After a moment of awkward silence between us, Ollie sighed and dropped her hands to her sides.
“I found out this was where you go to school, and when I decided to transfer, I picked this college because I knew you were here.” She looked down at the toes of her boots in a very guilty manner.
An uneasy grumble came from my roommates as the atmosphere shifted to one of alertness and alarm at her admission.
“You said you weren’t a stalker!” Vernon’s exclamation made me smile because the kid could really be clueless for being an actual genius.
“Do stalkers ever admit to stalking when asked, Vernon?” Vernon pouted at me after I asked the question and narrowed his eyes at Ollie. It took a lot to get on Vernon’s bad side. Once you were there, good luck getting off of it.
Ollie sighed and nervously wiped her palms on her thighs. That was another give-away gesture. She really must be anxious and trying hard to hold it together.
“It wasn’t hard to find you, Huck. Even though you don’t have social media, you’re all over everyone else’s.” She let out a rough laugh and put a shaking hand to her chest. “You have fan pages dedicated to you on pretty much every social media site.”
I arched an eyebrow at her. “Excuse me?”
She sighed again and shook her head. “Never mind. Look, I signed a lease. I put down the deposit, and even though you may have posted that you prefer a male roommate, the Fair Housing Act prevents landlords from discriminating against renting to someone based on gender.” She huffed an annoyed little breath and finally met my gaze. I’d forgotten that she could be a handful when she really dug her heels in about something. She’d had to be tough to hang with me and survive my seriously chaotic and toxic family. As annoying as it was in the moment, I was secretly glad to see she still had bits and pieces of her steel spine intact. I was worried my family, especially my half brother, were going to break her when I left her behind.
I grinned at her, but it wasn’t nice. It was with lots of teeth and just enough threat to have her take a step backward.
“There are stalking laws that protect victims from having to share space with predators as well. You already admitted you came here because of me, that you’ve been tracking me on social media. I’m sure you know I’m pre-law, Ollie. Do you really want to go head-to-head with me? How often did that work out for you back in the day?” I cocked my head and regarded her coolly. If anyone knew just how ugly my temper could get, it was her. “There are plenty of other places for rent in this town. Something tells me you knew there wouldn’t be a warm reception when you tracked me down, so you manipulated things so I couldn’t turn you away exactly like you knew I would.”
Vernon threw up his hands in obvious bewilderment at the situation. “Why do I feel like you two are suddenly speaking a foreign language? This seems like a private matter. Harlen and I are going to let you figure this out. We’ll be in the kitchen.” He spun on his heel and marched toward the glowering football player.
Normally it took a whole offensive line to move Harlen, but when we were home, he willingly let Vernon drag him around like he was an overgrown puppy. It was pretty cute and would totally ruin Harlen’s tough-guy image if the truth ever got out.
Once we were alone, Ollie and I faced off like two opponents gearing up for an epic battle.
It used to be us against the world, and something felt incredibly wrong about it suddenly being us against each other.
She made a sound and clenched the hand resting on her chest as if she were trying to hold onto her heart. When she spoke, her words were shaky.
“You look good, Huck. Very grown up.”
Where she hadn’t changed much physically over the years, I sure as hell had.
I was always a runt and had been a little chubby when I was younger. It had taken years to finally grow into my larger-than-life personality and for my outward appearance to match all the attitude I was hauling around. I wasn’t as tall or muscular as Harlen. But he still had to put a decent amount of effort to take me to the ground whenever our tempers turned to exchanging blows. Having a professional athlete as a best friend was good for keeping one in shape. Even on the days all I wanted to do was watch Netflix and drink beer, Harlen usually managed to get my ass in gear and drag me to do some kind of physical activity. My baby fat melted away once I hit my late teens, leaving behind a face full of sharp, angular features, and making my unusual light eyes stand out even more. My hair hung out somewhere between brown and black and could look darker or lighter depending on the day and lighting. I kept it fairly short and trendy. I put a lot more effort into my appearance when I got out into the world on my own. I’d learned that being attractive was just another tool one could use for survival.
I looked good.
I knew it.
And so did Ollie, if the look in her eyes was anything to go by. Soft appreciation for my obvious glow-up was the only sign of life I’d seen in those chocolatey eyes since she finally decided to look at me.
I sighed and dragged a hand down my face. I had no idea why she was suddenly here, trying to insert herself in my typically uneventful life. But I knew deep down to my bones that I wanted nothing to do with whatever she brought to my doorstep. Even if it was a long overdue apology. It bugged me that I couldn’t look away from that scar on her cheek and that I couldn’t forget the reasons it was there.
“You aren’t moving into this house, Ollie. I don’t want you here.” I snorted and lowered my eyebrows into a ferocious scowl. “I don’t want you at this school, or even in this state. I want you to go far, far away. Forget my name for good. If you aren’t out of my sight in the next ten minutes, I’m calling the police. Get your damn stuff off my fucking porch.” I let out a breath and practically growled in her face, “Don’t make me get mean.”
I watched as her bottom lip started to quiver as her dark eyes glazed over with a glossy sheen of tears. “I signed the lease.” Her voice was tiny and weak. I used to hate it when she spoke to someone else that way. It made me feel a touch bad that I’d forced her to sound the same with me.
I shook my head. “I don’t care. The boys and I have lived here for years. Mr. Peters loves us. We take care of all kinds of crap for him at his properties. If he has to pick between me and you, he’s going to pick me.”
Ollie might not expect that from the old man because no one ever picked me when we were younger… no one but her.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go, Huck.” This time, she wasn’t lying. She sounded sad and scared and so very alone.
Refusing to be swayed, I shrugged. “Not my problem. Get gone before I make you go. I’m not playing around with you, Ollie. I don’t want to see you ever again.”
I heard her suck in a painful breath, but I didn’t turn to look back at her as I stepped around her and out of the living room.
Unsurprisingly, Harlen and Vernon were waiting for me in the hallway. I locked gazes with Harlen, and without having to say a word, I knew he would make sure the girl was gone. Vernon looked torn between being pissed and curious.
“I’ll call the old man and make sure he knows she absolutely cannot move in here. There were no less than a hundred other applicants. Even if I have to pay for her to break the lease, I will.” I went to walk past both of them toward my room only to be brought up short by Vernon’s hand on my arm.