Chapter 4
“Sweetheart,are you sure you packed everything?” My mom looks over all of my bags and containers with a bit of worry etched in her face.
They had booked their honeymoon without realizing that it was the week that we moved into GC.
“Mom, I’ll be fine. Seriously, you’re acting like I’m a freshman.”
She huffs, “Well, going to community college is so much different than a university. And you’re staying on campus, whereas you were at home before …” she trails off.
I don’t want to remind her that had I gone to UNLV, I would have stayed at home because we lived close by. “I’ll be fine,” I say instead.
“Well, you do have your brother, Xayden, in case anything happens.” The mention of his name makes my blood boil. “Oh, there he is now!”
I turn to see my brother sauntering up to me, a smile plastered on his face and a cocky sway to his walk. Awesome. Just what I needed. Him.
He’s in a tight black T-shirt with dark blue jeans and black cowboy boots. Even being an asshole, he’s still sexy as fuck.
Stop thinking about your stepbrother like that.
“Hey, sis. Whatcha got here?”
“Obviously, stuff for my dorm. You know, since it’s move in day and all.” I turn back around and roll my eyes as I pick up my backpack and throw it on my back.
“You know, I can help you get this up there. This way June and my father can get to the airport. We wouldn’t want them to miss their flight,” he says sweetly.
Which in turn makes me instantly suspicious.
“Oh, Xayden, that would be so helpful. Aw, that’s so sweet of you. I’m so glad Rory will have you while she’s here.” My mom places her hands over her heart as she gushes over Xayden and his chivalrous act.
Which is complete and utter bullshit.
“I’m so sorry that this trip was so poorly planned, Rory,” Aaron says from behind my mother. “I promise we
will make it up to you when we get back.”
“No, it’s all right. No need. I’ll be fine.”
“Well then, we’d better get going. Thank you, Xay, for helping Rory.” Aaron gives his son a hug and then comes over to me. And as awkward as it is, I give him a hug too.
When he steps back, my mom rushes over to me and kisses me. “I love you, Rory. My baby girl. I am so proud of you for following your dream. And I know your dad’s proud of you too.” The tears start for both of us as she wipes mine. “If you need anything, please call me. Okay?”
Sniffling, I nod. “Yeah, Mom. Thank you. I love you too. Go. You’re gonna be late, and I don’t want you missing your plane.”
She kisses me, and we watch them get in the car and drive off. A sadness creeps into me, but I push it down and ignore the wish for things to be like they used to be.
Turning toward all my stuff, I flag down a person for a cart.
“If you can grab that bag right there, I think I can get the rest up on the dolly.” I look up at Xayden and he’s smiling at me. And it’s not a nice smile.
A sudden pit grows in my stomach.
“Did you really think I was going to help you?” he says cruelly, his lips curling.
“You told my mom?—”
He shrugs. “I was just making her feel better about ditching you here. Such a nice mom you got. She makes you move to a whole new state and just dumps you here. Then she just takes off with the new love of her life. A honeymoon and my father are more important than her own daughter.”
He puts his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels with a sneer.
“You don’t know my mother, so don’t try to make her out to be this horrible person. She’s always here for me.”
“Really? Well, she dragged you out here and just ditched you on the curb. Totally here for you. Sounds like a great mom. Gold stars for her!”
“At least I have a mother!” The second the words leave my mouth, I hate myself for it.
It’s just … how dare he try to say my mother is ditching me. But I still shouldn’t have said that. I can see the immediate rage and anger his eyes flame with.
A wall comes straight down, and his jaw ticks from him clenching it so hard.
“Xayden, I’m so?—”
“Shut the fuck up. Let me make one thing clear. You are nothing to me. As far as I am concerned, whatever this is, it will be over soon. I’m not sure what my dad sees in your mom, but whatever it is, I intend to make sure you two don’t get a thing from this marriage.
“And if you ever mention my mother again, I promise you, I will make you more than certain you wouldn’t want to step foot anywhere in this fucking state. You are going to wish you never came to Texas. And I’m going to see to that.”
He turns and stalks away from me, but not before getting in one parting shot.
“My mother may not be here, but at least my dad didn’t drive himself into a truck to get away from me.”
The breath rushes out of me in an instant. Pain twists in my stomach, and I try to keep bile from coming up. My father didn’t run himself into a truck. How dare he suggest that he tried to off himself to get away from us.
The tears flow freely down my face as I watch him continue to walk farther away from me.
Xayden fucking Brooks is an asshole.
“Hey there. Did you need this dolly? Oh, are you okay?” A girl comes up to me. Her auburn hair is tied up in a ponytail, and she’s sporting a Groveton College T-shirt and some khaki shorts.
“Um, yeah, I’m fine. Just saying goodbye to my family. So, yeah definitely need a hand cart.”
“Mm, move in days are always so emotional. What year are you? Oh, and my name is Amy by the way.” She locks the hand cart wheels and helps me load the luggage onto it.
Once we get everything loaded, we make our way into the building and over to the elevators.
“What room are you in?” Amy asks.
“Room two-twenty-five.”
“Oh! You’re on the same floor as me, and you’re Addison’s roommate!” She pulls the cart into the elevator and swings it around with a grin.
“You’ve done this before.” I laugh.
“Oh yeah. Since I was a freshman. Helped me get to know people.” When the elevator doors open, I hold my hand over the door so that she can pull the cart out.
We make our trek down the hall until we get to my dorm room. The door is open, so Amy goes ahead and wheels the cart right into my room.
The white walls and brown carpeting leave nothing to the imagination. The furniture has probably been here for decades. The wood is chipped, the horrible blue upholstered chair looks extremely uncomfortable, and the drawers to the dresser are all crooked from years of use. This is definitely a far cry from the guest house, but this is better than being anywhere near that place.
The place where my asshole stepbrother lives.
At least here, there is not a good chance I’ll run into him. Or his groupies. Or his hot-as-fuck friends.
Why are the assholes always so hot?
After unloading my stuff from the cart, Amy waves me goodbye and takes off in search of another move in to help with. I look around the room and see that my roommate has already gotten most of her side together. Her purple comforter is made neatly on her bed. Purple decorative pillows line the side of the wall that the bed sits against.
Next to her bed, she has her dresser. On top of it is a purple lamp and a purple alarm clock. I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say that her favorite color is purple.
My bed is along the wall with the windows, pushed up against it. Next to it is my dresser. A desk is set up next to my dresser decorated with purple pens and notebooks.
Across from that sits an empty desk, which I suppose is mine. One of the closet doors sits open, and I’m guessing that would be mine as well.
Taking a deep breath, I turn back to my boxes and start
the process of unpacking everything. Grabbing my black comforter and grey sheets, I throw them on the bed, making it up. I set up the pink and grey throw pillows at the top of the bed to pop some color.
“Oh, hey! You must be Aurora!” I turn to find a blonde, very cheery girl inside the room. She chimes, “I’m Addison! But you can call me Addy. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
She walks over and gives me a hug.
With my hands at my sides, my eyes widen at the affection. “Uh, hi. And please call me Rory,” I say as she pulls back.
She flushes. “Sorry, I’m a hugger. Hope that’s okay. I mean, we will practically be sisters for the next several months, might as well start it with hugs!” She bops up and down.
“Totally okay, you just caught me off guard.” I smile at her. She is about as short as me, if not shorter.
I’m about five-foot-two, and she has to be at least five feet even. She pushes her purple-rimmed glasses up her nose and smiles at me.
“I’m so excited that I got paired with another architecture student. I was so scared it was going to be someone with like a music major or something. Someone who didn’t understand the hours it took for this major.” She turns and then plops down on her bed.
“Honestly, so am I. Are you from here?”
She shakes her head. “Nope. I’m from California.”
“Oh! This is a bit different than Cali.”
She laughs, “It is. But the cute cowboys are more my type than the surfer boys.” Addy waggles her eyebrows.
“Well, there are plenty of cowboys in Texas.”
“Where are you from?”
I pick up a box filled with a few of my snow globes and place them on my dresser next to the bed. “Las Vegas. Sin City.”
“Wow! That’s so cool! Both from the West Coast! But you know, I’ve never been to Sin City. It has to be amazing to live there!”
Shaking my head, I laugh. “It’s a great place to visit, but living there is entirely different.”
“What are those?” Addy points to the snow globes.
“Um, they were this thing my dad and I had. He would get me snow globes. I sometimes got him one, like on Father’s Day or Christmas.” Just the reminder is enough to somber me a bit.
She picks one up. It the one of the last ones he got me. A silver base with the words ‘My daughter, I love you to the moon and back’ inscribed on it. A crescent moon in the center with star shaped glitter surrounding it. I grimace at the sight.
“This is pretty. B-But you said had …” her voice trails off.
Pursing my lips, I look down at the snow globes with a frown. “He, um, died. When I was twelve.”
“Oh. Rory, I’m so sorry.”
“No, it’s all right. It was a long time ago. But these kinda travel with me. It’s my way to keep him around. My connection to him.”
“That’s actually pretty cool. We need to get like a bookshelf at Walmart or something to put these on. Give them their own special space.” She instantly perks up.
“No, they are fine here.” I nod to the windowsill and nightstand. “Most of them are back with my mother at my stepdad’s house. I just brought a few that meant the most.”
“Hey, you know what? There is a bar we can hit up tonight. Have a good time and unwind. Before we start with the crazy!” Addy bites her lip, waiting for me to say something.
I tilt my head curiously. “What is this bar?”
“Black Dragon. They have local bands play there. I think
a cover band is performing tonight.” She jumps up and down giddily.
“Um, I don’t know. I still have a lot of unpacking to do.”
Her mouth turns down. “Please. It will be so fun and you’re here! At GC! We need to have some fun. I promise to be there with you. I can introduce you to some other awesome people like us.”
Looking around, I realize this might be a nice chance to get out and meet some new people. Have some fun and enjoy a little college life before it gets crazy with schoolwork.
Finally, I nod. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go have some fun.” And with that, I think I officially am living the college life.
Go me.