“Leave it alone. He wants nothing to do with me, and neither do I. We’re ghosts of each other’s pasts. Please leave it at that,” I remind him as I get up to go use the bathroom. Closing the door to the stall, I mentally scream.
Curse Liam for making me feel this way.
Curse Chase for reopening an old wound.
My phone vibrates in my back pocket, and I answer, putting it to my ear. “Bianca, the get-together with a business prospect in Santa Clara has been moved up, and we need to be there. Where are you?” My eyes widen at Mom’s voice, and it seems the universe has decided for me, but a sad sigh still manages to filter out.
“Mom, orientation isn’t over yet.”
“Bianca, he really needs us there.We should want to support him, right?You’re going to this school anyway.”
I close my eyes at that, hanging my head. “I’ll be there soon.” My words betray me. She hangs up, but not before reminding me to hurry, and more weight falls on me. I wash my hands and straighten up as I go back outside. Chase and Vanessa look over at me as I smile at them.
“So, I have no idea if I can do this, but could I check out early with you guys? I need to go.”
Vanessa’s eyebrows furrow, her lips forming a frown. “You can, but why? Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, just family stuff.” I smile again, easing her as much as I can. The memories hit, tainting the image I had of her when we first met. She puts my name down as early leave and then hugs me, and I wrap my arms around her. She was the first person who was kind to me, but now, I can’t even look at her without feeling hurt.
I wave goodbye to everyone and grab my stuff before rushing out of there.
“Harrison, wait!” Chase follows behind me, a sheepish expression on his face. “I’m sorry if what I said offended you. I didn’t mean—”
I stop him. “You’re good, I’m not leaving because of you, I promise.” He nods, but still looks at me with disbelief, and something comes over me. He seems like a really good guy, and I’m happy Liam has good friends. Even after everything, he deserves nothing but the best. “It was nice to meet you, Chase.” Regret clouds his features as his eyes dart around, maybe figuring out how to get me to stay.
He sighs. “See you in the fall, Harrison.” I walk away, my phone vibrating again, Mom probably wanting me to hurry up.
CHAPTER TEN
LIAM
“So, what are we thinking for break coming up?” Taryn asks.
I don’t even acknowledge the question, my mind still spiraling from last night. I barely got any sleep, and my entire tattoo room is filled with sketches of things, as I stayed here till four in the morning. The dark circles around my eyes are vivid and the energy drink I had has made me more irritated than awake. Summer break is a couple of weeks away, and usually I spend it with my parents back home. But now?
I have no idea what to do.
She’s returned to LA, living in a subdivision so close I could throw a rock from my window and probably hit her house. There’s only one grocery store close by without needing to get on the highway, so I know she’ll go there.
Should I stay here in my protective bubble?
Here, it’ll be a couple of months before she starts the fall semester, and with the campus being so large, it’llprobably be harder to run into her. Or do I go home, knowing that there’s almost a guaranteed chance I’ll see her again?
Am I ready for that? Will I ever be ready to see how she moved on without me? How she forgot about me?
“Luke and I are gonna party with the sorority girls that are sticking around for the summer, so we’ll be on campus,” Bobby says, and expectant eyes are on me as I glance up.
My brain blanks out on Taryn’s question. “I might go visit my parents back home,” I say, and they roll their eyes.
“Bor-ing. Why don’t you stay here and party with us, grouch?” Taryn asks and I look at her incredulously. She sighs. “God, you’resodull. Like, live it up for once. Aren’t you a twenty-one-year-old college student?”
Sarcasm drips from her voice and I scowl at her. This is another reason why I don’t want friends. “I’m twenty, and I didn’t choose Mella Colta for the party scene, but because of the aerospace program. I’m content going home and sketching more—”
“Constellations and people with freckles all over their face,” they say together, and my face falls at the confession. Shock and confusion flash through me.
“How do you all know that?” I ask, and Bobby and Luke look at each other knowingly while Taryn looks at me without a care in the world.
“Well, we snuck a peek at your sketchbook, and it’s also pretty obvious given almost everything you draw has some relation to those two things,” she says, but cringes when a pen is thrown at her head. She looks in Luke’s direction, but he pretends as if nothing happened. “To be honest, I have no idea how you don’t get bored. Also, there are a bunch of drawings of the same person. She has straight brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles everywhere. What’s up with that?”
