“I just didn’t understand why. If you can get all these other girls, why would you even be wasting any time with me? Why bother taking me out for coffee? Because I can tell you right now, I’m so different from your average girl that is my age. I’m not ready to go into detail about anything just yet, but I’m not the type to hook up.” There. I said it. Now let’s see how he reacts to the fact that he’s not going to be getting any extras from me.

He took a minute to respond, though that minute seemed like an eternity. “Kelsey, I can promise you now that I have no ill-intentions toward you. There is something about you that I can’t shake and I honestly just feel the need to be close to you. I know that sounds completely creepy, but it’s the only way I know how to explain it.” He shrugged.

I knew all too well what he was trying to explain. It was the same pull I had felt toward him from the moment I saw him in the café.

“Well, I am looking for new friends.” I glanced back down at my coffee because the way he was staring at me was a little intense. “Can you do that, Kane? Can you be my friend?”

I’m so embarrassed that I let all that fall out of my mouth like that. Could I have sounded anymore babyish? Can you be my friend? I felt the need to bang my head on the table in front of me, but I refrained.

Kane surprised me by reaching across the table to gently lay his hand on my wrist. I looked up at his face and am confused that he seems upset.

“Kelsey, I would never try to coerce you into sleeping with me. That was never my style anyway. And why would I not want to spend time with you? I won’t lie about it, your beauty is the first thing that attracted me to you. But in just the short time that we have got to talk, I have enjoyed our conversations and can’t help but feel I want to know you better. I would never pressure you into anything, and when I say anything, I mean it. Even about your past. When you feel comfortable with talking to me about it, know that I will be here to listen. Friendship is something I need at the moment too. So I should be asking you the same question. Can you be my friend, Kelsey?”

His lips turned up into a tiny smile and I smiled back. I’m glad he didn’t think I was a complete dork for asking for friendship. Things like that used to come so easy to me before. I never had to ask someone to be my friend. If it weren’t for the incident that changed my life forever, I would like to think that I would still have the same group of friends. But things change … people change, and life doesn’t always work out the way you think it will.

Taking my free hand, I laid it on top of his. “Friends it is.”

While I was so happy to have finally made a new friend—deep down in my gut, I found it hard to actually believe that one could stay just friends with someone who looks like Kane. I could be setting myself up for disaster, but at the moment, I’ll take friendship with him over nothing at all.

The first week of classes had gone by as smoothly as one would expect college to. I was comfortable with my classes and the work that each professor assigned … and Kane had been right about Professor Hanson. After that first class, more than half the people in attendance dropped her class and she was a lot friendlier and less stern than she had presented herself to be originally.

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Jessi and Landon were still spending every ounce of free time they had together, which in turn, left me spending a lot more of my time with Kane. Every day we ate lunch at the same table, and every day after lunch, Jessi and Landon would run off to steal a few minutes of alone time before the next class began. Leaving Kane and I alone. And Kane, being the good guy he was, refused to ever let me walk to class alone.

I was beginning to form a friendship with Nate, also. We usually only had short chats inside the class while we waited for Professor Hanson to come in, because he seemed to always avoid walking out of the class with me like he’d done that first day. I think it was because Kane was now always waiting for me outside the door and Nate wanted to avoid another confrontation. But I was finding out that Nate was quite enjoyable to be around. Though his family probably had more money than God, Nate never seemed entitled to me.

His future involved following a plan that his father had picked out for him. He was to graduate med school and become a physician’s assistant in his father’s practice. The way he talked about it, he had no say in the matter, but he seemed to be okay with the general idea of how his life was already planned out for him. I wouldn’t be able to follow a set idea that someone had made for me, but to each his own. If he was happy following his father’s perfectly laid plan, then so be it.

It was finally Friday and as I was packing my things up, I saw a shadow fall over me. I looked up to find Nate standing there. His million dollar smile beaming at me.

“So she said we could pair up in groups for this next project. I thought I might see if I could work with you and your friend. Everyone else seems to have already teamed up.”

I glanced around the room, and sure enough, you could see little groups clustering and exchanging contact information. I looked over at Jessi, who just shrugged, letting me know she was okay with the partnership.

“Sure, that sounds fine. Why don’t you give me your cell number? That way we can text each other to go over what times and days would be best for all of us to meet up and start planning out this project.”

“Sounds great.” He tore a corner piece of paper from the notebook he had been carrying, and scribbled his number on it before handing it to me.

“Just text me whenever you want to meet up.” He smiled, then turned and headed for the door.

“The way I see it, the more people in the group the less I have to do, right?” Jessi asked as she rose from her seat.

We walked to the door, and as usual, Landon and Kane were waiting. I looked at Kane who was watching Nate head down the hall. When he finally turned to look toward me, I smiled at him and the scowl on his face immediately disappeared and turned into a full dimple smile. The fact that he was giving Nate that look didn’t escape me though.

“Hey, what’s up?” I placed my hand on Kane’s arm. I really wanted to know where the animosity toward Nate came from, but I didn’t want to pry.

He glanced at me, and then back down the hall before he spoke. “So you and Nate talk a lot?” He nodded his chin in the direction Nate had exited.

“Sometimes”—I shrugged—“Jessi and I are doing a project with him, though.”

“Oh.”




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