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“You know Casey will never let you do that. He’ll take the floor first.”

“There’s no way I’ll allow him to do that. I’ll sleep on the couch then.”

“Trust me, you do not want to sleep on that thing.”

“Bathroom? Never mind. It sounded gross as soon as it came out of my mouth.” I run my hand through my hair. “You mean to tell me, out of a four-bedroom house, there’s nowhere for me to sleep other than your room?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

It makes sense. Casey’s room is the size of a shoebox, and with his dresser and desk, there is no room for a cot. I’m not sure why I didn’t think about this sooner or why Casey didn’t mention it either. Dammit, this is a mess.

“I’ll see if Casey will sleep on the cot in your room and let me have his room while I’m there. Surely, it will only be a week or two,” I say hopefully.

I feel like I might cry, and I definitely don’t want him to see me tearing up.

He just nods, turns, and walks back to the foyer.

I take a deep breath and place a hand on my stomach, trying to calm my nerves.

It’s going to be okay. I will be moved into my room here as soon as possible. I will survive living with Beckham. I will not strangle him or poison his food.I’m trying to manifest this all becoming my reality.

I mean, I won’t really harm Beck.I think.

But seriously, being around him on a daily basis again isn’t going to be easy because I’m not sure I’ll ever be completely over him. I’m trying to stay positive, but I can’t help but feel like something is going to change, and it might make things worse than they already are. I learned my lesson with Brit. I never felt right about going to Chandler State with her, and I won’t ignore my gut this time. So, I guess I need to pull up my boss pantaloons and take care of shit.

When I walk back into the foyer, Aunt Lindsay is standing there with Casey, Beckham, and now Arbor. Per usual, Arbor is salivating over Beck, which irritates me to no end. I know she always thought he was hot. It never bothered me in high school because he was mine. Now, he’s … not mine. She’s giving off flirty vibes to Casey, too, but she knows he looks at her like a cousin, so she doesn’t push that too hard and keeps her attention on Beck.

I walk over to Arbor and give her a hug—sort of to distract her from Beck, but also because I do love her. “Hey, Arbs.”

“I know this isn’t a great start to the school year, but I’m so happy you’re here at Walker.” She squeezes me tighter in response.

We have always been pretty close because our families spent a lot of time together. I’m hoping we’ll get to hang out a lot once I move in. I could really use some girlfriends.

Arbor and I let go of each other, and I turn to face my brother.

“Hey, Charlie,” Casey says. “Coach is totally fine with you staying with us. We’ll figure out the sleeping arrangements when we get there. It’s all good. Plus, I promised Mom and Dad I’d keep an eye on you. You know, fulfilling my big-brother duties,” he says with a laugh.

He’s actually three minutes younger than me, but because he’s so much taller, he likes to take the big-brother title.

I roll my eyes at Casey, which just makes him laugh harder.

“I texted Arch and Pitz, and they’re cool with it,” Becks chimes in.

I turn to Aunt Linds and say, “Okay, can you just keep me posted and get me in here as soon as possible? I love my brother, but I’d rather be here so I can actually focus.”

“Hey … I take offense to that. Aunt Linds, we’re extremely studious at our house. No shenanigans at Casa King,” Casey claims.

She just laughs and pulls him in for a hug while Arbor still stands there with doe eyes, looking at Beck.

Time to break that up …

I turn my gaze to Aunt Linds. “Okay, so if you can just bring the cot over to Casey’s sometime today, that would be amazing. We’ll get out of your hair now so you can get to work on whatever it was you were doing before we got here.”

I step in to give Arbor a hug goodbye. She hugs me back.

“See you later, Arbs.”

“Totally. And you can sleep over in my room with Lily and me anytime. It’ll be so fun to have you here this year, Charlie,” she says sincerely. “It’ll be just like our family get-togethers when we were kids. Except we won’t have to beg to stay at each other’s house anymore!” she says with a lift to her toes and a little clap.