I blushed, not realizing he’d seen us. I stuck my middle finger up in the air at him, and he threw one right back. We both broke into a laugh.
“Thanks for taking me in, Danny.”
The corners of my brother’s eyes creased as he smiled and headed inside.
Lexie’s long peach hair blew behind her shoulders as she raced to give me one last hug.
Nikko leaned into Nina’s open window and gave her a kiss before waving at me over the hood of my car. I laughed as Milton awkwardly waved from the porch. He’d given me a quick hug inside before we started loading up my car, and he actually looked kind of sad to see me go.
Liam’s chin dipped down when it was just me and him again, and I pushed him away, sneaking into my car before he could convince me to stay.
I mouthed,I love you, through the window as I backed out of the driveway and then headed to my new apartment.
“Well, aren’t you two adorable?” Nina’s giggle was muffled by the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
“Shut up.” I giggled with her. I could feel her eyes on me as I stared ahead at the road. “What is it?”
“You look happy. Really happy.”
After the emotionally draining and exhausting day I’d had, I was surprised I didn’t look like death.
“It looks good on you, hon.” Nina raised her chin, like she was proud of me, and then started tapping her fingers along to the music playing in the background. “I’m so excited about this—you have no idea. I got everything of mine moved in early this morning after yoga. We’re on the bottom level, and our parking spaces are super close, so we don’t have to carry our books or groceries up a flight of stairs, which is nice.” Her eyes lit up as she listed off all of our fancy new amenities. “Oh! The bathroom is huge. I mean,huge! And there are two sinks, which is perfect. I hope you don’t mind, but I took over your bottom drawer because you don’t have as much stuff as me, but I can totally move it.”
“You can have all the space you want, Nina.” I laughed. After living with the band, I had gotten used to sharing my space with everyone.
She screamed and bounced when she remembered another detail. I cursed under my breath at her for scaring me while I was driving.
“My brother lent me his giant whiteboard he uses for coaching. I’m going to write out a study plan to follow for the next few weeks to help us prep. He only had a red marker, so I need to stop at Office Depot to get more colors to organize it properly.”
She gave me a sideways glance, and I knew she was going to ask if we could stop on the way to the apartment, but I quickly shut her down.
“All I want to do is unpack and go to sleep,” I said.
“But it’s only three o’clock. We don’t have to do anything too exciting, but I was hoping to go to the library before dinner. Your favorite Thai place is only a few blocks from us.” She raised her brows and did a little dance to make studying with her sound more exciting.
“Nina, I’m not going to take the Step 1 test,” I blurted out.
Holy shit.Saying it out loud made it real.
I didn’t have to look at her to know what her face looked like.
She was frozen and quiet for all of ten seconds, and then she turned down the music. “Are you going to wait and take it in the fall?”
I took a deep breath. “Nope.”
She glanced over her shoulder and gestured back toward the direction of the band’s house. “Do we need to go back there and find your sanity? Because I think you might have left it behind. Maybe in Liam’s bed?”
“Ha. Funny,” I deadpanned.
“You’re serious?”
I nodded slowly. “I think I am.”
“When did you decide this?”
“I mean, I’ve been doubting being able to pass that test for months, but my head hasn’t been in it for a while. I decided earlier this morning, but I don’t think it was official until just now.”
“Wow. I mean, I guess it’s not a total surprise, but still. All that work? All that studying?”
