Читать книгу Ever Lasting - Odessa Gillespie Black - Страница 9

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. A few years finally passed. I’d taken online classes my first two years of college, and it was time to enroll in a campus-based school. I’d finish out my degree away from the home. Maybe it would help to get away from the manor. Since I’d graduated high school, I’d become a recluse.

Cole and I’d had exchanged roles.

I’d read all the books in the house pertaining to the past history of the family. All Cole’s old journals had begun as good reading material and left me between tearful fits and sobs. I’d never known a more honorable man. And all those years he’d been right under my nose. In this lifetime, he may have been in love with me, but he was definitely concerned for everything that had to do with me.

And I’d shoved him away at every turn.

I flipped through my emails and finished out the requirements for the college applications. So far, I’d had no acceptances, but it had only been two days since I’d sent in the first one to Western Carolina University.

I was a shoo-in, with perfect grades, so I don’t know why I was so nervous.

I could have chosen any college, but I really wanted that one.

Two days later, emails came flying in from all the schools to which I’d applied. Accepted.

Western still called out to me.

So, I sent in my payment for the first semester.

* * * *

Shoes, clothes, school supplies, my laptop, and one box that had gathered dust in my closet for months filled all the empty space in my car that wasn’t required to drive it. I couldn’t find it in me to leave the box. I couldn’t give up hope.

One day, I’d see Cole again. Even if we never spoke, I wanted him to have it so he’d know I paid attention to the things he’d like when we were younger and that all the small things had mattered.

The finely kept grounds around The Village Hall at Western Carolina was akin to the way the house at home had looked most days when Cole had been home. Keeping the groundskeepers under control had been Cole’s chore since he was fifteen, but since he’d been gone, the place had lost a bit of its lushness.

I swear he’d been a plant whisperer. He’d had a way with plants and foliage like no other person on the property.

After reading his journals, I could see how that could be possible. A hundred years of landscaping something would tend to help you learn your way around a weed eater and some Miracle-Gro.

From the looks of my campus, it was full of life. Exactly what I needed since mine had seemed to stop back home.

Guys dressed in hamburger and fry suits ran by singing, “My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard….”

I didn’t know if I would grow accustomed to all the noise with so much hustle and bustle surrounding my dorm, but if it didn’t work out, I could always rent an apartment, which had been my first choice. Mama, however, had insisted that I surround myself with people.

A flourish of people surrounding me seemed like a terrible idea at first, but their enthusiasm was contagious. I’d already cracked a smile at least two times before I made it to the door with one box. The halls were a flutter of activity as students carried plastic storage containers and bags to their rooms.

“I hope my roommate has as many shoes as you.” A cheery voice come from behind me.

I turned with my book bag on my back and one clear suitcase full of shoes in my hand.

“I’m Nicki Witzel,” the tall blonde with green eyes said. “I’d shake your hand, but…”

“Yeah, my hands are full too. I’m Allie Night, and unless there are two Nicki Witzels, you’re in luck. I’m your roommate. The next question is, are we the same shoe size so we can share?” I already like this girl.

“Seven and a half?” Her face pinched with anticipation.

“Yup.”

“Now what are the chances in that happening? What, are they assigning roomies by matching shoe size, now?” She wiggled a hand free to press the button on the elevator.

At our room, we set our stuff down outside the door while she worked the lock. She swung the door open to our new life.

“Holy cannoli,” she said.

The spacious living area had a sofa facing a wall with a flat screen, and two armchairs on either side. Bedrooms were off to the side, left and right. Beside the left bedroom, a small, but perfect-sized kitchen was tucked perfectly in the corner. Beside the right bedroom, the bathroom was sparkling white, waiting for our personal touches.

It was big, but not so big that it couldn’t be homey. Living in Rollins Manor had always given me a feeling of reverse claustrophobia. It was so big I could have gotten lost in it. Come to think of it, I felt that way my whole life.

“I thought we would have an ample room, but this is great.” Nicki walked past the sofa and let her fingers trail over the soft plush leather. She went straight to the window and looked out from the fifth floor. She gasped.

“And the view. OMG. You’ve gotta see this.” Nicki waved me to the window.

The center meeting area in the middle of the campus was crawling with social gatherings, clubs looking for pledges, and people unloading cars. Across from us was another tower of dorms. It was beside a darkly elegant house with Greek letters over the front entrance.

“We lucked up. We’re right across from one of the most elite frat houses on the whole campus. They’re called the Band of Brothers. Supposedly, their basement has a dungeon where they do the initiations,” she said with satisfaction. “This has got to be by far the best day of my—holy crap, our first view of the Brothers.”

A group of finely dressed guys holding their heads a little higher than the rest of college population exited the front door of the frat house.

“They’re probably so snotty they won’t want to breathe the same oxygen as everyone else,” I said.

Though the crowd parted as they walked through, they nodded and smiled at their peers. Huh. Surprising.

“They are actually quite nice, but I’ve never seen any one of them with a girl who was less than a runway model.” Nicki propped her elbow on the window and her chin in her hand as she stared wistfully at the passing group of guys. “You’d have no trouble with any of them, but I’d have to bleach my hair, lose twenty pounds, and change my whole wardrobe.”

“You’d have just as much a chance, but I’m not looking for a guy. I’m a little cynical when it comes to the male population.” I turned from the window with a good-natured smirk.

“You’re not a…you know…lesbian, are you?” she asked, wide-eyed.

“Oh,” I must have come across as harsh to seem so against men. “No, not me. I’m just down on the whole male species in general at the moment.”

Nicki’s face brightened. “Well, that’s nothing we can’t fix! I bring the party where ever I go, and this place,” she gestured emphatically to the room we occupied, “is not immune. We could fit at least thirty to forty people in here, easy.”

“Shouldn’t we be planning study groups and developing strategies on how to survive chemistry and calculus?” I looked toward the bedroom on the left.

“Oh, no. You are going to be socially challenged if we don’t get you out of that shell.” She put her forefinger on her chin thoughtfully and shook her head. “This will never do.”

“We need to unpack.” I opened the bedroom door on the left and nodded. “They’re both the same, so can I have this room?”

“It’s time to get out of this coma you have been calling life, girl. There’s way too many men and way too little time.” She flipped her long fire-engine-red hair over her shoulder and tugged me away from the door to my new room.

In less than a minute, we ended up on the lawn in the midst of bustle of laughter, talking, flyers, posters and confused freshmen juggling luggage and campus maps.

Nicki turned to me with a squeal and clapped her hands together.

I thought she might grab a megaphone out of her pocket and announce that I had flatlined and needed mouth-to-mouth.

She was either going to liven up my life or wear me to a frazzle trying to keep up with her.

* * * *

On the first day of class, the whole campus seemed three clowns short of a circus. I had never seen so many different nationalities of people gathered in one building. So I had been sheltered.

Guys leaned coolly against the stone walls talking and watching girls.

Girls still giggled or gave them haughty looks.

Nothing much had changed since high school other than I didn’t feel as constrained as if prison bars were closing in on me.

I was free for the first time.

Cole always remained in the back of my mind, but if I had to move on, a lively place like this might do the trick. At least it would be hard to be sad here.

I entered my first class and climbed the steps to take a seat in the back, but a guy with striking good looks grabbed the strap of my book bag.

“Hey, would you mind doing me a huge favor?” he said.

I looked down into and found a wide smile.

“Depends,” I said.

“No time to explain. Sit. Now.” He yanked me down beside him.

I gave the other empty seats a quick glance.

“Please. Don’t leave.” His eyes widened.

I put my books down beside him. At least it was a good view of podium.

The strange guy said, “Do you see the girl with the copper-red hair standing near the third row of seats?”

I nodded.

“You just saved my life.”

The girl’s wild gaze shot around the room.

“The first day and you already have an admirer. Impressive.”

“If I act cozy with you in the next few minutes, don’t be offended.” He turned to face me.

The attractive girl spotted him.

“Here she comes.” I pulled my laptop out.

He immediately slipped his arm around me. Though he draped his hand over the back of the seat and didn’t try to touch me much, I stiffened.

“Andrew Malcolm, age eighteen, Cherryville, North Carolina. I drive a green Volvo and I’m not a lunatic.” He finally looked up at the girl who barreled toward us.

What had I gotten myself into?

Her face darkened as her hawk-like gaze found his arm draped around me.

His speedy biography lesson gave me just enough information about him to seem like I might know him from Adam. He was smooth and obviously used to diverting stalkers. He had every reason to attract them along with every other girl in the world.

He was beautiful.

Light brown hair, chestnut eyes and a complexion and body to die for. I wasn’t attracted, but merely stating a fact.

“Andrew. We met yesterday. I stay in the dorm across from the frat house. Do you remember me?” the girl said in a high-pitched tone.

I stifled a laugh.

The look on Andrew’s face was priceless. “Yes. It was nice to meet you. Have you met my girlfriend—”

“Allie Night, my pleasure.” I extended my hand.

The girl smiled tightly and shook my hand although I thought she might want to rip it off my arm given the icy expression on her face.

Andrew jerked his head back to me as if a huge horn had shot from center of my forehead.

The girl went by us after a quick appraisal of my whole body as if she were trying to decide if she could take me in a one-on-one fight.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

Andrew eyes remained glued to that imaginary horn.

“You’re Allie Night?” He withdrew his arm and leaned back as if touching me might cause him to implode or spontaneously combust.

“Yeah.” I turned on my laptop. “I’ve only been here one day. Surely, there isn’t a rumor about me already?”

“Um, no.” He fumbled through his bag as he gave me side-glances.

The instructor came in and put his briefcase on the desk. He wrote his name on the big board behind him and added underneath it, WORLD RELIGIONS. He started the class, but it was hard to concentrate.

Andrew stared at me almost the whole hour of class.

I smiled a time or two.

He returned the gesture but couldn’t stop giving me a wild, confused look.

I’d have find out how he knew me.

* * * *

On the next day of class, Andrew sat across the room.

I waved.

He gave me a quick wave in response, but he wouldn’t speak to me after class ended. He rushed by and shuffled out the door without so much as a nod or smile.

After the favor I’d done for him the day before, I didn’t appreciate being treated as though I had a communicable disease.

I shrugged it off.

Just like all other guys.

Jerks.

* * * *

After settling into a peaceful nap, Nicki almost jerked me out of the bed. “There’s this really nice girl that I want you to meet. I met her in my English lit class, and she is dying to go out tonight. I told her we would all go together. There’s an Italian restaurant on the corner a few blocks over and they have karaoke. That would be a blast. Lacee says she can’t sing a lick, but I heard her humming and if you can hum, you can sing.”

“Ugh. I already don’t like you.” I pulled the cover over my head. “It should be against the law to be as cheery as you are.”

“Oh, you are so not getting out of this. I told her you were coming, so you are going to shower, put on some makeup, and that shirt is so twenty seconds ago. I have a shirt that will accentuate your positives. Come on. Get up.” She yanked the covers off me.

“By positives, I hope you mean my attractive neck or cute earlobes. I don’t do that plunging neckline stuff.” I sat up. There was no use trying to bail on her.

Nicki was not going to let me rest until I was partied out on my first week of school.

* * * *

Darkness dotted with intermittent light from lampposts covered the campus on the first night of classes. No one seemed concerned with class the next day.

Exhaustion tugged me like gravity, but bright faces, red party cups and lively music made it hard to want to stay in.

A burst of laughter exploded a few groups away from us.

Nicki dragged me past them to Nellie’s. It was primarily an Italian eatery, but also housed a coffee shop and bakery on the side. That’s where the night’s festivities would be held.

Tables placed close together near a stage were lit with amber candles. The rich aroma of ground coffee beans and pastries spiced the air with a homey feeling. Patrons varied from college students to families waiting to hear their friends and loved ones make either a star or a fool of themselves on the brightly lit stage.

Lacee and Nicki were up after a group of tipsy college guys and a girl and her mother. I laughed at them and took small bites of a cream cheese pastry I ordered just to make Nicki happy.

“You look like a malnutritioned, third-world country native,” she’d said.

“I think you mean malnourished.”

“Same thing.” She waved her mistake away.

I couldn’t help but laugh at her, though I thought that she might be right. I didn’t need to get run down because some of my classes were already proving to be mind boggling. I’d need the energy to be successful, especially since the Andrew guy I met was such a distraction in world religions.

I had seen him on the campus one other time that day. The way he’d turned and ran, it was as if he viewed me as the stalker now.

After a very colorful evening at Nellie’s, we laughed the whole walk home.

“I can’t believe that guy used his private parts in a pickup line. How lame is that?” Lacee said.

“I almost fell off my stool.” Nicki stared ahead at the fraternity house situated across from our dorm.

The silhouette of a guy walking about ten feet away caught my eye. His familiar gait was what caught me first. He ambled along slowly talking on his cell phone with his head down and his other hand in his trouser pocket.

The guy took his phone from his ear and stared up at the stars for a few seconds.

Nicki and Lacee turned back to find me stopped in my tracks.

The guy looked so familiar as he turned, loped up the steps, and stood outside the frat house door for a few long seconds before turning the knob.

“Are you coming or are you going to let the mosquitoes carry you off?” Lacee poked a hand in her hip.

“I—yeah, I’m coming. If I had the natural energy you two had, I would never get any sleep.” I rejoined the girls.

They smiled triumphantly as if I had bestowed them with a great compliment.

* * * *

Before leaving us, Lacee promised to wake us at 6:30 the next morning for breakfast.

I tossed and turned in my sleep.

In my dreams, Andrew ran from me all over the campus. After what seemed like hours of avoiding me, the dream switched focus.

The mysterious guy I’d seen on the walk home stepped out from behind trees then disappeared again over and over in different naturistic settings. We were in the woods, one time. In another, we were in a park in the city. Then again, we were back at the school, but the trees were thicker.

As it had been earlier that evening when I’d actually seen his silhouette, I still couldn’t put a face on him in the dream.

* * * *

I woke looking as if I had been run over by a truck.

“You are a noisy sleeper, and I swear I heard you say a guy’s name. Is there some vital piece of information you’ve failed to disclose?” Nicki crossed her arms at the foot of my bed.

“A guys’ name?” I groaned.

How did she do that? Her makeup was perfect; her hair looked as though elf hairdressers had spent all night on her hair while she slept.

“I don’t talk in my sleep.” I jerked the blanket off before she did it for me.

“Cole, Colby, something like that.” She tapped her bunny slipper-clad foot.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t know that name.” It was too soon to go into my whole life history and how that name tied so richly to everything about me. I stretched and yawned.

“I’ll get it out of you one day. Right now, I’m too hungry to focus on anything other than a menu. I think my stomach has become cannibalistic.” She turned to retreat to her room.

I threw on some shorts and a shirt. I was too tired to care what I looked like as I gathered my hair into a messy bun on my head.

“Ugh. You look awful.” Nicki complained as she threw open my door.

“I don’t think the food is going to care what I look like as I’m scarfing it down,” I said. “And have you ever heard of a thing called knocking?”

“We think it’s rude where I’m from. Me and my brother have full-blown conversations through the bathroom door when he’s taking a sh—”

“No more. I don’t think that’s pertinent demographical information.” I stepped past her before she could ruin my appetite. “I think we made it up before Lacee. She won’t have to come jump on my bed now.”

Nicki and I met Lacee at the front door of the dorm, but she wasn’t alone.

Andrew gave me a nervous smile and gave me a halfhearted wave.

I couldn’t believe he remained in the lobby after running from me at every turn the day before.

Lacee took his hand and flipped her long blond hair across her shoulder.

“Nicki, Allie, this is Andrew, Andrew, Nicki and Allie.” Lacee bubbled with excitement. They were definitely cute together.

“Nice to meet you.” My voice was stiff.

“Um, yeah.” Andrew looked at the white-speckled tile.

“Come on. I smell food.” Lacee pulled Andrew’s hand.

When Nicki and Lacee went to the bathroom, I leaned across the table as soon as they were out of earshot. “One day I’m your girlfriend, and the next, I’m a plague?”

“I didn’t mean to lead you on.” He looked uncomfortable.

“No. I didn’t think I was your girlfriend, but I thought we were at least beginning to be friends.”

“I don’t think now is the time to talk about it.”

“You have some reason why you didn’t want to talk to me.” I unfolded my napkin.

“Like I had been forbidden to talk to you?” He gave me a meaningful glance and then a nod.

The waitress interrupted us. The girls returned from the bathroom as if they had known the she would be on her way to bring the food over. The bacon smelled great, but it was difficult not to stare at Andrew. His last statement had piqued my curiosity.

“So Andrew, what are you majoring in?” I took a bite of my butter-covered, syrup-drowned waffle.

He glanced up at me. “Law.”

“Hmm, interesting. I’m still not sure what I want to be when I grow up.” Lacee giggled.

I couldn’t help but laugh when Andrew gave her a quick appreciative inventory as if he thought she might have already grown up.

His face reddened when he realized I had caught him.

I nodded at Lacee and lifted my brow.

He shook his head with an eye roll.

I giggled. He liked her a lot better than the stalker girl.

Andrew’s mood lightened the longer we sat at the table.

“Your popularity level just skyrocketed. What other guy on campus has three hot girls on his side at breakfast.” Nicki gave Andrew a wide smile.

The waitress brought the check.

Lacee chimed in. “Yep. The envy of every guy on campus.”

“One in particular,” he said under his breath, but I wasn’t sure that I had heard correctly.

“What was that?” I said.

Andrew pulled out his wallet. As he sifted through credit cards, his gaze was shifty. “Oh, I said I don’t have any small bills.”

He was hiding something.