“Thank you,” I managed, my voice barely above a whisper. “Thank you so much.”
“We’ll send the formal details by email tonight. The fellowship begins the second week of June.”
“I look forward to it.”
She ended the call with one more congratulations, and I clutched my phone in my hands as shock wore off into excitement.
I’d done it. I’d been chosen.
Giddiness had me wiggling on my bed as I scrolled to my messages and frantically started typing out a text.
Me
I got the fellowship!!!!
I was about to press send when my brain caught up with what I was doing and I dropped my phone.
Of all the people for me to share this news with first, it should’ve been Rachel, Ayanna, Talia, or even Brody.
Instead I stared at the composed, but unsent, text to Drew.
THIRTY-ONE
I’d been reading the same paragraph in my kinesiology textbook for twenty minutes without absorbing a single word. I couldn’t focus on anything when all I could think about was Harper’s audition. She’d been working so hard, pouring her soul into that original composition— a piece that had left me speechless, and felt as if she’d somehow translated her soul directly into sound that had reached inside my chest and wrapped around my heart.
My phone sat on the coffee table, silent and maddeningly unhelpful. I’d checked it approximately thirty times in the last hour, hoping for news.
I leaned forward, checking it again, and caught movement in my periphery. Gordy was standing in the entryway between the kitchen and living room, holding a sandwich in his hand that could feed a small family. Sam and Liam were next to him, all three looking at me like I’d grown a second head—although Sam was definitely fighting a smile.
“What’s your deal today?” Gordy asked.
“Nothing,” I said, sitting back and flipping a page in my textbook just to look busy. “Just studying.”
My gaze darted to my phone. Was that a buzz?
Sam snorted and broke away from the guys to sit in one of the chairs. “You can cut the crap. We all know you’re obsessed with Harper.”
“I’m not?—”
She shot me a look that shut me up.
“Harper’s audition was today,” Liam said, and both Gordy and Sam nodded like that made perfect sense.
I sighed, tossing the book aside. There was no point pretending anymore when I apparently wasn’t fooling anyone.
“Is this for the university or the fellowship thing?” Gordy asked, taking a bite of his sandwich.
“Fellowship,” I said. “It’s super important to her and she was nervous.”
Gordy studied me for a moment, his expression thoughtful. “You know, at first, I wondered if you had an ulterior motive for getting so close to her, but you genuinely like her, don’t you?”
I felt the weight of everyone’s stares as they waited for me to confirm what they already knew.
“Yeah, I do.”
He nodded, almost like he approved. “I’m sure she’ll let you know when she has news.”
“It’s the waiting that’s killing me.”
