Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Faux Therapist - Wyatt
“Istill can’t believe Dad called me last night. Was there a full moon or something?”
I smile as I talk to Rachel from my room.
I was about to walk over to Phi Mu Phi to steal a little bit of time with Grace tonight, but Rachel called me first. Her eyes are wide, and she plays with a lock of hair as she sits on the bed in her dorm room, her name lit up in pink lights over her headboard.
I can’t help but smile when I see it. She planned her decor from the day she received her acceptance letter from USC, and it’s fun to see her live her dream.
“What did he want?” I ask, curious.
“Just to see how USC was,” Rachel says. Her face briefly shifts to an uncomfortable expression before going back to a smile. But I caught it.
“Rach, how is USC?” I ask, my big-brother instincts on alert. “Be honest.”
There it is. I see that shift into sadness before she forces a big smile on her face to cover it up again.
“Oh, it’s great!” she says brightly. “It’s fun, you know. I’m still meeting people. Classes are a lot. But there are parties and things to do so it’s everything I dreamed it would be!”
I furrow my brow. She furrows hers in return. “What?” she asks. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“When did you decide to start lying to me?” I ask quietly.
“What? Wyatt, I’m not lying! Why would you even say that?”
“Because, one, I know you. Two, you have a shitty poker face. What’s going on?”
Rachel hesitates. I watch as she swallows hard, and to my surprise, I can see tears form in her eyes.
“It’s so much harder than I thought,” she confesses, her voice thick.
“I’m having a rough time making friends.
My roommate just wants to party. She’s got her friend group and she’s never here.
And when she is here, I’m an annoyance she has to deal with.
I don’t feel like I belong here, Wyatt. I want to go home. ”
My stomach clenches when she begins to cry. “Hey, hey, everything you’re feeling is normal,” I reassure her.
She shakes her head. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I thought I’d make a bunch of new friends and have people to hang out with, but I don’t. I eat my meals alone. I wish I had gone somewhere else.”
“It takes time to find your place,” I remind her.
“It didn’t for you!”
I manage a smile. “Yeah, but I play hockey. I was thrown together with a group of guys, and we all had to form a team. That’s different than being a regular freshman on campus.”
“I just know it feels wrong,” Rachel insists. “I know I’ve only been here a couple of weeks, but everything feels like I’ve made the wrong choice.”
Shit. I hate seeing her cry and feel so lost. I want to fix it for her, but I know I can’t.
“Hey, since you're coming down for the hockey game, maybe you could take a new look at OCU and see if it’s someplace you might consider. You can always transfer.”
“I wish I could withdraw and have a do-over in January,” she says, brushing the tears away with the back of her hand.
“Do you want my thoughts? As your faux therapist?”
That makes a little smile appear on her face. “Okay.”
“I’d give USC more time. Not only are you away from home for the first time, but you’re in a new state. That’s a lot of change. If things aren’t great and you still don’t feel right, you could finish out the semester and transfer with credits.”
She grimaces. “I wish I could transfer now.”
“Give it a fair shot, Rach. Sometimes it just takes time for things to click into place.”
She gets up and grabs the box of tissues on her desk, then sits back down on her bed and blows her nose. “I’ll try.” She makes a face. “Mom and Dad will be mad.”
I snort. “No, they won’t. I’m about to drop something on Dad that is going to piss him off to no end, and they’ll rubber stamp a transfer if that’s what you want after I do this.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“You have to keep it between us,” I say slowly.
“Of course. You know you can trust me.”
I smile. I do know that. Rachel has been my confidante for years, and I’ve been hers. Considering how my dad has ignored her and put all his energy into my hockey career, I’m always surprised she hasn’t held it against me or resented me for it.
But she never has.
“Okay. I have a girlfriend,” I announce dramatically.
Rachel’s brows snap into a confused V. “What?”
“I,” I say proudly, “have a girlfriend. Her name is Grace, and she’s an artistic swimmer here at OCU.”
“But ... you never wanted a girlfriend!”
“I know. But the crazy thing is? I met Grace and everything I thought I wanted was nothing that I wanted at all.”
“You’re serious!”
I chuckle. “I am.”
“Oh my God, Wyatt! You have the stupidest grin on your face!”
“Shut up.”
“I will not!” Then she smiles at me. “You’re blushing!”
“Whatever,” I say, absently rubbing my hand over the nape of my neck and ignoring her gleeful expression.
“When did you meet her? How long has this been happening? I need to know everything!”
Shit. I don’t know if Grace would want me to go into the stupid bet or dumb fake dating or all of that crap, but I decide I can trust Rachel with our story.
“Um, okay, I’m going to tell you the truth, but you’re going to have to play along with things when you’re up here for opening night.”
“Ohhh-kay,” Rachel says, giving me a skeptical look.
I tell her everything. About the stupid bet, how it pissed me off.
How I got to know Grace, she suggested fake dating, and we ended up liking each other.
As the story unfolds, Rachel interjects her thoughts, and her facial expressions match what she’s thinking.
By the time I’m finished, she’s staring at me with a huge grin on her face.
“Somebody is falling in love,” she singsongs to me.
“Somebody needs to shut up,” I singsong back.
“Reading faces goes two ways, big brother.”
“Whatever. I’m still getting to know her.”
Suddenly, Rachel gets serious. “Are you worried about what Mom and Dad will say?”
I swallow. I have worried about it. Before, it seemed like a good way to show Dad I’m going to live my life, but now everything is real.
What if he makes a scene? What if Grace is scared off by how screwed up my family is?
I know her mom does some of the same stuff, but she can’t be anywhere as intense as Dad is.
My mom just sits there, passively letting everything happen, and Rachel is completely ignored.
What if Grace decides she doesn’t need all this drama? What if I’m not worth it, a small voice inside me whispers.
Grace has waited for the right guy. Do I deserve to be that guy in her life? Am I a prick for dragging her into this when she has her own family drama to deal with?
“Hey!”
I blink, and Rachel is watching me. “Sorry.”
“My turn to be faux therapist. If this girl cares about you, our weird family isn’t going to matter. Even if Dad is at his worst and Mom is just sitting there with her hands in her lap staring at them, Grace chose you. Not them.”
Deep down, I know Rachel is making sense. At least when she says it out loud, it does.
But saying it and living it are two different things.
And I only hope I’m making the right choice by introducing Grace to my family so soon.
***
I text Grace as I’m walking up the sidewalk to Phi Mu Phi. It’s a beautiful night out, with a large moon overhead. I let her know I’m going to be on the doorstep in a matter of seconds, and she immediately messages me back.
Gracie Girl: I’ll be right down.
I changed her to Gracie Girl in my contacts, and it makes me smile whenever I see it on my screen. Just as I’m coming up the steps, I see Grace step out of the door. I stop walking and take a deep breath.
She’s so beautiful.
Tonight, her silky blonde hair is down and straight, cascading down her back and over her exposed shoulders, thanks to a little black off-the-shoulder top that shows off her skin nicely.
It also exposes a sexy sliver of midriff, too.
She’s wearing another one of those little pleated skirts, this time in gray, and I’m treated to another view of those gorgeous legs, too.
I swallow hard, my throat very dry now, and my eyes rest on her face. Her eyes are shining brightly as she looks at me, and her smile is wide.
That look is for me, I think in amazement. It’s all because I’m here. And I know the smile on my face is just as bright as hers.
“Wy!” she says, coming down the steps in a hurry. I open my arms to my girl and fold her into my chest, resting my chin on top of her hair.
“Did you miss me?” I tease.
She chuckles into my T-shirt, and I love the sensation of her warm breath against my body.
“If I say yes, does that make me pathetic?”
I pull back a bit so I can look down at her. “If that’s the case, then I’m pathetic, too, Gracie girl.”
I’m rewarded with the biggest grin. “Is that my official nickname?”
“Yes. Because you’ve always been my Gracie girl,” I say softly.
She blinks a few times, and I can tell tears have formed in her eyes. “That’s the most beautiful compliment,” she says. “I love being your Gracie girl.”
I drop my head and kiss her, slowly and sweetly. “Good. Because I saved you that way in my contacts, and I really don’t feel like changing it.”
The joy that lights up her face causes butterflies in my stomach. Grace is so happy to be with me, I can hardly get my head around it.
“What do you want to do? How much time do you have?” I ask.
She quirks a brow at me. “How much time do you have? Don’t you have a test for your Strategic Management class to study for?”
I make a face. “I tell you too much.”
Grace grins. “Wanna just sit here and talk for a little bit?”
We take a seat on the steps of Phi Mu Phi, and I lace her hand through mine. My fraternity house is lit up across the street. I stare back at Alpha Xi Pi, thinking of what my house—my own brothers—did to Grace. Whenever I think about it, I get pissed off and mortified at the same time.