I resisted the urge to throw my napkin at her.
“I’m going to miss the accents,” Denver said.
“Ooh, good one.” Claudia nodded. “I’m going to miss Digestive biscuits.”
“Irn Bru,” Lowe named the Scottish soda drink that was surprisingly addictive.
“Milk.” Beck referred to the bar they played all the time.
“Scottish girls with purple hair.” Matt grinned at Rowena.
“Aw, that was kind of sweet.” Claudia looked as surprised as the rest of us.
He shrugged. “I can do sweet. I do know how to tone down all this raw animal magnetism.”
Claudia groaned. “Annnnnddd… he’s back.”
Laughing, Jake relaxed against his seat, his arm across the back of mine. “I’m going to miss,” he shot me a mischievous look, “Arthur’s Seat.”
Chuckling, I nodded. “Yeah, I’m going to miss that too.”
“Well,” Lowe scratched his chin, “I just learned more about Jake and Charley than I wanted to know.”
As everyone laughed, I leaned forward, looking at my friends, memorizing their faces. “I’m going to miss this. Right here.”
We were silent a moment, soaking it in, knowing that there would probably never come a time when we’d all be together again. Making great friends and saying goodbye—it was a bittersweet certainty of college.
My phone blasted in my purse and everyone groaned.
“Way to ruin the moment, Charley,” Lowe grinned, teasing.
I rolled my eyes at them as I pulled out my phone. “It’s my dad, I’ll be a sec.” I answered his call, laughter in my voice, “Hey, Dad, can I call you back, I’m—”
“Charley, something’s happened,” he interrupted, his words so grave, unease rolled up from my stomach.
I stuck my finger in my other ear to block out the noise around me. “What? What happened?”
“You need to come home, Charley. It’s Andie.”
The world narrowed, black shadows creeping in at the edges of my vision and my chest… my chest felt so tight. “Dad?”
“She’s been in an accident. She’s in a coma. You have to come home, Charley. You have to come home.”
“Oh Go—” The black swarmed my vision and I couldn’t breathe.
“Charley?”
“Oh my God, what’s happening?”
“Charley? Charley!”
“Jim, it’s Claudia. What’s going on?”
“Charley, are you okay?”
“Oh God… no… we’ll get her home.”
“Charley?”