his missing roommate. I didn’t want him to know it felt like a sign from above when I found out their other roommate was leaving, clearing the way for me to insert myself in their lives in the most inescapable way possible. It sounded desperate and creepy because it was.
“I keep to myself mostly.” I was no dummy, but I also wasn’t a savant. I was a couple of years behind all of them in terms of academics. “I transferred recently, so there’s been no time to go out or make friends. I’m not exactly a social butterfly anyway, and I have a part-time job, so I keep busy away from school. It makes total sense that our paths haven’t crossed before. As for remembering my face,” I flashed that fake smile once again, “mine isn’t all that remarkable.”
I was cute, at best. I knew how to work with what I had, for sure, but I was under no illusion that I had some kind of heart-stopping beauty. I did have pretty chocolate-colored eyes. I had strong, sharply angled brows that could look a little villainous if I wasn’t careful about keeping them tamed. I was also blessed with good skin and a great head of hair, but all of it was just a step above average. If you didn’t take into account the pink, slightly jagged scar that started below my left eye and zagged down my cheek until it disappeared underneath my chin, my face was all right. The scar was more memorable than all of my other features combined, and I knew it was what Vernon was referring to when he said he’d never forget my face if he’d seen it around campus.
Vernon didn’t look convinced. However, whatever argument he was going to give died when Harlen made his way back into the living room. The football player didn’t look happy, and it really took every ounce of control I had not to wilt to the floor under the weight of his irritated gaze.
“Mr. Peters said she’s here to stay. He verified that Olivia Adams, who goes by the name Ollie, was the best candidate of all the applicants who applied to rent Fisher’s old room. He even told me we better be nice to her or there will be hell to pay.” He rubbed his temples as if he suddenly had a splitting headache. “Huck is going to lose his mind when he hears about this.”
I thought I was prepared to hear his name after all this time pretending he didn’t exist.
I wasn’t.
A small gasp escaped before I could stop it. Luckily, Vernon was working himself into a state of panic, and his sounds of exasperation covered my own rising anxiety at the thought of dealing with Huck Snyder.
Huck was the whole reason I was here, after all.
The second son. The unwanted one. The boy I burned and betrayed because I had no other choice.
“Shit. You don’t think he’ll be mad enough to do something like move out, do you?” Vernon’s voice rose, and his eyes widened.
The football player gave me a steady look and shrugged. “Maybe. Who knows what that unpredictable bastard will do?”
Vernon made a squeaky sound and twisted his hands together. “We can’t let him leave. We already lost Fisher.” I knew these boys were close, but I didn’t realize exactly how close. The pretty genius sounded devastated at the thought of being separated.
“If Huck goes, we’ll go with him, and she can keep the whole fucking house.” Harlen said it so matter-of-factly that my heart immediately sank into my shoes. Having them all pack up and leave me alone in this rambling old house wasn’t something I’d planned. It was actually the worst case scenario. I only wanted to be here because this was where Huck lived.
“Where am I going? And whose crap is scattered all over the front porch? What in the hell is going on right now?” Huck’s voice was the same raspy rumble I remembered from childhood.
He always sounded like he smoked no less than a pack a day when he didn’t even smoke at all. His voice never fit with his soft, pudgy face and jittery movements. The voice always sounded like it belonged to a man who’d been through hell and back, while Huck always looked like an excited kid on Christmas morning.
I froze, unsure if I wanted to run or melt into the ground. I knew getting in the door of this place was just the beginning and that the biggest challenge had yet to come. But I thought I’d have a chance to get more settled, with a moment to possibly win over the other boys before I had to face the big boss. I figured if I could unpack, it would be harder for Huck to throw me out, but my stuff was still in boxes at everyone’s feet.
“Uh, it’s her stuff.” Harlen pointed a finger in my direction, much like I’d done at him earlier. I closed my eyes briefly and ordered myself to get my shit together. I knew what it meant to be scared of another human all the way down to your soul, but I’d never felt that way about Huck. I would hate to have to start now. “She says she’s staying, and Mr. Peters agrees with her. V and I were just wondering what you were going to do about it. We know you don’t want a female roommate.”
Harlen was the brawn.
Vernon was the brain.
Fisher had been the quirky, irreverent one.
But there was no question that Huck was, hands down, the leader of their little gang of heathens and outcasts.