her ass, so it had worked out marvelously for me and the oversized kangaroo costume I’d worn. Since today was the last day of final exams and Christmas was just a few days away, Apley Court was a ghost town. Most of the residents who’d avoided me like the plague these last couple of months had already migrated back home for winter break, and I was grateful. I kept my fingers crossed as I slowly climbed the stairs that my roommate had already fled campus, too.
Nope. No such luck.
I barely suppressed a groan when I stepped inside and found her zipping her suitcase closed. Mary Marshall was a law major—or at least she planned to be. She definitely had the personality for it with her inquisitive nature and tendency to give strangers the third degree. She was also high-strung and a chatterbox, but at least she kept her side of the room clean. If only she could figure out how to stay on it. Personal space was not something the freckle-faced redhead understood.
Hearing me enter, she looked up, offering me a cheerful smile that I managed to return before turning toward the walk-in closet I’d lucked out on and dragging my suitcase out.
“I’m so excited to see my mama and daddy and little brothers,” she immediately began. I closed my eyes, hoping to block out the sound of her voice. Mary was a Georgia native, and her southern accent only reminded me that I hadn’t spoken to my best friend in more than two months—despite her frequent calls and texts. “I’ve never gone this long without seeing them before.”
Mary kept speaking despite my lack of response, and the more she talked, the more I began to contemplate calling my dad and telling him that I wasn’t coming home for winter break. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t go back to Blackwood Keep and face all that I’d left behind and the people I pushed away. All because of him.
Vaughn.
What if he also went home for winter break? How could anyone expect me to breathe the same air as him after what he’d done and who he’d done? Already feeling like I was suffocating slowly, my breaths became short and rapid.
“Are you okay?” my roommate paused long enough to ask. She rushed over to me, concern in her wide-eyed gaze. “Is it—”
“I’m fine.”
Like my classmate, she immediately backed off, and I started grabbing shit. I didn’t care what as I threw them inside of my open suitcase.
“Do you need help?” she asked as if I were a fucking invalid. “My cab is already on the way, but I can—”
“I said I’m fine.” Jeez, relax your tits, Bradley. She’s just trying to help. Except, I’d already learned the hard way what letting people in got me. Sighing, I forced my tone to sound more pleasant. “But thank you, Mary. You go,” I insisted. “I’ll be okay.”
She stood there watching me for a few seconds longer before grabbing the handle of her suitcase. “Okay!” Her tone was cheerful again, though, for the first time, it sounded forced. “Try not to have too…much…fun…” She faltered, her gaze dipping briefly, and then her cheeks turned tomato red before she made a break for the door.
I sighed.
Thirty minutes later, I got a text from my dad telling me he’d arrived. Grabbing my suitcase, I locked up and stubbornly dragged it downstairs despite his offer to come up and help. I didn’t know if anyone was left in the dorm. I couldn’t risk anyone witnessing my father go ballistic when he finally saw me for the first time since August.
Here goes nothing.
A mere two days after my arrival, Four had shown up unannounced. My father turned her away at my bidding, but he hadn’t approved of me taking the coward’s way. Considering the circumstances, however, he had no choice but to relent. I knew when I watched from my bedroom window as she roared off on her Café Racer that I wouldn’t be able to hide forever. I missed her so much my heart ached, but it was also because the spring semester wouldn’t begin for another three weeks. That gave her plenty of time to corner me, and I knew she wouldn’t give up. If you looked up stubborn in the dictionary, you’d find Four with her middle finger up.
To delay the inevitable, I didn’t leave the house. Not even to check the mailbox or to celebrate the new year. I’d spent the entire two weeks