6. Addie
ADDIE
As Dad pulled up in front of our new apartment complex, I peered out the window to stare at it.
A few students passed through the front gate, and my belly twisted with a mix of nervous and excited anticipation. It seemed impossible that summer was almost halfway over, and that the start of my summer semester during freshman year rapidly approached.
But there we were, moving into our first apartment right off campus.
Dad let out a long, low whistle. “Woo-wee. Good thing this place looks like it’s worth the price tag, or I’d be asking for a refund on that two-for-one deal we got eighteen years ago.”
When he laughed at himself, my mother admonished him with only a tsk and a gentle slap on his shoulder. Her reaction explained why his dad jokes hadn’t stopped.
He’d started making them when we’d been six, or so he reminded us. And as he told it, we’d been such a captive audience, laughing outrageously at things we didn’t understand, that Dad took his one-man show on the road for the rest of our lives.
We didn’t have the heart to tell him he wasn’t that funny.
But since my mom and dad were basically the best parents ever, I figured being embarrassed by him, especially when he made jokes in public, was the least we could do.
A rite of passage.
Of all the things they’d done for us over the years, the apartment stood out as one of the coolest, and the list wasn’t short by any means. We were lucky.
Hashtag blessed, and all that.
Economically, it would’ve made the most sense for us to keep living at the house, but the commute from home to the campus in the heart of Mosaic Falls averaged thirty minutes on a good day.
During rush hour, we’d spend more time in the car than my parents saw as reasonable.
Getting us an apartment worked out to be roughly the same as on-campus housing.
Especially since three of us would share the place.
Blake stretched across the aisle between our bucket seats in the minivan, leaning over my lap to peer through the window.
He also whistled his first view of the gates. “Shit’s about to get real, Addie Bo Baddie.” He arched a brow. “You ready for this?”
With his face suddenly—alarmingly—close to my breasts, I squeaked out, “Yes.”
The corner of his mouth tipped up into the half-smile I couldn’t resist.
I forced myself to take small breaths, torn between assisting him in an accidental boob graze and remembering my parents were in the car long enough to calm my tits.
Blake pulled away before I embarrassed myself either way.
He turned around in his seat to face Adam. My brother had long ago called eternal dibs on the third-row seats, leaving Blake and I to share the middle row.
Neither of us had argued against his claim.
On longer road trips, we played car games with my parents while Adam sequestered himself in the back, usually with his headphones on or sound asleep.
But Adam’s ability to doze off during a thirty-minute drive to campus, as if we’d taken a mundane cruise to the grocery store—not toward our future—needed to be studied.
I didn’t understand a lot of his behavior, but his lack of excitement over today stood out.
Eagerness to arrive had kept me awake half the night.
Blake slapped the side of Adam’s thigh, jolting him awake. He whipped off his headphones, his hands flying wildly before he registered Blake and me staring at him.
Scooping the fallen headphones off the floor, he grumbled sleepily. “Jerk. What’d you do that for?”
“Easy, crabby pants.” Blake pointed out the window. “We’re here.”
We all looked up at the building that would be our home for the next four years, glancing between each other. Despite his ability to remain nonplussed, even Adam’s excitement rose. An overwhelming sense of our impending freedom filled the car, hitting us simultaneously.
As I considered all the opportunities D’Arthur University presented, like its community arts program through the College of Health and Human Performance, I bounced in my seat.
I hardly believed the two fools beside me had planted the seeds for my college dreams, especially as they scrambled to get out of the car, with Adam fighting to climb from the back and beat Blake through the open door.
My goal of working in programs designed around art and children made more sense, though, as they elbowed each other like a bunch of toddlers.
I shook my head, ignoring Blake’s muscles straining beneath his shirt as he locked my brother in a chokehold.
His strength and ability to fight had never been what appealed to me.
I’d fallen for the sweet, lesser-known version of him.
The guy who spent weekends teaching kids how to play football.
The one who always loaded his arms with grocery bags so my mom wouldn’t have to carry them.
Still, I couldn’t deny how my attraction to him had changed over the years.
I hated when he fought recklessly and put his future at risk.
But I was still a woman.
While Adam grunted and struggled, Blake reined in my wayward thoughts as easily as he’d distracted me, when he crowed with laughter. “Say uncle!”
“Idiots.” I muttered over their bodies as I climbed out of the car. Flipping my sunglasses off my head, I prayed the incognito look would hide my relation to them. “Can you try not to embarrass us?”
Stepping around them carefully, I searched for strangers who might witness their childish display. In doing so, I missed when Blake released Adam and tore after me.
Adam joined him.
And I got scooped up into a tangle of limbs as they attacked me. They dug their fingers into my sides, forcing an outrageous and totally embarrassing laugh to burst out of my mouth.
“Stop!” I shrieked as they tickled me. “Oh my god!”
My arms flailed wildly. My whole body spasmed as I fought to get away from their hands. Laughter peeled loudly across the entrance to the building while I tried to break free.
Voices I didn’t recognize commented as they passed us. Snickers of laughter forced a growl from my throat. And they’d known exactly what weakness to attack when they did it.
The whole thing was mortifying.
College boys were the worst.
“You guys, stop! Mom!”
“Adam Nathaniel Barrow! Put your sister down this instant!” My mother’s voice rang out across the courtyard, helping while also adding to my mortification. “And Blake Hawthorne, don’t think I can’t see that you’re involved.”
“He started it!” I cried, sure she’d go easy on him either way.
But at the sound of my mother’s voice, Blake’s hands immediately left my body.
They both dropped me, stepping away and leaving me to smack my butt on the sidewalk. I hit the ground with a grunt, another equally embarrassing sound after my squeals of laughter.
Rubbing my sore right butt cheek, I glared up at my two tormentors. “Ow. You jerks.”
They stood soldier-straight with their arms clasped behind their backs, smiling innocently at my mother while they fed her a fake apology.
My mother waved them away, her lips pursed as she checked on me. “Addie baby, are you alright?”
I dusted off my pants and stood. “Just peachy, Mom.”
Satisfied, she left us there to rejoin my dad in the front office. After years of witnessing our squabbling and roughhousing, she’d only intervene so much between the three of us.
If I wanted to get back at the two of them, retaliation would need to be delivered by my own hand, swiftly and stealthily. Once our parents were back home, of course.
I pinned them with my most menacing stare, conjuring up all the pranks our newfound freedom made possible. With limited resources, I focused on the most achievable options.
But the art of war—even a prank war—meant knowing my opponents.
While Adam and Blake’s strengths lent themselves to physical tactics, I needed a mental approach. Something they didn’t see coming. Smiling sweetly, I stepped between them and slung my arms over their shoulders. “Home sweet home, boys.”
They eyed me warily.
I nodded toward the apartments. “Better sleep with one eye open.”
Spurred by their trepidation, my certainty that college would finally level the playing field between us only grew stronger. I wasn’t the kid sister trying to keep up anymore.
I was a force to be reckoned with, armed with craft glue and glitter.
Feeling strangely in my element after subtly threatening Adam and Blake with glitter war, I smiled at the guy who opened the gate in front of us. With dark hair and features, he contrasted my lifelong crush sharply, but I winked at him, like he was in on my secret plans.
As I slid my arm off Blake and Adam’s necks, the guy’s eyebrows rose and he glanced between me and them. When he smiled back, his bright grin transformed his darker features.
Something fluttered inside my chest.
It caught me off guard. Not merely the guy’s response to my first attempt at college-level flirting, but my reaction to his smile. A smile that didn’t belong to Blake Hawthorne.
It wasn’t attraction, even though the guy was gorgeous.
It felt like…hope.
College presented a world of opportunity.
My chance to discover who I really was.
Not the wallflower I’d been around most of my peers in high school, excluding the two goons behind me. Not the girl hiding behind a book, waiting to be noticed.
I could be the girl who sauntered past a cute guy, keeping his smile and eyes on me, as I walked through the open gate. Standing out. Commanding attention.
The girl he didn’t want to let slip by before saying, “Welcome to the building. I’m Nate.”
“Nice to meet you, Nate.”
Blake bristled beside me, his eyes narrowing on my smile, and the soft flutter in my chest grew stronger. Things were about to change for the three of us.
College was my chance to be seen differently.
Maybe my chance for Blake Hawthorne to finally see me as more than a little girl.
Either way, I couldn’t wait to find out what came next.
FALL SEMESTER IN COLLEGE, SEPTEMBER 2017, AGE 18
What came next turned out to be both a dream and a nightmare.