“Thanks. Cammie, my roommate, and I thought it would be nice making this place feel more like home since we are here most of the time. Have a seat.” She gestured to the couch she was sitting on. She had the same couch layout we did, a large couch right in the middle and two separate chairs on either side.
I took a seat next to her but made sure there was some room between us. I pulled out my stuff and set it beside hers before rubbing my hands.
“Ready to study?” I asked, glancing at her. She nodded, not saying anything. “Hey, you okay?” She seemed unusually quiet.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Before I could even question her, she was leaning forward to grab her textbook. “Let’s get started.” Her tone let me know the conversation wasn’t going any further. Respecting her wishes, I nodded and grabbed my stuff as well.
For the next twenty or so minutes Anna helped me through our study sheet for our upcoming test in calculus. At first, I wasn’t really paying attention, my eyes drifting to her, but after a few minutes I actually listened. The way she explained it was simple and easy, way better than the professor by far. While she explained it to me, I could see her quietness easing away. She was now in her element, that was for sure. She must have been uncomfortable around me at first, but now she wasn’t.
With only twenty minutes under our belts, we got a good section of it done before we took a small break.
“Do you want some water?” Anna offered, getting up off the couch.
“That would be great.” While she got the water, I finished what I was writing before setting it down on the table. My mind was on overdrive, but surprisingly, I was having a good time. Sure, we were only doing homework, and math at that, but it wasn’t terrible. I was just comfortable around Johanna, and that was a first for me.
It was silent for a few minutes as we both drank our waters, not really knowing what to say to one another. I decided to start.
“So you like math, huh?” I asked stupidly. After the words left my mouth, I wanted to slap myself for the idiotic question. She chuckled at me but shook her head.
“Not really, no.”
“But you are so good at it,” I said, surprised.
“That is thanks to a lot of studying and hard work. I am not the greatest with math, honestly. Now science, that is my forte.”
“What kind of science? Astronomy, biology, anatomy?”
“Anatomy. I want to be a nurse.” My eyebrows raised at that.
“That is great.”
“Both my parents are doctors, so it is kind of bred into me to do something in the medical field.”
“Why do you sound like you don’t want to do that?” I asked. I must have struck a chord because her head snapped in my direction and her eyes widened.
“W-what? I want to be a nurse,” she said defensively, but the way she said it was like she was trying to convince herself of that. Because we didn’t know each other that well, I didn’t want to dip into something that wasn’t my business.
“It is okay. You don’t have to try and convince me.” I held up my hand while leaning back into the couch. She was silent for a minute before she sighed.
“It isn’t that I don’t want to be a nurse, because I do. I want to help people and try to make a difference, even if it is small. It is just…” Anna trailed off. I watched her as she tried to put what she was feeling into words.
“It is just a lot of pressure, you know? My parents expect nothing less than perfect. All throughout high school I was pushed to get straight As, to be valedictorian, be at the very top of my class. That is all my parents really cared about. Not once did they ask me if I wanted to join any sports, clubs, anything besides focusing on getting into a great college to be a nurse. Actually, they wanted me to be a doctor like them, a neonatologist like my mom.” At my confused look, she dumbed it down. “A doctor that works on babies that have problems. Or be like my dad, a cardiologist. That is just too much of someone’s life in my hands for me.”
Wow, she came from a high-class family. I could see all the pressure she got from her parents wanting her to be perfect and follow in their footsteps.
“Pressure from parents is not the greatest,” I commented softly.
“What do your parents do?” Talking about my parents was a sore subject for me. No one but Gage knew what went on with my parents.
“My dad is the mayor of New York.” I sat there waiting for her to do something. I expected her to yell, ask a bunch of questions, or start acting all nice.
“Oh, I never knew. That must be kind of difficult.” Anna didn’t do anything I thought she would. No questions, no suddenly being so nice, no yelling even. Instead, she was calm about it all and said the one thing no one else had. Blinking, I slowly registered her words.
“Uh, yeah, it is pretty rough.”
“Why aren’t you more talked about? I mean, being the mayor’s son must mean you get photographed a lot and have to be seen at his convention, right?” I didn’t really want to have this conversation, but talking with Johanna, I didn’t feel pressured to say anything I was uncomfortable with, or that I was at risk of being judged. She wasn’t that kind of person it seemed. I found myself talking about my parents, something I never did.
“According to everyone I am not my father’s son.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, leaning forward a little and actually looking concerned.
“Before I was born, my father wasn’t anyone big. He hadn’t made a name for himself just yet, but he was on his way. He was slowly moving up in the spotlight. He met my mom at some little convention, and apparently, they fell in love. They were together for a little while before my mom got pregnant with me. Just as she did, he suddenly became famous. People recognized him, and what he did in the eye of the public was critical. He was going for city council and hopefully would be mayor one day.
“One day his publicist told him that if he wanted to be someone big, he had to get rid of his baggage, aka my mother and me. I was only one when my ‘father’ basically wrote us off. He made my mother sign a contract saying she wouldn’t tell anyone she had a kid with him, and in return he would pay her every month. So he moved us into a house and we never heard a word from him since, unless you count the monthly cash in my mother’s bank account.”
After my father wrote us off, my mother went in the deep end. She drank a lot and would occasionally yell at me for looking so much like my father. She never really cared for me. It wasn’t until sixth grade that I met Gage and finally had someone to relate to. With his own mother in the deep end like mine, we became best friends in no time. Gage’s grandmother became the mother figure I wanted and needed in my life. Without Gage and her, I wasn’t sure I would be here right now. I of course didn’t say any of this to Johanna. That was a little too personal to share right away.
“What an ass.” Anna’s voice brought me back. I raised my eyebrows. “What? He is.” I couldn’t help but smile at her. She was definitely something different.
“Okay, fine, your parent situation is worse than mine,” Anna said a minute later.
“How about we are equal in that department?” I suggested.
“Fine.” She grinned at me. It was one of the few times she had ever done that. Normally she was scowling or glaring daggers at me when I talked and annoyed her. Her pearly whites flashed at me and I felt myself return her grin. I could watch her smile all day long.
For the next hour we talked. We never stayed on one subject too long, and as time went on, I learned a little bit more about her. Like she liked to play guitar and sing. When I tried to get her to play and sing for me, she just punched me in the arm. I told her a little bit about Gage and some stories of us together. I even mentioned Carter, which she kind of went a little wide-eyed at, asking if I really knew her. She of course knew who Carter was and her family, no big surprise there.
It wasn’t until my phone binged with a text did our conversation come to an end. Seeing Gage asking if I was coming by to carp
ool with him to his fight, did I realize the time—5:15 p.m. I had been here at Johanna’s for about five hours already. Man, did time go by fast. I was enjoying getting to know Anna, and listening to her talk was something I could see myself getting used to hearing every day.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go,” I said, and I hoped my tone didn’t show that I was disappointed in leaving. If Gage hadn’t texted me, we would have talked for even longer until one of us noticed how late it was.
“That is okay. My roommate should be back any minute, and I promised I’d go eat with her and some friends,” Johanna said, quickly standing up and gathering her stuff on the counter. Mentally I was cursing at Gage for texting me, but I promised I’d go to his fight with him and I never missed one. In another way I was glad he did text me because being with Anna was very comfortable. I could feel myself getting too close too soon already, and I was not sure if that was a good thing or not.
I shoved all of my stuff in my backpack before standing up. It was silent once again as I stood there awkwardly. Should I hug her goodnight? Kiss her on the cheek? Say thank you for the good time? What should I do in situations like this!
“I…um, thank you for studying with me and helping me out with those questions,” I said lamely.
“You are welcome. I am glad you got it down for the test.” She sent me a small smile.
“You are a good teacher,” I said softly, looking down at her. The desire to kiss her was growing by the second, and I could even feel myself leaning in toward her. My eyes were glued to hers, and I noticed she was taking a small step toward me as well. It was like a string was between us, pulling us together.
Right as we started to bend our heads together, the front door opened. At the sound Johanna jumped back like she was caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to. I stood there dazed until a voice spoke.
“What do we have here?” a girl asked, teasingly.
“Nothing, he was just leaving,” Anna said, grabbing my arm and turning me around. I barely got a glance at her roommate before she was pulling me to the door.
“But—” I started to say but she cut me off.
“Thanks for the study session, Dylan,” Anna said, quickly opening the front door and shoving me out.
“You’re welcome. Do you want to do another session sometime?” I found myself asking before she shut the door on me. She looked over her shoulder behind her before meeting my eyes. It was like she was internally battling herself. I waited to be rejected as she parted her lips.
“Sure, I’d like that.” A smile appeared on her pretty face. Feeling almost giddy, I grinned back.
“I’ll text you later?”
“Yeah.” Her roommate was starting to talk behind her, and Johanna said something over her shoulder before turning back to me. “Have a good night, Dylan.”
“Goodnight, Johanna,” I said, enjoying the way her face turned a light red at my words. Mumbling something, she quickly closed the door. I didn’t even care she shut the door in my face. My smile grew larger. Whether she knew it or not, she liked me. Today just showed she was not uncomfortable around me anymore and maybe even liked me as a friend.
Smiling like an idiot, I shoved my hands in my front pockets before striding away from the door down the hallway. I might be starting to crush on Johanna already.
Chapter Seven
Carter
“What have you guys decided to do for your costumes?” Macey asked as we sat around our living room, surrounded by all the junk food you could want. We had Cheetos, candy bars, cookies, ice cream, cookie dough (more of that than actual cookies), and soda.
Because Macey and I had been so busy with school work and our boyfriends, we hadn’t really seen each other much, so we decided to have a girls’ night on Saturday. Amy sadly couldn’t come, saying she had to go out with the cheer team for some dinner thingy. Lately, I could feel us drifting apart, and I knew it was terrible, but I was too busy and happy with Gage to really care.
We had banished all the guys away so the both of us could have a night to ourselves for once, for the first time in a month. Both Gage and Luke were okay with it, but I had a small little feeling that they would crash our girls’ night.
It had been exactly two weeks since my date with Gage. Two weeks of getting even closer to him and falling even more in love with him. He was literally everything you could really want in a boyfriend. He of course didn’t like to admit it, but he was thoughtful, sweet, and always showed up to the class we shared with coffee for both of us. I was not going to lie and say he hadn’t done anything to piss me off yet, because he had. They had been little things, but nothing that a few kisses wouldn’t fix.
Things between us were moving steadily and I was fine with it going slow. With this only being my second serious relationship and Gage’s first, we didn’t want to rush anything. It was new to the both of us. Just thinking of him made me giddy. Who would have thought the guy that hated me—and I hated him at first, too—would now be dating.
“Earth to Carter.” Macey waved her hand in front of my face. I blinked, getting out of my thoughts about Gage.
“Huh?”
“Have you and Gage decided on your costumes yet?” Looking over at her I had to stop from laughing again. The both of us were sporting gorgeous facemasks that made us look like mummies. Macey pulled these out of somewhere and since it was a girls’ night, we decided we should do masks and our nails, which we had already finished.
Her mask was starting to come off and a piece was attached to her lip. I bet mine didn’t look as great either.
“I haven’t really talked to him about it yet,” I admitted.
“You better soon. The Halloween party is in two weeks, so you guys need to hurry and find a costume before they sell out.” I had kind of forgotten about the Halloween party that was being thrown here on campus. I wasn’t sure if Gage even wanted to go, but if I asked, I knew he would go with me. Our entire group was going, so Macey was going to force us to attend anyway.
“What are you and Luke going as?” I asked, scooping a spoon full of cookie dough into my mouth.
“Not telling you until the night of.”
“Please tell me. It isn’t ‘the slutty nurse and the doctor.’”
“No, we have more class than that,” Macey said, rolling her eyes at me. What? I wouldn’t put it past them to do something like that.
“Sure you do,” I muttered softly.
“How are things going between you two?”
“Good. Really good, actually,” I said, grinning. “How about you and Luke? You guys seem really close for only being together for a few months.”
“I like him a lot. He is a lot sweeter than you would think.”
“He’s my brother. I think I know what you mean.” She stuck her tongue out at me.
“So I take it you are over Ethan then?” In all honesty I hadn’t thought about Ethan since I met Gage. He made me forget about him completely. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing—more of a good thing, I think. My crush on Ethan was nothing like what I felt for Gage. Yes, I loved Ethan and I think I always would just because he had been a major person in my life since I was little.
“I think I am.” I wasn’t all that sad about it either.
“Good. Gage is good for you. I like him.” I pulled her into a side hug. I was glad my best friend liked him because her opinion did matter.
For the next little bit, we ate all of our snacks while watching the Halloween movie marathon on ABC Family. Right now it was Hocus Pocus, but Twitches was coming up, which Macey and I were very excited for. When we were younger, we would pretend to be sister witches. It drove our parents nuts, but it was fun.
The movie was about to end and we were going to get up to take our masks off, when a loud knock came on the door. Both of us jumped and grabbed onto each other. We weren’t expecting anyone. The two of us sent each other looks before we stood up. I grabbed the big bottle of Sprite as my weapon and Mac
e grabbed the remote. I snorted at our weapons of choice, but the knock came again, making me stop.
Clenching onto Macey’s arm with her gripping mine, we slowly made our way to the door. Silently counting to three, we grabbed the handle and swung the door open, brandishing our so-called weapons. I threw my half-full bottle at the figure in front of us while Mace used the remote as a sword.
“Fuck!”
“Ow!”
“Stop it!” yelled two manly voices. Mace and I stopped, finally seeing that there were two people in front of us and they were very familiar.
“Luke! Gage!” we yelled at the same time.
“What are you guys doing here?” Macey practically yelled at them. They were each holding the parts of their bodies we had hit.
“We came by to make sure you guys were okay. Terrible idea.” Luke groaned. “You got my face, Macey!” Seeing as he was hurt, Mace dropped the remote and gently grabbed his arm to pull him inside, checking his face.
I looked at Gage who was holding onto his family jewels. This time I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at his red face. Apparently, my aim wasn’t that great…or was it?
“Y-you okay?” I asked between giggles.
“No. That fucking hurt.” He wheezed, still clenching himself. I sobered up a little, enough to grab his arm and help him inside. Shutting the door behind me, I led him to the couch where he collapsed. On the other end Macey was looking over Luke’s face, which now had a bright red bump on the cheek. I think it was safe to say us girls would be fine defending ourselves.
“Terrible idea, Luke,” Gage said, slowly getting his voice back.
“How was I supposed to know they would go all ninja on our asses?” Luke said defensively. “And look like weird mummies.”
“Mummies?” I echoed, not sure what he was talking about.
“You have something weird on your face,” Gage pointed out. I had completely forgotten about our masks, and I bet we did look pretty funny with them on.
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