Riverbanks and Regrets (Fox Falls College #1)

Prologue

T here were a lot of things I would endure for my friends. Which was how I ended up in the smoky haze of The Eight Ball counting the minutes until we could leave .

“You’re not bad,” Matt said, his beer-laced breath far too close to my ear. “But try relaxing your grip a little. Unless you’d like to get out of here…in which case that grip would be just right.”

I felt his grin against my face because that’s how fucking close he was to me. And he wasn’t even right . My dad taught me how to play pool when I was twelve, and I was winning .

“Yeah, Mitt, I think I’m good right here.” I fought the urge to dry heave on the pool table. I may have agreed to play double date while Liv did…whatever Liv was doing, but my generosity was coming to an end.

I leaned over the table to shoot my shot.

“You are good right here,” he muttered behind me, and I winced at how easily I’d set him up for that one. Before my cue hit the ball, I felt the pressure of his palm on my ass through my jeans. I straightened immediately, and while not on purpose, I nailed him with the stick in the ribs.

Oops?

“Shit, Jesus,” he exclaimed, holding his ribs.

I whipped around, my blond hair swinging over my shoulder, and glared at him.

“Don’t touch me.”

“Yeah, I got that, fucking cock tease,” he said loudly enough for Liv to hear now that she was paying attention from our booth. She, however, made no move to interject.

Fine .

“You can call me whatever you want, but I am not hooking up with some rando wearing a fucking polo shirt in a dive like this.”

Matt rolled his eyes and held his hands up in surrender, walking back to the table. Liv only continued making stupid eyes at her date who was absolutely too old for her. I shot daggers at her with my eyes, but she didn’t appear to care.

“Hi!” I said cheerfully, ignoring everyone but my friend. “We’re going now.”

“Hi back,” Liv said, her fake voice icy. “Why would we be doing that?”

She shot her own daggers back at me, but I was immune. I’d been getting those looks from my mother since I could talk.

“Because Mr. Popped Collar over here decided to put his hands on me,” I explained, pointing to Matt over his objections.

Don’t care .

“Oh my god, Vanessa. You’re so dramatic. I’m not ready to leave yet. You can go if you want. I’ll get a ride.” Liv shrugged and handed me the keys to my parents’ car from her purse. My eyes widened at her clear violation of any type of girl code.

I grabbed the keys and my coat, and I stomped my way out of the building.

The wind whipped my hair behind me, but the real storm was brewing in the back of my brain.

I pulled my jacket in tighter, but the freezing night air was now a welcomed sensation against the angry steam rolling off me.

I sank into the driver’s seat of the SUV and carefully considered my options.

You could just wait here for Liv and force her to drive home once she’s done in there.

God, I really didn’t want to give her the satisfaction though. This is what I got for letting her talk me into shit and swearing up and down that she’d be the designated driver.

“I swear, V, it’ll be so fun, and you can take full advantage of the fact that Jake is twenty-two—I’ll even pay for your drinks! Just please please please come with me so his friend has someone to talk to!”

And I stupidly ignored my gut that told me this was a terrible idea. She was so damn persuasive. Everything was fun and games when Livy was on your side. But when she wasn’t…

Damn it.

I also worried that it could be a while, now that Liv thought I’d left.

I felt tears prick the corners of my eyes, and that pissed me off more than anything else.

Because this whole situation was not surprising.

I should have been mad at myself for thinking it was going to be anything other than a clusterfuck.

He’s lucky I only jabbed him in the ribs. I actually showed great restraint in walking out. I deserve an award.

Fucking Ohio , I thought as I glanced out the windshield at the sludge-like melted snow. The last thing I wanted to do was sit here and wait for her to be done entertaining her date. Even if I did, I might murder her when she got to the car.

You know what? Fuck it.

I put the key in the ignition and white knuckled it on the back roads to Fox Falls. My fingers relaxed once I made it onto the route that led to my neighborhood. And that lasted three and a half seconds before the red and blue lights lit up behind me.

My entire body locked up, my breath frozen in my chest.

Was I speeding? I wasn’t swerving. I’m not drunk! Fuck! Jesus. Fuck fuck fuck fuck…

I slowed down, pulled over onto the gravel, and shut off the engine. The tears from earlier were now filling my eyes, but I willed them to stay put as cold air blasted me from the open window.

“Hey there, little lady,” a somewhat familiar voice rang out as he approached my door.

“Hi?”

“Oh! Vanessa. I thought it was going to be your mom.”

I let out a slow breath. I knew this cop. Or, sheriff’s deputy, whatever. Because he was one of my dad’s best friends.

“Nope, it’s me. Good to see you Mr. Williams. ”

“I’ve told you a thousand times to call me Chuck. I was planning on givin’ your mom a hard time about being ten over the speed limit, but I guess I need to give you that lecture instead.”

He leaned down closer to the window, and a confused expression crossed his face.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t even realize I was speeding.” I swallowed hard, praying to whatever gods would hear me to just let me get home.

“Have you been drinking?” he asked, his tone now much more serious.

“I…no. I was at a pool hall with my friend, so I’m sure I smell like smoke. It’s gross, I know.”

Chuck chewed on his lip. “I really wanna believe you. But you realize I’ve been doin’ this a long time, don’t ya?”

I felt my bottom lip quiver and threaten to give way to a full-on sob. I just nodded my head.

“Kill the ignition, get on out, and lock the car,” he instructed.

I did as he said.

You are worse than toast. You are going to be six-feet under by morning.

Blessedly, he let me sit up front and drove me home, not to the station where I feared he might be taking me.

Although, it might be safer to be locked in a cell.

My mother was not a forgiving woman, and being brought home in a cop car for the neighbors to see was probably the worst thing I could do. I could not reasonably recall the number of lectures I’d sat through over the years about not airing our dirty laundry in public . This was so, so bad.

Fuck.

Hot tears flowed freely now, and I didn’t care.

My life was over anyway, so what did it matter?

Mr. Williams had me sit in the car while he went up and spoke to my parents.

Maybe it was better that way; I didn’t have to hear it or see their faces.

When he came back down to open my door, my stomach threatened to drop out of my body.

On shaky legs, I made my way up to my front porch, and the car disappeared down our street.

I looked anywhere but at my mother, as though that was going to save me.

“I cannot imagine a story good enough to get you out of this,” she said, a humorless smile on her face. My mom really was quite pretty, though less so when she wanted to kill me. She had honey blond hair and warm brown eyes that just never seemed soft when looking at me.

I immediately launched into the defense I’d practiced moments ago in the car about being uncomfortable while out with Liv and needing to get out of there. My mother stopped me about thirty seconds in.

“Try the next story.”

I knew I could just tell her the whole truth, but I also knew that would ensure a phone call to Livy’s parents too, and probably a ban on ever seeing her again. Despite my rage, I had gotten myself into this situation, and didn’t know yet if I felt like losing her as a friend over it.

Maybe she does deserve to be in as much trouble as you , I considered while my mom stared me down. My dad stood behind her, arms crossed, nothing much to add.

“I went to go play pool.”

“In a bar. And in your mind, you thought breaking the law, potentially risking your life and others, was your best choice for getting home?”

“No, I—”

“It really doesn’t matter, Vanessa. I thought you were taking things more seriously.

I thought after getting into college…you seemed to care.

But now I can see that I was wrong. You’re just as self-centered and impulsive as you’ve always been.

There will be no car for graduation. There will be no attending Bowling Green in the fall.

I’m sure as hell not paying room and board for you to live on your own when these are the choices you’re making.

You can live at home and grow up a little while you go to FFC. ”

The lump in my throat threatened to cut off my air supply, and the tears came in a torrent now.

“You can’t…I worked my ass off to get accepted. I’m already planning on rooming with Kristy! You can’t take away—”

“I absolutely can. Unless you plan on paying for school yourself, in which case, be my guest. Otherwise, we’ll start on the paperwork tomorrow to accept your spot at Fox Falls and rescind your acceptance to BG.

Go to your room. I don’t want to hear from you anymore tonight.

You realize you could be sitting in a jail cell right now.

” Her volume had been getting lower and lower until now she was at a whisper.

No matter how much of my brain was screaming at me to fight for this, my survival instinct took over and made me shut my mouth.

I looked to my dad for help, but he just shook his head, disappointment settling into his frown lines.

I turned and pointed myself to the stairs and stumbled up them to my room.

Throwing myself onto my unmade bed, I let the unfairness of all of it wash over me as I witnessed my future circling the drain.