40. chapter forty
this is our place
“ And that’s what makes you the worst type of person.”
I shifted my head to Goldie as her voice faded from the speakersof her phone, the corner of my mouth twitching upward at the thought of her standing up for me like that.
The way Dean Sommerford cleared his throat brought my attentionback onto him, the gruff sound bouncing off the dull, grandfather-study walls of his office. “Well,” He exclaimed, his sunken eyes that were guarded by thick-rimmed glasses flowing from Goldie, and then to me. “I must say that I don’t have any other words apart from to say I’m sorry.”
His pained smile bloomed across his mouth as his stare stuck on me.
I nodded at him. “Thank you, Dean Sommerford; I appreciate it.”
He raised his hands but kept his elbows planted against the shinymahogany surface. “It’s the least I can say, Mr Harper.” He scrubbed a hand across his stubble as he leaned back in his chair. “I’ve had campus security and a few guys from the precinct give me updates on the situation out there today, with those cockroaches with cameras,” I huffed a laugh at that. “And they said the crowds are lessening, both here and at your dorm buildings, which I’m happy about.” He nodded his chin at me. “But how are you doing, son?”
I shuffled on my feet, taken back by the genuine tone of his voice.“Well, apart from my music career flashing before my eyes and your son, I’m doing swell.”
A slight smile graced his face. “It’ll pass; these types of storiesalways do. But I meant what I said in the letter we sent back to you, Tristan, Liberty Grove will always have your back and whatever support you need, we’ll provide it.”
I felt Goldie move beside me. “So this situation won’t affect Tristanor his place here?”
Dean Sommerford shrugged, as though we were discussingsomething normal like my marks slipping. “Why should it? We all make mistakes, and we all deserve another chance to set our foot on the right path.”
I looked at Goldie just as her eyes met mine, before DeanSommerford got up from his chair, rounded the desk and planted himself in the centre as his legs lazily rested over one another.
“We took you in for a reason, Tristan,” he looked over towardsGold’s, “And you too, Miss Moore, come to think of it.” As a sigh rolled through him, he wrapped his arms around his waist. “We wanted you to have a fresh start here at Liberty, and from your grades over the first semester, your ethic, and how involved you’ve been, we’re pretty impressed with you, both of you, and what you’re bringing to the school.”
He pulled his glasses from his face and cleaned them with thesleeves of his sweater. “It’s obvious that you’re both meant to be here, but being the psychology students in this room, I’ll let you two figure out the bigger meaning behind all that.”
I let Dean Sommerford’s words settle in my mind, and it was thenthat I realised that maybe I’d been wrong when I said that home was always a person rather than a place. For a while now, I’d been seeing Liberty as home, just like I saw my home as Goldie, and my friends. Perhaps that saying was true, that home is where your heart is, and I think I’d left little pieces of my heart all over this campus since arriving—when I met Goldie, when I walked into my dorm, when I walked into class and when I cried by the fountain.
All those moments were proof that I was becoming one with this place andeverything it stood for, and I didn’t realise until now that, slowly but surely, the more time I was here, the more I could see the parts of myself that I missed.
As I reigned in my thoughts, I watched Goldie shake her head in the corner ofmy eye, “How?” Her lips stretched into a smile as she flicked her eyes between us. “How did Henry turn out like that when this is the man who raised him?” Before I could let my smile show, I widened my eyes and stared at her, before tilting my head towards the Dean.
Goldie caught onto what I couldn’t say and whipped her headtowards him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that; I just—”
“Please, Miss Moore, don’t apologise when you’re correct about it.” He pushedhis glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “Now if you wouldn’t mind sending me a copy of that recording, I can get on with dealing with Henry, and I can promise you that his place here will be terminated—”
I stepped forward. “You don’t have to kick him out, Sir.”
Goldie whipped her head around to face me. “What?”
I looked at her and nodded. “Fresh starts, right?” Her knitted brows softenedeventually, and I turned my attention back to Dean Sommerford. “As long as Henry leaves us alone and doesn’t bother us, then there’s no reason for him to leave.”
Dean Sommerford nodded at me. “Are you sure, son?”
I nodded. “I’m sure.” I looked at Goldie. “Is that okay with you?”
Goldie smiled as she nodded back at me.
“Well then, that’s that.” Dean Sommerford exclaimed, before dismissing us andleading us back out into the stone halls.
The second we were alone, I felt Goldie grab my hands and pull me around toface her. “What the hell was that?” She asked, the biggest smile I’d seen resting on her lips.
“What was what?” I laughed.
She shook her head, her golden strands framing her rosy cheeks. “That!” Shelaughed. “Letting Henry stay, being so forgiving after he treated you like shit—”
“Hey,” I chuckled, before squeezing her hands and running mine up her arms.“It’s fine, it’s over, and I don’t want to waste another second thinking about it, okay?”
She nodded, her starry eyes shining in the daylight. “Okay.”
I let a smirk chart its course as I dropped her arms and grabbed her hand.“Good, because I want to do something.”
I let her take a breath before my feet jolted us into a run, my hand pullingher along as she chased after me.
Her breathy laugh floated past my ears as we dipped aroundcorners and ran through the hallways, past the open tracery and up the steps of the grand hall. “Tristan, what are we doing?”
“I’m afraid I can’t say just yet.” I laughed as we turned a corner,the sound echoing off the line of marble statues we ran past.
“And why not?” Goldie breathed, panting as she followed behind me,our hands still locked.
I threw a glance over my shoulder and shrugged. “Can’t be arsed.”
Her free hand nudged my shoulder blade, and I couldn’t help butbark a laugh as we flew through the halls, our giggles getting lost behind us as we ran to where I wanted us to go. My feet only slowly once we neared the hall that led to the fountain, and just as we turned into the room that housed it, daylight shining through the tracery and the glass walls, Goldie muttered something.
“What’s going on?” She asked, halting her footsteps at the gap inthe walls as I slipped my hand out of hers and planted myself at the top of the fountain.
I turned around to face her, letting her effortless beauty take upthe quiet moments before I blurted out, “I’m breaking up with you.” And before the sadness could so much as glint in her eyes, I shook my head. “Not like that, it’s just that... come ere’.”
She looked between us before tucking a curl behind her ear andmeeting me where I stood.
I smiled down at her as I slid my fingers back through hers, enjoying the way Icould see her trying to guess what was about to leave my mouth. “Fresh starts, right?” My smile widened. “If I’m starting over, with no more secrets and no more pretending that I’d rather be anywhere else than here, then I want us to break up.”
I couldn’t help but lift my hand to the side of her jaw and skate my thumb overher blushed cheeks as I carried on. “And I want to make this real. Us. I want us to be real because I was never, ever pretending to like you, Goldie.” I caught the tear that slipped from her eyes as I felt one leave mine too. “I’ve known it since that very first night that you were going to be important to me, and that you’d leave your mark on me, and I knew I’d be right about it.”
She shook her head, her tears sliding through the valleys of herlips. “I’ve learnt so much from being here. But the one thing that I thought was going to take me the longest to get the hang of is actually the only thing that has felt easy.” The rays of sunlight that cast through the tracery caught in her eyes, making the tears that bordered her lashes glisten. “Or perhaps it was just loving you that was the easy thing.”
I smiled down at her. “And here I was thinking it was because youare naturally good at everything you put your mind to.”
“No,” She giggled, the sound echoing off the empty hallways, fillingthe place with happiness. “You just made it far too easy for me to fall for you.”
“Right back at ya,” I said with a smirk, catching those narrowedeyes. “I’ll make that sound a whole lot prettier when I write this into a song.”
She giggled again, and I was in two minds about whether to ask herto never stop. “Has that line ever worked?”
“You tell me,” I said, cupping her jaw and brushing my thumb overher cheeks catching the last of the tears that were still yet to fall.
Her pink lips popped open with a smile. “If I wasn’t already fallingfor you, then, perhaps.” Those topaz eyes sparkled. “Oh, God, I think I’m falling for you, Tristan.” She threw her head back helplessly, but I skated my hand around just in time to catch it and lock her eyes with mine.
I had to bite back my smile as I whispered, “Then let me catch you, Sunshine.” Her eyes sparkled for a moment before she closed them, lashes fluttering like she needed the darkness, even just for a second. But I couldn’t stop myself—couldn’t stop the words I’d been aching to say again. “Let me fall with you, Marigold Moore.”
Her eyes flew open, and in an instant, she was nodding, a smile breaking through. “Okay.”
Marigolds were a symbol of the light that lives inside a person, did you know that? I hadn’t, until I met this one, and there was no use in trying to disprove it. Because it was there. Right in front of me: all the goodness and light the world could offer that existed so naturally in the girl who’d helped me see the light that existed inside me.
She’s the first drop of daylight that creeps over the horizon in the morning.She’s the first star that you point at when you look at the sky. She’s all the good in the world, and all the chased dreams tied up in a yellow bow. She’s the star girl they write the songs about.
She’s mine, and I’ll forever count my lucky stars that I found one that struckme on the collision course I didn’t know if I’d ever escape.
Her eyes shone as she looked off to the side, before watching me again.“You’re my night sky, Tristan, and I want to spend forever finding the stars that arehidden within you.”
My lips dropped to hers, as gently as I could, before I pulled away and sankinto those eyes that reminded me of home. “When you find them, they’re yours.”
“I’ll treasure them. I promise.”