Chapter One
A ugust- Freshman Year of College
A familiar horn beeped in front of my house, and I walked out, adjusting my flowy purple shirt and smoothing my hair in the mirror by the front door. I didn’t let my mom know I was leaving.
Life since my DUI-that-wasn’t had been…tense.
Having my mother take away my planned future in a single moment weirdly put a strain on our relationship. However, despite all of my pleading, persuading, bargaining, begging, crying, and general tantrum throwing, she held her ground.
It is not a secret where you get your stubbornness.
Acceptance eventually rolled around, but sitting by and watching my friends leave for school, decorate their dorms, and otherwise start their lives, brought back my grief with a vengeance. Living at home made me feel like I was cos-playing a college student, and I wasn’t a fan.
“Get in loser. We’re going to college,” Livy said, blue tinted sunglasses propped on her head.
I rolled my eyes, but Liv’s good moods had a tendency to chip away at my shitty ones.
And yeah. I forgave her. No, I didn’t want to.
She was just relentless and very difficult to ignore.
Eventually, she made it impossible to stay mad at her by leading the brigade in the charge to get my mom to change her mind about school.
She even wrote her a formal business letter about the merits of living in a college dorm and how it built independence.
My mother was unamused and unpersuaded, but Livy found herself back in my good graces.
She also frequently reminded me that she was going to Fox Falls College, and this meant we could cheer together for another year, and therefore everything was going to be awesome.
So, when I hopped in her Jeep to head to orientation, I hoped that she was right.
I could use some awesome to detract from all of the very-not-awesome circumstances that led me here.
* * *
The sun warmed my skin after sitting in my advisor’s chilly office for the past twenty minutes while going over my schedule.
As much as I wanted to hate it here, FFC was a pretty campus.
I sat on a bench facing a circular fountain, an array of flowers planted in the beds around it.
Livy wasn’t done with her meeting yet, and I figured it would be good for my psyche or something to sit and picture myself going to classes here.
It wasn’t what I’d envisioned for the beginning of my college experience.
Most of my expectations were set by Saved By the Bell: The College Years , and they might not have been all that realistic anyway.
But I was here, so I was going to find a silver lining. A stainless-steel lining even would do.
My phone dinged with a text message letting me know Liv was finished. I let out a sigh and stood, turning around to grab my bag and head back toward the main building. I walked while trying to stuff my phone back into its pocket when I ran face-first into a wall. A human wall.
“Jesus, look where you’re going,” I muttered, stepping back to see who had inserted themselves onto my path.
Rude.
Stifling a gasp, I tried to will away the redness I knew was spreading across my cheeks when I looked up and realized it was a very cute, broad-shouldered, grinning human wall.
“I am so very sorry for letting you run into me, Blondie. How can I make it up to you?” His deep voice rang with amusement.
From the looks of him, he was headed to the weight room.
My embarrassment deepened when I realized I knew him.
Well, knew of him. He was two years ahead of me in school and had been the star wide receiver of Fox Falls High’s rival football team.
Every cheerleader in the county knew who he was.
“I…well. There is a small possibility that I wasn’t paying attention. Sorry for almost tackling you,” I managed, attempting to salvage the situation. I took in his wavy brown hair and bright blue eyes—he was still smiling at me like he knew what I was thinking, and that was unnerving.
“I think I might be alright being tackled by you.” His grin widened, and I sank into the familiar comfort of being flirted with. This, I could do.
“Are you sure? You seem so weak and frail. I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”
He let out a chuckle and pressed his tongue along the back of his teeth. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m headed to work out, then. I’ll try to bulk up to make sure I can withstand another run in with you…Blondie. Do I get to know your actual name?”
“Vanessa. Roberts.”
“Good to know, Vanessa Roberts. I’m Zack. Rhodes,” he replied, mimicking me. “I take it you’re here for orientation, and that’s why I haven’t seen you around?”
“Hmmmm, have you been looking?” I asked. I was there for orientation, but I really didn’t want this little back-and-forth we had going to end.
“I’m looking now,” he said without missing a beat.
Fuck , I thought, my stomach doing the flippy thing. I blinked up at him, asking my brain to come up with something witty in return.
“Well, I’m cheering here this year, so I’m sure you’ll see more of me.” I hadn’t meant that to come out as suggestive as it sounded, but the way his eyes widened slightly made me think it wasn’t such a terrible mistake.
“Ah, for sure, that’s cool. Listen, I gotta get to the weight room, but my buddy is throwing a big bonfire next weekend before the semester starts. You down to come?” he shifted his gym bag from one shoulder to the other and reached into his pocket for his phone.
“If that’s an invitation, yeah, I’m down.”
He handed his phone to me expectantly, and I punched in my name and number.
“I’ll call you with the info. Nice to meet you, Vanessa.” He reached to take back his phone, but his fingers lingered on mine just a moment too long for it to be accidental.
“I’ll see you next weekend, then. Enjoy your workout.”
Zack just nodded and went on his merry way while I suppressed my internal kicking-my-feet reaction and hurried to find Liv. She was going to be so pissed that she missed that whole interaction because now I called dibs on the hot football player.
Maybe this year wouldn’t be all bad.
* * *
I finally found Livy tapping her foot outside the campus bookstore, her eyebrows shouting her annoyance at me. I walked just a little slower. Because I felt like being a little bit of a bitch.
“I thought you were kidnapped and halfway to Tahiti by now.”
“Is Tahiti a common kidnapper destination?” I asked, matching her tone.
“It might be. I’ve never been kidnapped,” she retorted.
“I was not, as it happens. But I was chatting with Zack Rhodes. You remember the super-hot wide receiver from CHS? Anyway, he invited me, and by extension, you, to his friend’s bonfire next weekend.”
The next round of orientation-goers had apparently just been released because the hall in front of the bookstore became much more crowded.
“Shut.the.falafel.up,” Livy said, her voice much more serious than her words .
“Ohhhh, shut the falafel up what?” Kim inquired as she bounded up to us as though this were a normal phrase to hear.
“Kimmy!” I nearly shouted, hugging her. She’d been on vacation most of the summer, and I’d missed my friend. She looked very “Delia’s catalog model” with her mid-length brown hair blown out and a pair of knee-high socks with her Doc Martin’s.
This was also great timing because it meant I got to tell the whole story and watch Livy’s face while she tried not to look jealous.
“Wow, okay. This really is a falafel situation, then,” Kim said.
“Right?!” Livy added.
“What are the three of you so giddy about this morning? Did the Backstreet Boys drop a new album or something?” Luke Miller interrupted our reunion with an arrogant smile.
“Oh, Lucas, like you’d need to ask if that were the case. I know you subscribe to their newsletter.” I shot him a grin to match his own.
“Ah, V. You know me so well. There’s something about that AJ guy that gets me all worked up.”
He reached out to pat my head, and I forcefully smacked it away, making him laugh. “Feisty this year. I like it.” His smirk returned full force. “I will see you ladies around,” he said, making his way out of the building.
I blew out a breath. “How can someone that hot be so annoying?” I had been asking myself this question since middle school when Luke first moved to Fox Falls. It figured that he would continue to irritate me into college.
He just always had to be a little too much. No, I did not miss the irony that people said the same about me. The difference was, they were wrong.
“He’s only that way toward you, and you know it,” Kim said as we sauntered out to the parking lot.
“Lucky me. ”
Coincidentally, this was the exact reason I’d wanted to go to BG. FFC was already feeling a little like high school 2.0.
Except for Zack Rhodes. That’s new.
I tried to focus on that and let Liv drag me back out to her car.