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I jerk her forward into my arms. “No, you goof. You and me? We’ll never end.”
She turns her horse around so we can feel the warm Texas sun beat down upon us as we ride back toward the stables for what may be one of the last times in the foreseeable future.
For both of us.
CHAPTER FIVE
SEVEN VIRTUES, NORTH CAROLINA
Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Cybersecurity attacks can happen anywhere. Even e-readers can be hacked just by opening a single e-book infected with malicious content, according to research published at Defcon.
#defcon29
—Castor Newsroom
Four Years Ago—January
Wrapping my scarf tighter around my neck, I take a moment to inhale the cool air in my lungs before making my way across campus so I’m not late for my art history lecture.
If I were still living in Texas, I’d be in shorts and a T-shirt, I think with some amusement, despite the fact that it’s January and noticeably cooler. It’s one of the many changes I’ve quickly adapted to since moving to North Carolina. That and the rolling mountainous landscape in the small college town near the infamous Biltmore Estate is as far from the never-ending plains of Texas.
Texas. Kensington. Ethan. A tiny ping in the region of my heart stabs when I think about how long it’s been since I’ve received a text from him—even just a cheesy GIF or funny meme. Despite the obvious, I can’t stop my heart from being disappointed by the fact that now that I’m out of his family’s vicinity, I also guess he feels he no longer needs to keep his promise to me even to check in.
I mutter to myself, “I could be dead for all he knows. Then again, it’s not like I expect a man to look out for me anyway.”
Squaring my shoulders, I toss my hair and flash a smile at a handsome guy I recognize from my dorm who holds the door for me as I race up a flight of stairs to the second floor of Constantine Hall.
After what happened last fall at the party, it was hard to remain where I knew I didn’t want to be. I contacted the admissions office at Seven Virtues University and quietly arranged for a mid-year transfer the week I returned from my visit home during parent’s weekend. Though her timeline wasn’t as set in stone as mine was, Austyn was working as diligently as I was for her move to New York.
Both of us were done with the life we were living in Austin and each of us had plans that led to our dreams coming true. I championed her decision to seek out the bright lights and big city—a place I promised her I’d visit once I got settled—even as she offered up recommendations for me to help me with mine.
Finally, it was just the two of us together, right before holiday break, toasting each other with chai tea. “The one thing I’m going to miss about moving is you.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
“I don’t?”
“Nope. Want to know why?”
I lean back and watch as she picks up her guitar and plucks the strings. An Indigo Girls song that Austyn swears is our secret soulmate song fills the air. Just after the intro, her incredible voice belts “Power of Two.”
I am helpless to do anything but sing it back to her.
When it’s done, Austyn sets her guitar aside before her wet eyes meet mine. “It’s like the last stanza of that song, Fallon. We’re closer to being free than ever before, and if we have each other, we can do anything. We don’t have to be together to do that.”
Careful of her guitar, I dive across the space and wrap my best friend in a hug that seems to last forever back then but wasn’t near long enough, considering I haven’t seen her face in weeks.
Now, having moved, being first stunned then elated when my mother followed me to Seven Virtues since her job as an IT auditor permitted her to work anywhere, signing up for new classes, and having a front-row seat to Austyn’s New York adventure with the world in the palm of her powerful hands, life is good. I haven’t lost any of the important relationships I feared I would by moving to North Carolina.
Austyn and I talk almost daily—swapping stories about everything between what we’re doing every day to the men sliding in and out of our lives. Whereas Austyn is meeting smoking hot older men—the kind of guys right up my alley—I have a ready-made smorgasbord of hot young bodies, all of whom appear to be interested, but it isn’t in any way reciprocated.
I might break down soon though because, truly, there are only so many batteries I can order from Amazon before the shipping giant starts to target sex toys as my primary advertising.
Truth be told, I’m not playing hard to get. I’m just looking for a man and nobody I’ve met here has made me want to spread my legs to let him pump his cock in and out of me. I don’t want some boy who has no clue what to do with their scrawny bodies. They can shoot me puppy eyes and flash their dimples—it will be a long wait before I let one charm me into bed. For right now, it’s easier to ignore them all. Like me, Austyn is selective. She seems to have set her sights on a singularly arrogant, disappearing mess—her roommate’s brother.
To say we’re both sexually frustrated is an understatement. I wondered aloud to her on the phone the other night, “I have enough problems getting laid at this school.”
A welcome bubble of laughter escaped her lips. “Well, what did you expect?”