Instead of riding my bicycle, I decide to drive, but only because those textbooks have a tendency to be heavy, and I don’t want to break my back trying to lug them to my apartment.
Once I’m on campus, it takes me a good ten minutes to find a parking spot close enough to the bookstore. As I go to pull into the spot, a motorcycle whips past me and into my spot.
I roll down my window. “Hey, jerkwad, that was my spot.” He climbs off his bike and takes his helmet off. I don’t like the way my heart races when I get a good look at his face. He’s possibly the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen, but I quickly push that aside because motorcycle dude comes strutting over to my open window. “You took my spot.”
He looks at the spot and then back at me. “I don’t see your name on it.” His grin is one I’m sure he uses on lots of girls. Too bad his charms aren’t going to work on me.
I repeat, Kill him with kindness, over and over in my head. Maybe he’ll move if I ask nicely. I force a pleasant smile that I hope he can’t tell is a fake. “No, my name is not on it, but you see I was waiting for the girl to pull out, and as soon as she pulled out, you pulled in. I had my signal on and everything.” Frick, kill me now.
He leans against my open window, and I ignore that clean and woodsy scent wafting off of him and into my nose. “Well then, I appreciate you holding the spot for me.” He shoots me a wink, drawing my attention to his gorgeous blue eyes. “Later, beautiful.” He walks away, and it takes everything in me not to run him over with my car.
It takes me ten more minutes to find a spot, and now I’m stuck in the back forty of the lot. My anger builds as sweat begins to roll down my back. I stop just outside the bookstore and take a deep breath.
The cool air hits me as soon as I step inside, and my freaking nipples get hard immediately. I remember a time when they weren’t this large—oh well, nothing I can do about it now except shift my bag so they’re hidden.
I pull out the paper copy of my schedule and the list of books I still need. This place is so huge. By now I should be used to it, but I always manage to get lost.
I’m weaving my way through the aisles and people when I hear a high-pitched giggle. At the end of the aisle is dickhead the parking spot thief surrounded by a bleach blonde harem. He looks up at me and shoots me a cocky grin. I suppose he thinks that’s supposed to make me swoon, but instead I stick out my tongue and flip him the bird.
I head down an aisle when he appears at the end. I ignore him and try to move past him, but he stops me with a hand on my arm. “That wasn’t very nice back there.” He sounds like a wounded puppy, and that damn intoxicating scent wraps around me, but I ignore how it makes me feel.
“You’re right; I’m sorry.” See, I can be nice. “See you around.”
I pull my arm from his grip and walk away. I don’t look, but I can feel his eyes on me the whole way. When I finally turn the corner, I lean against the shelf and take a deep breath. I’m never a mean person, and I shouldn’t have reacted like that.
Good thing this is a huge campus, and I’ll probably never see him.
***
I set my books on my desk, along with my notebooks and pens. Classes start in the morning, and I want to make sure I’m prepared. I’m a little OCD, I know, but I don’t like to feel rushed, so I want to be ready to just throw my stuff in my bag and go.
The front door opens, and I call out, “Hey, Nicole.”
She appears in my doorway. “Hey, girlie, getting all ready to start senior year tomorrow I see.” Nicole sits down on my bed.
“You know me. It’s so irritating, but I can’t help myself.” I’ve checked everything twice already, but once classes start the anxiety goes away, and then the OCD seems to go away or lessens.
She yawns, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. “I’m going to bed. See you in the morning.”
Nicole comes toward me. I hug her and kiss her on the cheek. “Goodnight.”
“Tell Ava I said hi.” She disappears into the hall and into her room.
I close my door and grab my laptop off of my desk and send my mom a quick text.
Laken: I’m ready when you are.
It takes a few minutes before the dots start to bounce.
Mom: Yay! We’re all ready.
I open my laptop and pull up the FaceTime app. I click on my mom’s name, and it starts making that familiar ringing sound. In seconds Mom’s face appears on the screen. Everyone always thinks that we’re sisters, not mother and daughter.
I have her wavy, light brown hair, pale blue eyes, her petite stature, but I’m slightly curvier. Our eyes are almost too big for our faces, and our lips are plump, except I’m the one with a slight split in my lower lip.
“Hey, Mom.”
She waves. “Hey, baby. Are you ready for school to start tomorrow.”
“I am. I think this is going to be my most difficult year, but I’m ready.” I bite at my thumbnail. “I-I’m so grateful to you and Dad. I feel guilty, though, like I should’ve stayed home.”
Mom smiles softly at me. “Honey, you said the same thing last year. We wanted you to have the full college experience. We’re able to do this so you can focus on
