“Fine.”
A huge smile curved my lips and I danced in place.
“What about housing?” she continued. “Do you even have a place—”
“A friend of mine is moving out of his apartment and is letting me stay there over the summer.”
“Is it a nice place? In a good part of town?”
“Mom. It’s five minutes from campus. It’s great.” Not a lie. Mulvaney’s is right around the corner from campus. I just omitted the part about it being located on top of a bar.
“All right. Georgia. I can see you want this. We were just looking forward to having you home for the summer. We miss you.” At that, guilt stabbed at me. My mother, my family . . . they just loved me. Mom especially. She cared about me. I shouldn’t resent her for it. My mom wasn’t like Pepper’s—a drug addict who’d abandoned her only child. Or Emerson’s mother who was, depending on the day, either cruel or indifferent to her daughter. My mom cared too much. That was her crime.
“Find out the timeline. Maybe you can schedule a trip home before school starts in the fall.”
I nodded, happiness bubbling up inside me. “I will. I’ll let you know.”
I stayed on the phone for a few more minutes, in such a great mood that I even tolerated her sharing all the latest Harris news with me. Apparently Mom had breakfast with his mother at the club last weekend. I didn’t even interrupt when she voiced—again—the inevitability of our getting back together.
Ending the call, I propped my hands on my hips and surveyed my dorm. Suddenly packing wasn’t such a dismal prospect.
THE LAST WEEK AND a half of classes flew by. My final paper was turned in. My last exam taken. All my boxes were packed—and not just mine, but my roommates’, too. We were all moving out. Moving out and moving on.
I sat on Pepper’s bed next to Em, watching as Reece lifted the final box and marched out into the hall with it.
Pepper sank down on the mattress beside us. The mattress was stripped of sheets and made a faint crackling sound with the addition of her weight. The room was completely bare. Naked brick walls stared down at us.
“This is it,” Pepper declared with a forced smile.
My eyes ached a little, burning with the threat of tears, as I stared at her. I reached out to caress the loosely braided auburn hair that hung over her shoulder.
“It’s not like this is good-bye,” Emerson declared after a long moment of silence.
“Yeah, I know. We’ll get together every week,” I said, my voice a little strangled even to my ears. “We’ll always have Teen Wolf night.”
“That’s right,” Pepper agreed, pointing at both of us in mock threat. “We watch it together. Reruns, fine, but new episodes are off-limits.”
But it won’t be the same.
The three of us would never share our lives together in the same way again. Pepper would be living full-time with Reece. Even in the fall when Emerson and I moved back into the dorm together with Suzanne (she had agreed to move in with us), it would never be like before. Em would hardly ever be there. She’d be with Shaw. And it would only be a matter of time before Suzanne had a boyfriend, too.
We were moving on. Growing up. It was right. Good. And I was happy for all of us. So why did this suck so much?
Pepper hugged each of us, her arms squeezing tight. “You sure you don’t need help moving your stuff to Mulvaney’s?”
“No, I got it. Reece already helped me get everything in the car.” There was nothing left for me next door. Just an empty room like this one. “I can take it from here. I’ll head over this afternoon.”
She nodded and we all hugged again like it was the last time we would ever see one another. “At least shoot me a text when you’re on your way over and I’ll meet you at Mulvaney’s to officially introduce you to the staff.”
“You don’t have to do that. You’ll be busy settling into your new—”
“No, I want to. Reece has to go into work later at the new location anyway, so I’m happy to do it.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
Pepper left then and Em and I turned to face each other. She bumped her knuckles with mine with exaggerated slowness. “So proud of you, friend.”
I blinked. “Me? Why?”
“I know your parents were pressuring you to go home for the summer, and I know you didn’t want to. Good for you standing up for yourself.”
“Working with Dr. Chase is a great opportunity.”
She shrugged. “Spin it however you like. You’re here and free for the summer.” She grinned then. “Now don’t get into too much trouble at Mulvaney’s.” Her pretty grin then turned into a giggle. As if the idea of my getting into trouble was so outrageous she had to laugh.
I laughed as if that was ridiculous. “Oh, you know me. Troublemaker extraordinaire.”
I had a flash of myself at the kink club with Annie. I had been on the verge of getting into trouble that night. And that had been the goal. To shake off my self-imposed constraints and not be so boring for once. To be wild. If Em knew that, she might not laugh at the suggestion. She might actually be worried I would do something reckless and get into trouble living above Mulvaney’s.
She considered me for a moment, her lovely blue eyes sharp with speculation. “On second thought, a little bit of trouble might be good for you.” She held up her thumb and index finger, pinching a small amount of air. “Just a little bit. Nothing to land you in jail or anything.”
I seriously laughed at that. I’d never so much as gotten a speeding ticket. “Oh, really? Is jail when you’ve gone too far then? Is that when things have officially gotten out of hand?”
“Yeah. Jail is a no-no. But you’ve been the good girl long enough. Maybe you need a wild summer.”
It burned on my tongue to tell her about the kink club right then, but I held back. First of all, she didn’t approve of Annie, and once I weathered her disapproval for hanging out with the girl who abandoned her at a biker bar, she would demand all the details. Considering most of those details involved Logan Mulvaney and a kiss that left me all hot and bothered, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her. The very idea made me wince. “I’ll be working . . . doing research, remember?”
“Not every moment of the day. You’ll have plenty of time for play.”