minutes, so I can’t talk long.”
Mercer giggled in my ear as she apologized for not calling me back for days on end. “I’m in loooooooooove, Ollie.”
The sing-song tone was nothing unusual. Neither was her over-the-top declaration. She’d been in looooooooove at least five times since I’d known her.
“I’m happy to hear that, but I need to know if you are still planning on letting me work weekends for you now that I’m back at school.” I needed the minimal hours at Mercer’s shop for spending money so I could splurge on things like my spilled coffee.
Mercer laughed again, and I could almost see her tossing her rainbow hair over her shoulder. “You can work whenever you want. The other girl I had covering nights decided to quit suddenly, so there are extra hours available. I’d happily cover them as usual, but now that I have a man,” she sighed in such a dreamy manner, it was hard not to laugh at her. “I can’t wait for you to meet him. He’s not my normal type, but he’s so handsome and charming.”
I paused outside the doorway to my classroom. “Just text me when you need me to be there. I gotta go, but don’t ignore my calls for so long. I worry.”
She was too nice for her own good. She would never see any of those guys whom she fell in love at first sight with as a threat. That’s all I ever saw.
“Okay, okay. I’m really sorry that my head has been in the clouds lately. Love does that to me. How are things at the house? Did you and that boy call a truce yet?”
Typical Mercer. She wouldn’t call me back when I had nothing but time on my hands and needed to hear a friendly voice, but as soon as I had somewhere else to be, she was super chatty and curious about what was going on in my life.
“Not even close. I think he’s actually declared war, but I have too much to lose if I let him run me off. I’ll talk to you later. Don’t forget to send me those shifts I can cover.”
I clicked off the call before she could launch into more details about her love life and slid into the full classroom. Luckily, the professor had yet to arrive. I slid into a remaining seat that was somewhere in the middle and pulled out my laptop. I scowled at the brown spots that had dried on the toes of my boots and absently hoped I hadn’t ruined Huck’s shoes.
It was a change from when we were younger. When we weren’t in our school uniforms, we used to live in secondhand stuff and whatever my mom could get us from one of the big box stores. It was weird that his father hadn’t protested Huck dressing the same as the help’s kid since he was so concerned about image, but I was sure it all came down to keeping up appearances. There was no way Sawyer’s mom would let the unwanted son look as put together as her own child, especially when they were in the same grade at the same school. I still lived in hand-me-downs and thrift store finds, while he was rocking stuff I knew cost more than the average, broke college kid could afford. He must be a really, really good bartender. He must’ve figured out how to leverage making money off that pretty face and ripped body of his. Which would explain how he kept the motivation to get up so early each day and tackle a workout with Harlen.
Lost in thought, I jolted when the girl sitting next to me suddenly nudged me with her elbow. My whole laptop shook in front of me, and I had to reach for it so it didn’t slide to the ground.
“Are you friends with Huck Snyder? I saw the two of you talking outside before class.” The girl looked at me with eager eyes, and I could see that her cheeks were flushed in excitement.
I was familiar with her expression and her question. When I was younger, it felt like my entire identity was tied to knowing Huck and Sawyer. It was almost as if no one had any use for me beyond using me as a stepping stone to get to the brothers. For a while, I tried to pretend I didn’t know either one of them, but neither boy let it slide. We were all tied together for