Which also meant meeting guys was difficult. After all, who wanted to date the daughter of the Dean? I might as well have walked around with a bag over my head because no one ever looked my way. When they did it was only to whisper about how I was daddy’s little girl.
I hated it, truly I did.
I wanted to do something unexpected. Something that would make my father’s head spin. I wanted to feel alive, I wanted to break things and break rules. Kiss a random guy, steal something from a gas station. I wanted to feel the excitement and rush of the unacceptable.
“Daydreaming again?” I looked up from my laptop just as Darcy sat down across from me.
“What is it this time? A party you’ll never go to, a guy you’ll never talk to?”
She knew me too well. She was also the complete opposite of me.
Darcy was fearless. She never let the opinions of others keep her from doing something she wanted to. In fact it only managed to drive her further. She wanted to live. The difference is she did it, and not just thought about it.
It was always the same, the worry of what the consequences were after I’d decided to stop talking so much and start doing. The look I knew my father would give me, the disappointment in his eyes. After my mother passed more than twelve years ago, I was all he had left of her. He did his best, I know he did, but he overdid it. There was never any room left to breathe.
I needed to breathe.
“You don’t get it,” I mumbled, covering my face with my hand and trying to clear the urges from my mind.
“Believe me, I do get it.”
Lowering my hand, my stare landed on hers and a few silent seconds passed. I noticed the way she scanned the area around us. I assumed it was to ensure we were alone before she pressed on. “You’re twenty, almost twenty-one. You’re still innocent.” When she said the word innocent she widened her eyes as if it’s a terrible word. “’Your father is overbearing, and you deserve to have a life outside of him and his expectations. Living does not make you a bad person.”
“So I should sleep around and what?”
“You should get out and meet people. You are a ticking time bomb, and if you don’t spread your wings and soar you’re going to explode when you least expect it. You’re too sheltered, Ruby.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned back in the chair. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
That was one thing I could not do, because she was exactly right.
“I think we need to make a bucket list.”
“A bucket list?”
“Yes.” Leaning forward, she rested her elbows on the table and lined me up perfectly in her sight. “All the things you want to do but have been too afraid to do them.”
“This is ridiculous.” I rolled my eyes, but truth be told I was a little curious.
“Ridiculous but effective.” Pulling my bag down, she reached inside and gathered a notebook and pen. “Let’s write them down. If at the end you still feel like it’s ridiculous, then I will let it be. You can continue living your perfect little life watching everyone else around you do the things you wish you had the balls to do.”
One more thing, Darcy had also perfected the snarky bitch role.
We’d both grown up right here in Gainesville, Florida, so there was no one who knew me better. I was surprised, to be honest, that she was still such a close friend. She had her own group of friends, her own life, yet she had never pushed me aside. No, I didn’t go to the same parties, hell, I didn’t go to any parties, but we hung out. We studied together, had coffee together, and talked almost daily. I lived vicariously through her wild times only wishing that one day I would have the guts to let go and be half as adventurous as she was.
We sat in silence, almost like she was giving me the time to mull it over.
Me, with my hair styled to perfection, my pleated pants, and button up shirt. Ballet flats, clear lip gloss, and very light toned makeup. I was plain, I was invisible.
I didn’t want to be invisible.
“Heels.” A slow smile spreads out over her face just before she lifted her pen to the paper. “I want to buy a pair of heels and learn how to walk in them without falling flat on my face.”
“It just so happens that I have a closet full of them.” I looked toward the paper just as she wrote down the first item.
Rock a pair of heels like the hot girl I am.
With each entry to the list, Darcy put her own spin on it. I would probably regret this, in fact I was sure I’d feel so much shame when I was done, but I hadn’t remembered a time I’d smiled so much.
This was it, the moment of do or die. I could step up or I could continue to be invisible.
“So about those heels…”
Chapter Two
Jay
I climbed into the cab of my truck and placed the key in the ignition. Firing up the engine, it purred to life. My father might be a shitty father. He might have spent ninety percent of my life vanishing for weeks at a time, but one thing was for sure, he provided financially for my sister and me. We never had to go without, we had nice clothes, nice cars, and a fully paid education. He paid for my sister’s apartment, even when she was living with her douchebag ex, and
