Chase is a big guy, but because you need to take stairs to come down to the diner, he's a couple of steps above me, making him look more impressive than usual. He walks down and kisses the top of my head, and my heartbeat doubles.
"Can you bring me a turkey club and a Coke?"
He walks past me, joining his friends at their usual table without another word.
Snapping out of my jarred state, I walk back to the counter, leaving behind my one and only chance at talking with Achilles Duval.
The casual "Hey, babe" resonates in my head as I put his order in, my nerves simmering. He's so unaware of what I almost did.
He's mid-conversation when I bring him his drink, but he stops to give me a kiss on the cheek and a thank you, calming me down a little.
"How are you?" he asks, wrapping an arm around my waist. "Busy this morning?"
I shake my head. "Same as usual, but something did happen."
His bushy eyebrows raise above his dark eyes before he looks at his friends, as if they should’ve updated him on anything that happens to me. He's a bit older than them, the head of their little group, and he's five years older than me.
"What's that?" he asks seriously, his voice lowering. "Anyone bother you?"
"No." I chuckle, feeling warm all over. I can't control that I like his possessive side. "Nothing like that. But I received this."
I pull the envelope out of my pocket and show it to him.
He takes it, looks at the front and back, and hands it back to me. "Aren't you gonna open it?"
The disdain in his tone isn't the only thing that tells me how much he hates SFU. It's in the way his upper lip curls too. Chase thinks those people are worse than the devil. Too rich. Too privileged. Like they owe us something because they've got so much, and we've got nothing.
In a sense, he's not wrong. But I'm allowed to want to leave this side of town. I'm allowed to want better things for myself no matter how desperate he is to stay in this shithole.
"Not yet. I need a bit of time." And I put it back in my pocket.
He raises a surprised eyebrow. "That's stupid. Just open it, Nyx."
"My whole future is in the envelope. I need time," I insist, hurt by being called stupid in front of his friends.
"Mine too."
Completely speechless, my mouth drops open.
"Don't you think I want to know if my girlfriend is about to abandon all of us?"
I swallow through the sudden dryness in my throat. That's his way of telling me he cares. But it's a shitty way to do it.
"I'm notabandoningyou."
He brings me closer to him, his hand still around my waist. "Then stay. Don't even open it. You belong here, Nyxie."
He rarely says that nickname around an audience. It's reserved for our one-on-one time. It doesn't lessen the blow, though. He's putting himself and the town he loves so much before my need to get out of here.
"But it's my dream," I rasp. "All I've ever wanted was to play the violin at SFU to see where it could take me."
His dark gaze explores my face, and I see the cruelty there before he speaks again. "Ever thought it could take you nowhere? You might be good here because, well, it's here. The world is different out there. Competition is fierce."
The ball growing in my throat and the tears forming in my eyes make me miss the approaching hand, and I don't realize what's going on until Bennett snatches the envelope out of my apron.
"What the hell? Bennett, give it back." I reach for it, but Cash grabs it, observing the back.
"Even their logo is fancy." He snorts. "What's a North Shore girl going to do in such a fancy school? You might be a good girl, but you're not on their level."
