Another smile tried to tease at my lips as I shot Marcus a look out of the corner of my eye. I hadn’t put up a fight when my parents had insisted that Marcus come with me to Georgetown. I’d been too lost in the mess that was swirling around in my head like a category-five hurricane to care one way or another. His presence had been kind of comforting and if he hadn’t been there with me I didn’t know what would have happened to me in the long run. He’d been the taste of normal that I needed to keep me grounded enough to keep what little hold I had on my sanity intact.
“I’ve given him the guest room and you are sleeping in my room with me. But don’t plan on getting much sleep Friday night. We have too much shit to catch up on.” Kin’s excitement was bubbling through the receiver and I lowered my eyes back to the textbook in front of me to keep anyone around me from seeing my tears.
Used to my silence by now, Kin went on as if I was just as excited as she was. “We’re going to have brunch on Saturday and then head over for graduation practice. Then we will grab dinner and go straight back to the apartment to watch crappy movies and gorge on junk food. I promise we won’t stay up too late, though. Carter has already told me that if I have dark circles under my eyes for all the pictures he plans on taking he will murder me.”
“Sounds reasonable,” I teased halfheartedly. “My mom has said the same thing to me at least twice now.”
This was the first graduation my mom would be attending. She hadn’t graduated high school, but had gotten her GED. Lana hadn’t gone to her own graduation, having chosen to stay in New York instead. I would be the first to walk across the stage and accept my diploma. I knew Layla was looking forward to that day more than I was. Everyone in my family was excited.
Except me.
“Riiiight.” Kin drew the word out for a long moment before going on. “So, yeah…After graduation and all the family pictures and hugs and the crying, Angie and Jace have a huge party planned for us.”
My entire body went still. This was the first time I was hearing about a party. Not that I would be opposed to drinking myself numb and having a good time, but it was the possibility of who would be attending this party. Especially if Jace St. Charles was co-hosting it. I was happy that Kin and Jace were together and holding strong in a relationship that never should have had any bumps in the road to begin with, but Jace was his best friend and I knew that he wouldn’t leave said friend out.
“Kin…”
“I know what you’re going to say, Lu. I understand, but…” She muttered a curse. “Harris is my friend, too. I would really like for him to come.”
Hearing his name was like being shot in the chest with a high powered rifle. I’d avoided all things concerning Harris for months now. At least I’d tried. No one spoke his name. No one offered information about how he was doing. The few times I had gotten bits and pieces of what was going on in his life I’d been left with new wounds in my soul.
The pain exploded and radiated through my entire body. I clenched my eyes shut, hoping to block out the picture that instantly came to mind of the guy who had been my everything and was now my nothing. It was no use, though. The picture would have come even if I’d kept my eyes open. He was too much a part of me for it not to.
I swallowed the lump that had instantly filled my throat. “Okay, Kin.”
“Okay?” She sounded surprised that I was giving in so easily. “Really?”
“Yeah. Really.” I started putting my books into my messenger bag. I didn’t have a class for another twenty minutes, but since I had an exam I wanted to get there early and get settled. “I have to go, Kin. Wish me luck on this stupid exam.”
“Good luck, babe. I’ll see you Friday.” There was a small pause. “And, Lu?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
I bit my lip and quickly hung up before I started crying. The human body wasn’t made to cry as much and for as long as I’d been crying. It felt like I hadn’t stopped since my birthday back in January and it was now nearly the end of May. I’d lost so much bodily fluids that it was a wonder I wasn’t constantly dehydrated.
I didn’t have to see Marcus to know he was behind me as I walked to my next class. I could feel his presence, welcomed it. Knowing he was there made it just a little easier to breathe. To get through the day-to-day things that I had to deal with so I could fall into bed each night and cry myself to sleep.
My sister kept saying it would get easier. That it had for her and that was why she had wanted me to go away for the spring semester as much as my parents had. There had been nights when all I wanted to do was call and scream at her that she was a liar. It hadn’t gotten easier for me. Nothing had gotten easier, damn it. If anything it was harder to force myself out of bed every morning.
Time didn’t ease a broken heart. At least it hadn’t for mine. The shattered parts hadn’t been miraculously put back together with the distance I’d put between myself and SoCal. I walked around with a gaping hole in my chest that was slowly killing me.
Before I could reach my class, my phone started going off. I didn’t have to look at the screen to know who it was. The ringtone was a soothing classical lullaby that brought me what little peace I’d fought to find. Without pausing, I pulled my phone out of the messenger bag and hit connect. “Hey.”
“Two more exams and your first semester is all over,” she said with a happy note in her voice. “You’re going to do great, baby.”
“Thanks, Aunt Emmie.”
“Your flight information is in your email. Kin is picking you and Marcus up, right?” She didn’t sound distracted, but I could picture her multitasking in her office in L.A.
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“Okay. Are you sure I can’t steal you away for a quick dinner or something after graduation?”
“You get me the day after graduation,” I reminded her. “I’ll be there for a few days before we leave for vacation.”
My parents were taking me and the twins to Florida for a few weeks. It would give us all time to catch up before I returned to Georgetown for the six-week summer semester. I was looking forward to getting to hang out with my little brothers and spend time with my parents, but at the same time I was dreading it.
“But I miss you,” she muttered, the pout in her voice coming through loud and clear.
“I miss you too. I promise we can have a day just for us before we leave.”
“Okay.” She was quick to jump on my promise. “I’ll make plans for us. Now…” I grimaced at her change of tone because I knew what was going to follow. “I finally got your credit card statement this morning. Why were you at a Med Express two months ago?”
I didn’t even blink at her question. I’d known it would come when she saw my statement, and I’d prepared myself for her inquisition. “I had a bug. Half the campus is still fighting it.”
“I wish you would’ve told me you were sick. I would’ve sent you a care package.”
I rolled my eyes, knowing what her care packages included. Soup from one of the best restaurant in D.C., a shipment of some of my favorite books from Amazon, and enough meds to see ten college students through a flu epidemic. Emmie Armstrong was just as overprotective as my parents were and I loved her for it.
When she wasn’t driving me crazy.
“I didn’t want to bother you,” I told her as I paused to open the door to the English department and stepped into the air-conditioned building.
Aunt Emmie made a disapproving noise. “You couldn’t possibly bother me even if you tried. I love you, baby. If you need anything you know I’m just a phone call away.”
I lowered my eyes, watching my feet as I took each step toward my class. “I know,” I murmured. “I-I love you too, Aunt Em.”
“Okay. Glad we got that covered. I’m going to let you go. Can’t wait to see you on Sunday, Lu. I’m so proud of you, sweetheart.”
Why was everyone trying to make me cry? I swallowed
the lump that was forming and cleared my throat. “Thanks, Aunt Em. See you soon.”
Hitting disconnect before she could say anything else that would have the tears flowing, I turned off the phone and stuffed it at the bottom of my messenger bag. Reaching out, I pulled open the door that led into my class and my eyes landed on the leather band on my wrist. I didn’t want to think about the lie I’d just told my aunt, or what was under the leather bracelet I’d gotten to cover up my tattoo.
Clenching my jaw, I focused my attention on finding a seat and took out my textbook to review a little more before the exam started.
Chapter 2
Lucy
LAX was beyond crowded when Marcus and I stepped off the plane. I adjusted my messenger back on my shoulder as I looked around for any sign of our ride while Marcus pulled our luggage along behind him. I’d texted Kin before the plane had taken off to remind her what time to pick us up, but there had been bad weather over the Midwest and the pilot had set us down in Arizona to wait it out.
I’d tried to call Kin to let her know we would be at least an hour late but she hadn’t picked up and I hadn’t gotten a response to my texts. Hoping that she hadn’t given up on us, I continued to glance around for the tall redhead who was my best friend in the world.
Oddly, it was her smaller stepsister who caught my attention before Kin did. Angie was standing with her back to me but I knew it was her despite having only met the older chick a few times. There was something about Angie Jacobson that screamed for people to look at her. She had the face of an angel, but I’d seen her temper at work and knew just how much of a demon she really was. I’d liked her immediately and had even kept in touch with her on social media and via emails.
Right then Angie was standing toe to toe with a guy in a TSA uniform who easily outweighed her by a good hundred pounds. He stood nearly a foot taller than her, but right then he looked like he wanted to shrink to the size of a mouse and scurry away.
“I told you that we’re waiting for our friend. Her plane was delayed and I’m not leaving here until she arrives. Go bother someone else, you vile ass—”
Kin stepped between her stepsister and the TSA officer, cutting off whatever the smaller chick was going to say. “Okay, then.” I stopped and watched as Kin gave the guy a bright smile, trying to defuse the situation. “Sorry about her. Our friend should be here any second now, sir. The plane landed fifteen minutes ago.”
“I’ll give you five more minutes but then you both best be moving on, ma’am. I can’t have people loitering around in here.” He shot Angie a cool glare. “It’s for the safety of everyone.”
Angie opened her mouth to slam him with more insults but Kin put her arm around her with a tight smile for the TSA officer and then quickly covered the older girl’s mouth. “We completely understand, sir. Five minutes and then we’ll be out of your hair. I promise.”
I glanced up at Marcus to see what his take on the situation was, but he was eyeing my friends with his ever neutral expression. The only sign I saw that he was even slightly amused was the small crinkles at his eyes as they tilted up the tiniest bit. For Marcus that meant he was highly amused and I found myself actually trying to smile.
Turning back to the two chicks still standing there while the TSA officer turned and went back to work, I hurried toward them. “Sorry we’re late. Bad weather made the pilot set down in Phoenix.”
Hearing my voice, Kin’s head snapped up and she released her hold on Angie as she rushed toward me, her long legs eating up the distance between us. In the next second I was being wrapped into a pair of arms that tightened around me to the point my air paths were blocked.
The familiar scent of Kin’s shampoo mixed with the warmth that was radiating out of her and into me was so welcomed that I felt tears burn my eyes. I clenched them shut and willed them away, not wanting our time together to start off with me crying. Sucking in a much needed breath, I tried to pull back, but Kin’s arms tightened even more.
“I’ve missed you so fucking much,” she muttered near my ear and my arms went around her, holding onto her just as tightly as she was me.
“I missed you too,” I whispered, no longer able to fight the tears as one spilled over my lashes.
“Maybe ease up a little, sugar bug,” I heard Angie say with a laugh to her stepsister. “The girl is turning purple.”
Kin instantly released me. “Sorry. I’ve just been so excited to see you.”
I found the will to laugh and gave her a tight smile, the best I could offer her right then. “It’s okay. I’ve been excited to see you too.” I hugged her again, then turned to hug Angie. “It’s good to see you. Sorry you guys had to wait so long.”
“We understand. It was that stupid TSA prick who couldn’t get it through his thick skull that we weren’t leaving without you.” Angie tugged me close and started leading us out of the airport.
“It started out with him flirting with Ang,” Kin informed us with a smirk as the sliding doors opened for us and we headed toward the parking lot where they had left Kin’s Range Rover. “He is so not her type, so she sent him running with his tail tucked between his legs. After that he turned into an asshole and would come around every twenty minutes to tell us we had to move along.”
“Guys are idiots,” Angie muttered, then grimaced and glanced up at Marcus. “Most of them at least. Not you, though.”
His eyes crinkled again, but otherwise remained impassive. Kin snorted out a laugh. “Nice save.”
“Shut it, Kin.”
Sticking her tongue out at her stepsister, Kin unlocked her vehicle and handed over the keys to Marcus. “I want in the back with Lucy and I’d rather get there in one piece, so I’m going to ask you to drive and not Angie. “
“I’m not a bad driver,” Angie said with a pout.
“In Virginia you aren’t a bad driver,” Kin corrected her as she climbed into the back seat. “L.A. is another story. Let the dude drive, Ang. I want to walk across the stage at graduation. Not do it in a body cast.”
“I’m never going to live down that fender-bender am I?”
“Probably not,” Kin said with a wink and pulled her seatbelt on just as I got settled.
Angie got into the front passenger seat and put on her seatbelt while sulking. Marcus finished putting our luggage in the trunk and climbed behind the wheel. Angie reached forward, hit the ‘Go Home” option on the GPS already up on the screen and then sat back to continue sulking.
Kin wasn’t even fazed by her stepsister’s pouting and turned to me with her blue eyes bright with excitement. “How was your flight?”
I shrugged. “Uneventful. I mostly read.”
“Good. Did exams go okay?” Her phone buzzed with a text, but she ignored it. “When will you know your scores?”
“They went well, I think, but I won’t know for another week or so.” Her phone buzzed twice more with new messages and I lifted my brow when she pulled the phone out and started to turn it off. “You should get that.”
“It’s just Jace. Caleb is spending the weekend at his apartment and they won’t leave me alone.” She shook her head with a grin. “They’ve been pranking me and Ang all day.”
“When does Jace’s sister graduate? Aren’t you two going out to Virginia for that?” I didn’t know much about Jace’s younger sister except that she was the same age as Kin and me and that she lived back in Bristol with their adoptive mother.
“Kassa’s is next weekend and we leave on Thursday.” She grimaced. “Thankfully Gray leaves on Monday so we don’t have to deal with his ass on the flight out.”
“Has she decided on a school yet?” I knew that Kin had picked UCLA and she and Angie would be moving from their current apartment into one closer to campus over the summer.
“She’s going to UCLA and going to live with Jace and Gray. She’d thought about going to the University of Tennessee but she wants to be closer to the guys, and it’s not like Alici
a will miss her. The woman has turned into a serious workaholic.” Kin made a face and shrugged. “Maybe Gray will calm down now. He’s been driving Jace crazy.”
“Nothing new about that,” I reminded her, and she grinned. Gray and Jace didn’t get along and barely tolerated each other. In the short time I’d known the two Tainted Knights rockers, I’d seen them butt heads repeatedly. The only things the two could agree on was their band and Jace’s little sister. To them, however, that was all that seemed to matter.
The ride to Malibu was spent with Kin mostly doing all the talking. I soaked up just being with her after so many months away. It was good to see her so happy. Since she had moved out of her father’s house, Kin had been able to be herself. With Angie living with her, she got to have a part of her family daily and her homesickness had pretty much evaporated. I knew that Jace was the biggest part of how happy Kin was, though. They were great together, even if it had taken me a little while to accept that Jace wasn’t the dickhead I’d originally thought him when I’d first found out he’d broken my best friend’s heart.
At the apartment, Kin wasted no time ordering us some dinner and then getting Marcus settled in his room before coming back to camp out with me and Angie on the couch. As much as I’d missed Kin, I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. Back at Georgetown I went to class, studied in the library, ate my meals in the cafeteria and then hid in my dorm room. It was the same cycle every day. Kin’s excitement was draining me and I was ready to crash before our food even arrived.
My eyes were starting to drift shut when my phone started ringing. Kin gave me a dirty look when I reached for it. “This is our time,” she grumbled.
“Sorry. It’s just my parents making sure I got in okay.” I gave her an apologetic grimace as I lifted the phone to my ear. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hey, baby. You make it to Kin’s?” Layla’s soft voice filled my ear.
“Yeah. I’m here and we’re getting ready to eat,” I assured her.
“Great. I’ll let your dad know. Do you need anything?”