Chapter 7
Kelsie
“Can you believe this shit?” I say through a mouthful of pretzel bites. “What a clusterfuck.”
I finish chewing and dunk another pretzel bite into the beer cheese dip in front of me, shoving it into my mouth as I finish my rants over the recent turn of events with Hayes.
Lucy and Grace shake their heads and grimace over the news I’ve been whining about for the past ten minutes. The girls and I met up at The Brown Bear Cafe tonight for an early dinner before Lucy has to meet up with a new student she’s tutoring at the library and Grace heads off to her computer geek club. It’s our tradition to go out for dinner after our first day of classes and talk about our days.
I’ve kind of dominated today’s conversation because the topic has been all about how Hayes is in every one of my classes and also happens to be my new housemate.
“That’s the worst, Kels,” Grace agrees, chomping on a nacho and picking at the long string of cheese that’s stuck on her lip. “It just seems so obnoxiously crazy that he’s everywhere you go.”
“I know, right?” I growl, licking the cheesy goodness off my thumb.
Lucy, who’s been her usual quiet and introspective self, pipes in. “You know, maybe it’s the universe telling you something.”
I narrow my eyes and give her a shut-the-fuck-up look. “Exactly what do you think it’s telling me, oh wise one?”
She snorts. “Well…obviously there’s some unfinished business that needs to be resolved between you two. You said so yourself that he’s tried to explain what happened to you, but you’ve shut him down, right?”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, because I don’t give a good goddamn fuck what he has to say to me. What he did was unforgivable.”
Grace and Lucy exchange glances and Grace heaves an exasperated sigh. I know what that means. I’m going to get a lecture.
“What?”
Gracie reaches a consoling hand across the table and places it over my knuckles.
“Kelsie, you know I love you…but staying angry with someone all the time will only eat you up inside. When you forgive that person, it opens your heart to new and wonderful things.”
I scoff and make a gagging noise. “Thanks for your advice, Mother Teresa. How’s that working out for you and your mom, huh?”
The pain that flashes over Grace’s features makes me feel like a complete bitch. That was a low blow, even for me. She and her mother have had a difficult relationship ever since her parents got divorced years ago. She pulls her hand away and I snatch her wrist to tug her back.
“I’m an asshole, Gracie. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. It’s just been a shitty day and that was a shitty thing to say.”
She blinks back the tears that threaten to spill over and nods. “I know. It’s okay.”
This whole thing with Hayes—from his unexpected arrival on campus, to the fact that he’s everywhere I turn—has just made me so mad and turned me into a raving bitch. It’s one thing to be angry with him, but now I’m taking it out on my best friends too.
“It’s just that he’s in my face at every pass and that asshat doesn’t deserve my time or my forgiveness.”
I know I’m digging my heels in on this one and being stubborn as fuck about letting it go, but goddamn it, he hurt me bad. I trusted him, he stole my heart, and he fucked me over. There’s no coming back from that.
But mostly I’m angry with myself for falling for him so damn easily and seeing him everywhere reminds me of my stupidity. I’ve always been a casual hook-up girl with no strings attached. But when I met Hayes, I got too close, opened my heart, and then I got burned.
That will not happen again.
We continue eating our food as the waitress comes back to the table to ask if we want anything more. Although I’d love a beer to go with my pretzels, we order a few more sodas instead. Drinking and homework don’t always mix.
We’re just about finished up when a couple of guys walk through the entrance and by our table as they’re seated.
One of them, Ben Hoffsteader from my Econ class, notices me as he passes the table and stops to say hi.
“Hey, Kelsie. How’s it going?”
I wipe my mouth and smile brightly. Ben’s a cute guy and we’ve hung out a few times at one of the frat houses. He’s a varsity hockey player who until recently was dating one of the cheerleaders. But word is they broke up because she was already talking marriage and babies, and he freaked out because that wasn’t on his radar.
So now he’s single and looking good enough to eat. Plus, if the rumors are true, he doesn’t want to be serious with anyone right now. Just like me.
“Hey, Ben. It’s good,” I say, fluttering my eyelashes in that flirty way of mine. “Do you know my girls, Lucy and Grace?”
He nods his chin in greeting. “Hi, ladies. Nice to meet you. Didn’t you go out with Hendy last year?”
Lucy’s eyes grow wide at the mention of her one-time crush, Joel Henderson. But that’s long in the past because she’s been with her boyfriend Emmett since that time.
“Oh, yeah. We only went out a few times,” she says with a blush. “I’m with Emmett Hudson now.”
“Right on. He’s good people.” Then Ben returns his gaze back to me and his eyes flash with interest. “How about you, Kels? Are you seeing anyone?”
I give him a coy shoulder lift. “Why? Did you have someone in mind?”
He chuckles and shoves his hands in his front jeans’ pockets. “I don’t know. Maybe me…you should come to the game this weekend and we can meet up afterwards.”
I hold out my hand. “Hmm…sounds interesting. Give me your phone and you can text me the deets. I might be able to fit that in my busy schedule.”
Ben hands me his phone and I add in my digits under the name Kelsie the Hot Chick. When I give it back to him, he looks down and barks out in laughter. I grin at my outrageous confidence.
“You definitely are, Kels.” He winks and then glances over his shoulder at the table where his friends are already seated. “I better go. Nice meeting you guys. And, Kelsie, I’ll text you later this week.”
I wiggle my fingers at him in a wave goodbye as he turns and lumbers off toward his friends. Both girls stare at me like I have two heads.
“What?” I laugh, popping my last pretzel into my mouth, chewing and swallowing it down. “Seems to me that the best way to get over a guy is to find another one who’s better.”
Lucy giggles and rolls her eyes. “You can’t argue with that logic. And that guy is one very tall and hot hockey player.”
“I know, right?” I gaze in his direction and admire Ben’s tall frame, his disheveled sandy-blond hair, and his bright blue eyes. “I heard hockey players really know how to handle their sticks too.”
Yes, he is definitely not hard on the eyes.
But he’s not the guy you fell in love with.
I push that errant thought from my head and take a giant sip of my diet soda through the straw.
“It’s a bummer he’s a hockey player and not on the football team, though,” Grace laments, picking up one of her curly fries. “It would be cool if all three of us were dating guys from the same team.”
I grouse at her idealism. “Nope, not gonna happen. I will never date a football player.”
Over the next few days, I’m able to successfully avoid Hayes in the house by leaving a little later for my morning classes. We almost had a run-in this morning as I was closing my bedroom door. I heard him talking on the phone with someone as he was coming down the stairs. I assume it was his brother, Holden.
Since we agreed in Paris not to share anything too personal, I don’t know much about his family or where he lives. But I do know about his identical twin, Holden.
God, one McIntyre guy is hard enough to bear…but two as hot and handsome as Hayes? I think I’d faint.
When I heard Hayes’s voice, I ducked back into my bedroom to keep him from seeing me, but I could still hear a bit of what he was saying. It was weird because Hayes sounded so serious. Maybe even worried?
That’s very un-Hayes-like. He’s such an easygoing guy and always found a way to add levity and fun when we were together.
Now I shake those thoughts off, closing my laptop on my desk in the rear of the room and flicking my eyes to the back of Hayes’s head. Then I remind myself that I. Do. Not. Care.
Professor Wallen finishes her lecture on today’s topic. “Next class, we’ll continue discussing the ways business owners assess the impact of the macroeconomic, political, and social indicators when making international business decisions.” She closes her laptop and turns off the projector, the screen going dark at the front. Then she moves around the front and reaches for a sheet of printed paper on her desk. She slips on her reading glasses and leans against the desk.
“As I promised you during our first class, we’re pairing you up with another student to work on your semester project. Redding and I reviewed the class roster and we have the final pair groupings. After I read them off, it’s your responsibility to meet with your partner and review the project together. Barring any medical leaves of absence or other serious issues, these pairs are locked in and cannot be changed.”
The girl sitting next to me, Molly, whom I met on Monday, leans over and whispers in my ear.
“I hope I get paired with that guy down in front,” she nods her chin in Hayes’s direction. “He is so cute. He looks like Jacob Elordi and Timothee Chalamet rolled into one tall man of deliciousness. And that hair…so yummy.”
I cough and she gives me a strange look. “Uh, yeah. I guess.”
The professor glances up in our direction with a look that says I’m talking here, and I swallow down any further comments.
She reads a few names from the first groupings and Molly’s dreams are dashed when she’s paired with a girl named Dominique. And then she reads off my name and I straighten my shoulders.
“Kelsie Dannon, you will be paired with…” She adjusts her glasses on the bridge of her nose and the anticipation is killing me.
Please don’t be Hayes. Please don’t be Hayes. Please don’t be…
“Hayes McIntyre.”
I wish the Universe would shut the fuck up already.