“And now you’re not?”
My stomach sinks. This is the first time in my life I’ve come close to failing at anything, and it’s not even my failure really. But I don’t want pity: his, anyone else’s. Definitely not my own. “Correct.”
“To study bio—” He pauses like he forgot the word. “Bio-whatever.”
I laugh. “Yeah, bio-whatever.”
He digs into his pocket, pulls out something. Offers it to me. A wad of twenties.Why the hell are you carrying around that much cash?Probably for nothing good. I think about the register in the hospital pharmacy, ringing up a price I can’t come close to meeting. “What’s that for?” I ask.
Brayden looks at the bills as if it’s obvious. I can’t just take his money, right? Something about it feels like robbery. Worse, like charity that I don’t come close to deserving.
“What do you get in return?” I ask.
“Who says I want anything?” he asks.
“People always want something. My father always says no business deal comes without a catch.”
“He sounds smart.”
“He is.”He was, anyway.
“Would he also tell you to take the money and run?” Brayden asks.
“Is that what you would do if I offered you”—I scan the pile—“a thousand dollars for no reason?”
Brayden’s eyes flick over my face like he’s searching for something. Then, finally, he grins. “Who says I don’t have a reason?”
And I’m just about to ask him what that is when another set of flashes goes off.
At first, I think it’s a phone camera again. But then another flash bursts and then another, followed by the whoop of sirens. Suddenly the rest of the party starts pouring out, a sea of people around us, half of whom are panicking about being in trouble for underage drinking, the other half of whom are pulling clothes on frantically. Some people are crying, and more are yelling, and someone shoves me with a hard elbow, jostling me.
I look around—Mike is still here, at one end of the patio shepherding all six feet and six inches of Jonathan toward an exit. “Where’s Victoria?” I call.
Mike doesn’t flinch, exactly, but his lips pull to one side as if he’s guilty and trying to hide it. “She went home.”
“Alone?” I ask a little pointedly.
That gets Jonathan’s attention. “Does she have a boyfriend? Just wondering. For no particular reason.”
Oh, so it’s like that.My best friend is caught in some kind of bizarre love triangle thing that they should all probably work out. Possibly horizontally. I’ll be sure to suggest that.
For a few minutes, everything is a swirl of colors and lights—students shouting, campus security declaring that we should all just go home. And it’s not until the crowd settles that I realize Brayden has disappeared.
It’stwo a.m. by the time I get back to my dorm room. I take off my jewelry. Or take off one earring. The other must have gotten lost in the shuffle: a vintage set of hoops Cherri got me that there’s no way I can afford to replace.
I put on my pajamas, do my skincare routine, then settle into bed with my phone plugged into the charger on my nightstand.
Eight hours later, I wake up to the sound of it buzzing. Once, then again and again.OMG is that who I think it is?A study buddy—not even a close friend—from last year’s Ochem class texts. She included a link to an Instagram account. On it, a picture of me and Brayden sitting on the porch with about a thousand comments speculating as to who I am.New gf????someone asks, though we’re barely touching.
He's tagged in the picture, which must be what’s making people lose their minds. I go to his account, expecting to find out that he’s some kind of college baseball star the way Jonathan is.
That’s…not what I find.
Brayden Forsyth—right fielder for the Atlanta Peaches. For whatever reason, I hearAtlantain the soft way he said it.
I google him. The team’s in town playing against San Diego. I skim through articles about his hitting and fielding—sure, baseball, whatever—about how he’s supposed to be Atlanta’s next hot player…and isn’t.
Atlanta’s nine-million-dollar mistake,a headline reads.If you’re expecting Brayden Forsyth to live up to his brother’s legacy, based on his hefty signing bonus, prepare yourself for disappointment.
