“Yep. A hundred and eighty-nine bucks for about three weeks.”
Fuck. That wasn’t right. “Robbery,” I declared as we jumped back on his bike after storing our bags in the saddle bag.
He shrugged. “I’m just grateful I have the means to pay for it. A lot of people don’t.”
With a kick, he took off on his bike and I started to reassess exactly what I thought of Ethan Landlord King. Was this badass, tattooed, gun-toting hottie actually a good guy?
Why was he single? I might have to do some detective digging, purely out of curiosity. By the time we made it back to his shop and up the stairs, I was exhausted. We stood there in the hallway. My room to the left. His to the right.
My voice was small and sheepish: “Thanks for the ride.”
“Any time.” His husky voice was strong and full of promise.
It was a long time before I could fall asleep.
* * *
The next dayI had orientation for nursing school and I was so damn excited. I’d woken up at 6AM full of nervous energy. I was going back to school—that thought alone brought a grin to my face. I’d always loved reading and math, and being raised by a single working mom meant I was constantly thrown into afterschool programs. In sixth grade, my mom put me in a biology club afterschool class and I’d fallen in love with human anatomy.
My first foster family lived in Scottsdale. With them, I transferred to the fancy private school where I was given the tools to succeed academically. When that foster family no longer wanted me—they assumed I would watch their younger children all day like a free nanny—my next foster family kept me in the fancy school. Every single class, I was one of the top three students. The faculty and staff poured compliments over me and told me I was a shoe-in for a full ride scholarship and medical school.
Then I’d met Bryce.
He transferred in at the end of sophomore year and my whole world revolved around him. I gave up everything to please him. Now I was taking back something for myself.
As I stepped off the bus, I followed the signs for the nursing school orientation. Moving among the throng of students, I couldn’t help the permanent grin on my face. I’d expected to see a bunch of eighteen year-olds but was pleasantly surprised to see some students my age, and even a woman in her forties.
After sitting through an hour-long inspirational speech on all of the lives we could change as nurses, I went to get my supplies from the bookstore. As I piled the books in my cart, along with a stethoscope and other nursing supplies, the anxiety of how much all of this would cost started to creep up on me. Five hundred and sixty-seven dollars was all I had to spend. What kind of fucked-up world did we live in when the textbooks cost more than taking the class? At seventy-two dollars a credit, one three-credit class cost me $267. But the two textbooks alone for that class were $150 each.
I was going to vomit.
“On a budget?” a blond girl next to me asked.
I gave a nervous laugh. “How can you tell?”
She smiled. “You looked at the price and then made the same face I do. I’m Hannah.” She reached out a hand and I shook it.
“Hailey.”
She whipped out her smart phone and then grabbed the book from my hands. After tapping in a few things she looked up at me, smiling. “Don’t pay full price for this shit. That’s what they want, for us all to be in debt. This version is for sale for half price online.”
She held her phone screen up for me, and sure enough my $158 book was $74.99 slightly used. Relief washed through me. I felt like such a newbie, I hadn’t even thought about a resale site for half-price books. I’d been so accustomed to living life with Bryce and his endless streams of money.
“You are an angel,” I told her.
She smiled. “Nursing?”
I nodded.
“You can get gently-used scrubs too. Here, I’ll write down the address.” She scribbled something on a Chipotle receipt and handed it to me.
I don’t know why, but her random act of kindness made me want to cry.
“Thank you so much. Seriously,” I told her, knowing she would never really know how much she’d helped me out today.
“Of course. We gotta stick together.” She winked. “See you around.”
And with that, I’d made my first friend at school and was on my way to a successful future.
