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April- 4 months ago

CREEEEAK... I still and pause reading in the middle of my page to look toward the curtains billowing in the breeze of my open window. I strain my ears for any sign of movement.

Nothing.

Looking back down at my page, I jump as the first peals of thunder rumble in the distance. A late spring storm is rolling in, but thankfully, we’re not expecting any severe weather. This time of the year in Southern Illinois sees plenty of that as it is.

CREEEEAK...Creak...Creak…

Okay...that’s not just wind rustling branches up against the lattice outside of my window. I glance over to my clock, my pulse racing in a dead sprint.

10:47 p.m....Mom crawled into bed two hours ago and is likely deep asleep if she took her Xanax like I suspect.

Creak…Creak. My breath hitches as I hear leaves rustling, and then a semi-loud, “Oh crap!” has me launching myself from the sheets and running to the window, heart in my throat.

“Landon!” I whisper-yell, frantically darting my eyes back and forth across the grass below, half-expecting to see his body lying there all mangled.

“I’m okay, just slipped.” I startle as a hand grabs the side of my window frame and a breathless Landon slides into my sight, grinning as he hovers just outside my window sill, on top of the first floor’s roof.

“You gonna let me in?”

I smirk and raise my arms overhead, pushing the window down in one smooth move right in front of his face. His grin disappears. I giggle and saunter off, flopping back onto my bed in dramatic fashion. The window slides back open and Landon crawls in.

“You’re late.” I cock my eyebrow at him.

“Our game ran late, but you’d know that if you’d charge your phone.” He cocks his brow right back as he pulls off his backwards ball cap and runs his fingers through his dark blonde locks, tossing his hat over in my bright blue corner chair.

Crap. I forgot to plug it in, too excited to start my new book. Pushing my copy of The Fourth Wing over, Landon chuckles, knowing very well that I was immersed in a land of dragons and a sexy rider wielding his signet to save a girl he thinks is in over her head. Damn, I already love this book so much!

White paper waves in front of my face, snapping me back to reality.

“Hey, focus. Please tell me you didn’t open yours without me.” Landon’s eyes search for the envelope I’ve waited to open for three days until his arrived. I reach over to my nightstand’s top drawer and yank it out from under my notebook of ideas. Someday, I will write my own book for someone to get lost in.

“Gimme.” He snags mine while I grasp his between my fingers, nervous as hell. We both applied to transfer from the local community college to a university about an hour away in the fall.

“Roomie??” Landon queries excitedly on a whisper. Nervously, he eyes me as if his future is literally in my hands while confirming mine.

“Roomie!!!” I whisper-shout as I launch myself into my best friend’s arms. "You got it, Landon! You got the full-ride baseball scholarship!”

His megawatt smile lights up my world as he pulls back, wrestling the letter from my fingers just to see it for himself. The gleam twinkling in his eyes is like that of a kid on Christmas morning.

“Mom already has an eye on an apartment with three bedrooms close to campus for us,” I announce. “She knows a lady that’s willing to rent it to us cheaper than her normal tenants. She also feels much safer knowing you’ll be in a room down the hall and not getting arrested or breaking your neck trying to sneak through my window somewhere.”

Landon’s grin grows even wider as he snickers and snags me over for another lung-crushing hug, squealing like a teenage girl, “We’re going away to college!”