Page 3 of Enough Isn’t Everything (Everything Trilogy #1)
Chapter Two
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
My amazing friends arrived in the early afternoon after their long road trip from Oklahoma, and they went straight to the coffee house near the condo.
Partly because they were starving, but the deciding factor was that Holly desperately needed to pee and she knew she wouldn’t make it to the apartment.
My cell buzzed and vibrated on the nightstand. Answering, Saffy squealed excitedly for about thirty seconds, before telling me where they were and asking me to join them at the coffee shop.
Dressing quickly, I pulled on a cream maxi dress with a smattering of gold spots, and some cream flats. Wrapping my long dark hair in my hands, I put it in a bun and tucked it under my large sun hat, then grabbed my keys, phone, purse, and shades, before I headed out to meet them.
Holly waved at me excitedly from the window of the coffee shop, before both she and Saffy ran along inside, waving at each window as they passed. They disappeared from my view for a second before bursting out of the door.
Excited screams pierced my ears, and they both hugged me in a group hug kind of way. “Wow. You look fabulous honey,” Holly said in her slow Texan drawl.
We hugged tightly again. She looked great and smelled of vanilla and peppermint chewing gum.
Holding my hands, she pushed me away from her and took in my appearance.
“Well, look at you, pretty as a picture, and cute as a button, but we’ll have to help you get a tan, honey, you’re way too pale.
” Giggling, she flashed her perfect white teeth at me with her perfect smile.
Holly’ continued to smile sweetly. I looked at her pretty sun-bronzed face, as her almond shaped brown eyes gave me the once over. She was stunningly beautiful—a classic model shape—tall, leggy, and lean, with natural platinum blonde hair. No effort to look good was needed, she just did.
Saffy pushed Holly out of the way. “Hey, stop monopolizing Lily, she was my friend first.” Saffy snickered at Holly, and Holly gave her a look of mock anger. Saffy always looked like a rock chick. She looked a bit like Avril Lavigne but with an added bohemian, chic twist.
Petite and pretty, her hair was a sun-kissed golden color. It cascaded thickly down to just above her waistline and she had stunning, vivid blue eyes. Her dad called her a ‘pocket rocket’ because she was small but housed a sassy nature and a fiery temper.
She was wearing the cutest burnt orange dress, made from chiffon, that hung on her curves and ended mid-thigh—few women could carry a look like that off, but Saffy rocked it.
Gorgeous, tanned legs ran down to feet encased in little ankle boots that were incongruent to the outfit, but on her, were a perfect finish to her ensemble.
She’d accessorized perfectly with just the right jumbled assortment of beads and bangles.
Holly ordered some bagels and more coffee, and we all sat down to chat.
Everyone began to talk at the same time.
Trying several times to restart, we all began to talk together again.
Once we settled down, we chatted like old times.
It felt incredible to be able to spend time with them without worrying about how soon we’d be leaving as was often the case in the past.
Holly had been Saffy’s friend since the age of five.
Saffy’s dad was an engineer, working at Holly’s dad’s oil company, but there was much more than an employer and employee connection.
Their dads also spent time together outside of work because they shared a common interest, a love of classic cars.
The girls also spent a lot of time together growing up in their dad’s garages with them.
Time flew by, and we sat in the coffee shop until almost 3:00 pm, making plans and talking about the previous week. Saffy shocked us when she candidly told us about the night before when she said she had fucked a guy in the back of his truck after spending an evening in a bar with friends.
Apparently, this hot looking guy had slipped his hand up her skirt when she stood at the bar, tugged the leg of her panties to one side and began fingering her. When my mouth dropped open in shock, she laughed and threw her head back, her hair fanning through the air.
Normally, Saffy was a forward, free spirit, but when I heard her nonchalant disclosure, like she’d just gone and picked up some milk from a store or something, it was jaw dropping.
“Saffy.” I blinked hard then stared in disbelief.
The wicked grin on her angelic face was too much as she looked mischievously back at me.
She shook her head and laughed so hard I began to feel like it was my reaction that was off.
“What?”
Blushing, I looked away, breaking eye contact with her. She responded by laughing harder. “Oh. Sweet, innocent, Lily! You haven’t lived until you’ve had some rough sex in the back of a truck. It was hot. He was a hot, horny, dirty boy!” She wiggled her brows wickedly.
Shifting uncomfortably in my seat, I looked around the coffee shop to see if anyone else was looking at us and felt mortified by her behavior.
I had only ever heard boys talk about sex like that.
Holly scolded Saffy for making me feel uncomfortable, as I tried to recover from what she had just said.
Saffy waved the back of her hand in my direction as if brushing me off and continued, “Talking about being uncomfortable, he fucked me so hard I could hardly walk yesterday.” Holly and Saffy giggled again.
Forcing a smile, I pretended to enjoy what she was saying, not wanting them to think I was a prude, but I had no real understanding of what she was talking about.
We made our way to the apartment, and I left the girls unpacking there.
The next morning, I had to register at college.
I dressed in a jade green T-shirt that hung off one of my shoulders, leaving a black bra strap showing, and pulled on some three-quarter length white pants.
Leaving my hair down and with no makeup on, I looked more like any other ordinary student.
Jade was my favorite color and suited my long dark brown curly hair, which the Florida humidity had made look even wilder.
Knowing I would be wasting my time trying to straighten it due to the humidity, I decided I’d only to do that on special occasions when I didn’t need to go outside.
Friends always went on about how lucky I was to have the choice of curly or straight hair, but I wasn’t enamored with the curls—I felt they made me look younger and unsophisticated.
Even although I had only spent a short time in the sun the previous day while talking to the girls on the phone, my skin had a slight golden glow to it.
Granted, it wasn’t a tan by Holly’s standards, but I could see a difference in the color of my skin.
I was already feeling better, my eyes looked brighter, and I didn’t feel as self-conscious about how pale I was.
Climbing into the little Chrysler PT Cruiser rental car, I headed out to the college.
I knew I had to organize a proper car, but for that first couple of weeks I had wanted to concentrate on getting settled in at college.
Another bout of nervous excitement gripped me as I arrived.
Butterflies had taken up residence in my stomach and my palms were sweaty and this time it wasn’t from the heat.
Following the signs to the registration office, I waited in line for my turn to speak to the gray haired woman with the soft, friendly tone. She was very helpful and took extra time to help me understand things.
Pointing out the ‘meet and greet’ sign, she mentioned it was a place for new students to meet with existing ones and suggested it would be a good idea for me to connect with people, prior to my courses starting.
Deciding it was a great idea, I began to make my way there, eager to network and cultivate new friends, especially with people who were like-minded and musically talented.
Nervous energy ran through my body making me buzz with the anticipation of having to put myself out there with new people. I bravely forged on, determined to lose some of the shyness and immaturity that everyone told me held me back.
There were no concerns about my musical ability. I knew I wasn’t an exceptional musician, but I also knew people were happy listening to me. I’d been playing guitar and piano since the age of six, and even I knew I had presence with that.
My dad once said I had the ability to capture the room in my hands when I played, but then again, he was my dad, and tended to be somewhat biased where I was concerned. My music tutors had no need to rave about me, but on previous occasions they had for some reason.
Everyone kept asking me to sing. I knew my voice had an unusual tone and a wide range, but I didn’t have the confidence to put it out there.
There were no issues at all with people watching me play, but as far as singing was concerned, I thought I’d be less self-conscious if I were to model naked in a life art class, than I felt singing with all my clothes on.
There was something about singing in front of people that incapacitated me and I felt tongue-tied when the focus was on me doing that.
I knew it sounded crazy but singing had somehow felt more intimate than playing an instrument.
I had hoped that college would change that for me, and I’d be able to at least challenge myself to sing publicly and enjoy it one day.
At that point, I had to be very drunk to be okay with singing in public.
No one knew me in Miami though, and I thought maybe I could reinvent myself.
I’d been told many times by my friends, never to say never to anything.
So the jury was still out on whether I could achieve a public singing performance or not in the future.