Chapter Two
Danika
“Do you think we should join a club?” Sydney asks as we slam the car doors shut.
After the long weekend, none of us were thrilled to be back on campus Monday morning, least of all me.
At least Sydney and Margot get to take some of their classes together, I’m stuck with the pre-med nerds in all of mine.
Even though I’m pre-med too, I’d hardly classify myself as a nerd. At least not yet. I need to sow my wild oats before I chain myself to my textbooks in med school next year.
“Join a club? Sydney, it’s the last semester of our senior year. What would be the point of joining a club now?”
Margot laughs. “Yeah, and aren’t you busy enough with the newspaper?”
“I guess so. I just, I don’t know. I feel like all I do is go to class, work at the newspaper and go to the gym. Kind of boring,” Sydney sighs.
Wrapping my arm around her shoulder, I pull her into my side. “Don’t worry, Syd. I’ll make sure your last semester of college is the most fun you’ve ever had.”
We part ways and I head toward the campus coffee shop before my class. I still have thirty minutes until Biochemistry but I like to ride in early with the girls. Every day is one less day we’ll have to spend together so I try to take all the time I can with them.
After my coffee is ordered, I grab the steaming hot beverage and head to my favorite arm chair to nestle in and read for my next class.
But when I turn the corner, I see that my favorite chair is filled.
I sigh, it happens some times, nothing to be done about it.
Before I turn to find a less comfortable seat, I squint my eyes to see if I know who the person is.
And I’ll be damned if it isn’t Margot’s older brother. Before I know what I’m doing, I’m stalking over to him.
“Why are you still here?”
Arden looks up from his phone. “Hey, brat,” he says nonchalantly.
“What are you even doing on campus? You don’t go here.”
He gestures around the cafe. “Coffee shop is a public place. I can be here if I want to.” He rests his phone on his lap, looking at me closer. “Why are you so bothered that I’m here?”
“You’re not a student,” I huff. “You shouldn't be here.”
“Well,” he starts and then stops, closing his mouth before he utters another word. Instead of speaking, he stands, looking at this phone before putting it in his back pocket. “I’ll see you later.”
He leaves without another word. “I’d rather you didn’t!” I yell after him, looking back and forth at all the people I startled with my uproar. I don’t know why Arden’s presence is affecting me so much. I’ve been around him more times than I can count but something about this time is different.
I really didn’t see much of him this summer.
Margot spent a lot of her free time traveling with Alex so it wasn’t like I was going to spend time at her house without her there, which is where I would’ve seen Arden, if at all.
Our paths briefly crossed on Margot’s birthday in the summer but even that was short. A hello and a goodbye.
This time, he’s sticking around for much longer.
Who knows when he’s going to leave. It’s the not-knowing that’s pissing me off.
Maybe I’ll just ask Margot when he’s planning to go and if it’s not soon, tell her that it should be.
This is our last semester of college together, we deserve to spend our free time hanging out together, not with boyfriends or annoyingly attractive older brothers.
I plop in the chair, careful not to spill the hot coffee. The seat is warm from its previous owner, and I want to reject the warmth that spreads through me. He’s such an ass, but at least he’s a warm ass.
Just as I settle in with my textbook and my mug, another voice rings out above me.
“Hey, Dani.” The voice is familiar. One I’ve heard many times and one I’ve worked hard to forget. What is it, asshole day?
Without looking up, I respond, “Go away, Nico.”
He sighs, “Aw, come on. Don’t be like that.
It’s our last semester. Doesn’t that mean we should forget the past?
Forgive? Maybe give second chances?” Nico crouches down and inserts himself into my eyeline.
I can’t help but take in the emotion on his face.
It looks similar to the emotion he showed the girl he cheated on me with two years ago.
“No, it doesn’t mean that. In fact, the last semester should mean new beginnings, not old toxic endings.”
Nico tries to hit me with that irresistible smirk that all the ladies love. That I loved once.
When Nico and I met, I was a freshman with rose-colored glasses and a real zest for independence.
Nico was on the soccer team so he was super fit and we had a lot of the same classes since we were both biology majors on a pre-med track.
I thought he was everything I could’ve ever asked for in a partner—attentive, considerate, thoughtful.
That is until a year into the relationship when he cheated on me and proved that he was actually the exact opposite of who he said he was.
He swore up and down that there was nothing going on with him and his chemistry lab partner. Kelly. A shudder still escapes me when I think of how I found them one night balancing each other’s equations, if you catch my drift.
I broke up with him immediately, blocked his number and refused to talk to him. It took a few months for the message to sink into his masochistic head but eventually he left me alone. Until now, apparently.
“Dani, I’m trying here. Can’t you see that?” He rests his hand on my knee. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you. Not even after all this time.”
“While I’m sure that’s true, I’ve definitely stopped thinking about you.” Shoving his palm off my knee, I abandon my barely-drunk coffee and gather my books into my backpack. Slinging it over my shoulder, I brush past Nico as he stands beside me.
“Just hear me out,” he says to my back as I walk out the door. “Baby, please…” He’s still calling to me as we walk onto the quad and I spot Arden standing outside the cafe, his eyes locked on mine. I stop briefly, confused by the sight of him there. Why doesn’t he just go home?
He looks past me at Nico, who has made it to my side again. I’ve never seen a man’s eyes darken the way Arden’s does when he takes in Nico’s position, his hand on the small of my back, the words he just said. All of this is too much right now.
Looking down at my watch, I realize it’s time to head to class anyway. Even if it wasn’t, I’d be going. Any chance I could to get away from this chaos.
I don’t look back to see if Nico is following me or what happened to Arden. I just keep walking toward my future and away from all the drama of my past.
Sydney’s blonde curls bounce as she makes her way toward me on the quad. “Lunch?”
“Absolutely, I’m starving.” We start walking toward the cafeteria. “Something about human anatomy that really gets the appetite going.”
Sydney fake gags next to me, and I hit her shoulder with mine as I chuckle. My phone vibrates in my pocket and I take it out to reveal my mother’s name as the caller ID. With a sigh, I shove the phone back in my pocket. Sydney clocks the entire exchange, of course.
“Are you going to avoid her forever?”
“She’s probably only calling to complain about my dad.” I shrug. Sydney opens the door to the cafeteria and I walk in behind her. “She didn’t even wish me a happy birthday. Neither of them did.”
“Well, maybe that’s what she’s calling about.”
My phone vibrates again as a text rolls in.
MOTHER: Look at the bag your daddy got me!
With a sigh, I show Sydney the phone before pushing it deep into the bottom of my backpack.
This is always how it’s been with Lara and Kevin.
Kevin goes gambling, drinks too much, loses all his money.
He comes home, beats his wife, apologizes, buys her something pretty.
She forgives him, he gets paid from the factory, goes gambling.
And on and on and on. The only reason I even go home for the holidays is to make sure that my mom is still alive.
She’ll never leave him, and I only hope it doesn’t some day lead to her end.
Kevin has never put his hands on me. Oh he’s tried, but he never gets close enough. I’m too quick. That doesn’t mean I don’t have residual emotional damage from the mess those two made of their lives.
I feel the backpack vibrate again, but I ignore it this time. Sydney and I grab a sandwich and a water bottle and plant ourselves at our usual table. Just as I’m opening the packaging on my ham and cheese, Margot sits down next to me.
“When is Arden leaving?” I ask immediately. No hello. I didn’t even realize it was coming out of my mouth until I said it. I guess his presence was on my mind more than I thought after our run in this morning.
After a pause and a glance toward Sydney, Margot responds. “What do you mean? He left this morning.”
“Nu-uh,” I say, my mouth full of mayo and soggy white bread. “I saw him at the cafe this morning.”
“On campus?” I nod. “I have no idea, Dani. We said our goodbyes until Christmas this morning before we came to campus. You missed it because you were picking out your outfit.”
Rolling my eyes, I take another massive bite, not caring that I’m talking with food in my mouth. They understand me either way. “Well, he was there. And he was cozied up like he was staying for a while.”
Margot takes out her phone and looks at the text conversation she has with her brother. “Nothing.” She shrugs. “He probably just wanted to get a coffee before the drive back. Why do you care so much?”
“I don’t,” I replied far too quickly, food spewing across the table and landing on Sydney’s Intro to Psychology textbook.
“Danika!” Margot yells in disgust and Sydney only laughs as she uses her napkin to wipe the book clean. It’s taking a concerted effort to not bust out laughing and cause even more of a half-chewed mess on the table.
Margot tsks at me before heading toward the counter to get her own food.
“Why do you care so much about Arden being here?” Sydney asks, inquisitively but not overly assertive. Just the perfect amount. Very Sydney.
“I don’t,” I repeat, with much less gusto. But after a pause, I continue. “Know…”
Sydney nods in understanding, although I have no idea what conclusions she’s drawing about all this.
I haven’t made any connections myself. All I know is, Arden Davis has imprinted somehow in my mind and I need him to leave so I can free up that space for bigger and better things.
Like graduating. Like starting medical school.
When Margot returns, the table is free of half-eaten food and I have my sincerest apology face on.
“Sorry for being gross, Mars,” I say, my lower lip quivering to really get the full effect of my apology.
“Yeah yeah,” she says in reply but the slight smile on her face says everything I need to know.
I can tell everything about Margot’s thoughts just by the look on her face and that look tells me she loves me even when I completely gross her out.
I blow her a kiss across the table and she rolls her eyes at me as she lifts a forkful of her garden salad into her mouth.
“So, what are our plans for tonight?”
“Tonight?” Margot asks. “It’s Monday.”
“Monday before the end of our last fall semester of college!”
“Right, and tomorrow will be the Tuesday before the end of our last fall semester of college. And then the Wednesday and Thursday—”
I throw a piece of lettuce at her which she deftly dodges. “Sydney is bored, she wants to go out.”
Our roommate’s jaw drops. “Huh?”
“Just this morning you said you were bored and you wanted to join a club. How about we go to a club instead!”
Both my roommates roll their eyes. “Is there something you’re perhaps putting off, dear Danika?” Margot asks, taking another bite of her salad.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Checked your email lately?” Sydney asks.
Both girls are staring at me with that look that says they know something I don’t.
And the thing they know is that I should be hearing back from the admissions office about medical school this week.
This acceptance–or rejection–will shape the rest of my future.
So, no. I haven’t checked my email. And fact is, they saw right through my ploy to forget about that.
“Give me the phone,” Margot says, putting her hand out.
With a sigh, I reach into the bottom of my bag and give it to her.
“You have like eight texts from your mom,” she says casually. Margot knows my relationship with my mother and father. She’s been through the worst with me. Without having to ask, Margot puts in my password and goes to my email app.
After a ten second refresh, she sighs. “Nothing.”
“I know that. So, now will you go out with me tonight?” I ask, hopefully.
“No,” both girls reply immediately. I drop my head on the table, my forehead landing on top of my dirty napkin.
“Y'all are the worst.” Gathering my trash, I grab my phone and backpack and head toward the door. “See you after class.”
Sydney waves and Margot look at me with that intensity that sometimes throws me off guard. “You’ll get in,” she says. I nod once before throwing my garbage out and walking out into the brisk cold air.