Mistakes
A Playing Games Collection
Candace Wondrak
Playing Games
Making Mistakes
Extra Scenes
Playing Games
Candace Wondrak
© 2019 Candace Wondrak
All Rights Reserved.
Book cover by Victoria Schaefer at Eve’s Garden of Eden – A Cover Group
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Chapter One – Kelsey
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. I was supposed to be here with my best friend, but luck was on her side, and Ash somehow got a fucking scholarship to one of the most prestigious schools in the United States. Her luck was my unluck, or whatever the opposite of luck was, because now I was going to room with a stranger. Yay me.
It wasn’t like I had anything against strangers, but it’d always been Ash and me. Me and Ash. The terrible duo. I was always dragging her into shit and making her do things she normally wouldn’t do. I was the wild child; she was the calm and collected girl who knew when to hold me back.
What the fuck ever. I couldn’t linger on it. I’d still bug the crap out of Ash by texting and calling her nonstop—I mean, she was rooming with a guy, for God’s sake. I had to know all the details. Wasn’t that what best friends were for?
My new dorm room was a little…uh, let’s just say cramped. My roommate was already moved in, her half of the room full of pink and fluffy stuff. Mom and Dad were supposed to bring the last load up from the car. Move-in day was hectic at Sumit Community College, which was crazy, because most kids didn’t even live on campus here. Most commuted. I could’ve commuted, but I wanted that college experience.
You know. The experience. The parties, the mistakes, the Thirsty Thursdays and all that. I might’ve been a freshman, but this wasn’t my first rodeo. I’d dragged Ash to college parties before. I knew my way around.
Don’t tell my parents that, though. They wouldn’t be happy to know their darling angel of a daughter was friends with alcohol and had lost her virginity years ago to some guy she barely remembered.
Yeah, my life definitely wasn’t all sunshine and roses.
My roommate was nowhere to be seen; she was probably making herself scarce while the parents were around. The halls were utterly chaotic, full of people pushing heavy bins to their kid’s rooms, and kids bouncing off the walls to meet their neighbors. Girls and guys were on the same floor, but the lounge and the elevator landing made up the space in between the two wings.
I was busy hanging up my clothes in the tiny ass closet while my parents brought up the last of what was in the car. Only bring the necessities, they’d warned me, and I’d done my best. Granted, I didn’t have many things anyway. We weren’t exactly what you’d call middle-class, but my parents tried. We were better off than Ash and her mom were. At least my parents had a house. Any place Ash had was always rented. They bounced around town so much, too.
No, I’d like to think my life was a bit better than Ash’s. Although, that said nothing about her going to Hillcrest. She’d probably graduate and nail a good job. She was book smart, knew how to take tests and write essays. Me? Eh, I was the kind of girl who procrastinated and refused to study until an hour before the exam.
I put away my clothes, made my bed, did everything I could basically while waiting for my parents. They were taking an unusually long time to come back up from the car. Maybe I should go find them. It was quite possible they’d gotten lost. The place was kind of a maze.
My flip flops hit the soles of my feet as I left the room. I closed the door, having the key in my shorts’ pocket. My neighbor was coming out of her room at the same time, and I narrowly avoided smacking into her as I walked.
“Sorry,” I said, the exact same time she said the same thing. I headed down the hall, passing a bunch of parents and other college kids, stopping when I came to the elevator landing.
SCC wasn’t as fancy as Hillcrest. I could only imagine what Ash’s dorm room looked like, what campus looked like. I’d seen their website online, but I knew seeing pictures and actually being there were two totally different things. SCC was…well, let’s just say you could tell it was a cheaper college. The buildings weren’t as updated, not shiny and new.
My parents stood off to the side, with the last rolling bin full of my stuff. As more people got on and off the elevator, they looked like they were having an intense discussion. I was about twenty feet away, and it was too crazy to hear what they were saying.
Mom was forty-three years old, with dark hair that was like mine. She looked good for her age, and people always acted shocked when she told them she had a daughter going into college. You can’t really be that old, they always told her, to which she usually laughed and shrugged it off. I hoped when I was her age people would tell me that. She seemed to like hearing it,
