“Definitely not….Edwards cuter!” Kara looks to me for added support.
“Ok…I have to stick with Edward Beth…sorry.” I like any red blooded American girl cannot hide my love of all things related to the Twilight book series or Edward Cullen. “Seriously though…vampires and phasing wolves aren’t real and neither is any guy remotely like Edward Cullen. Rob Pattison is real…but sorry girls you’d have to fight Kristen Stewart for him.” I laugh as Kara pretends to faint.
“I can dream can’t I…maybe some guy is like Edward…maybe even a vampire?”Kara laughs.
“You're nuts.” Beth shakes her head. “I’d take any half way decent guy…vampire or wolf.”
I have to laugh at them, and the silliness of anything remotely like Twilight being real is a nice break for me. I watch them laughing and teasing, and feel almost like myself again, and I like the feeling a lot.
“Oh ok…ok so your new neighbor is cute. That’s what I was trying to explain to you two weirdo’s!” Kara gets back to the original topic of our discussion as she picks several pieces of pop corn out of her hair.
“Where did you see him?” Beth squeals.
“Oh, calm down. He was just at the mall. My mom pointed him out. She sold his family their house.” Kara announces knowingly. Her mom is a real estate agent and a major gossip, so Kara is always well informed. “My mom said he’s an only child. He does have a really big extended family that’s lived around here for a long time. I don’t know much about them. I do know he’s in college, a sophomore this year just like us!”
“To cool, what else do you know?” Beth’s cheeks flush red. The girl has been on the hunt for a serious boyfriend since eighth grade. I try not to laugh at her enthusiasm. Kara gets up and looks out the window deep in thought.
‘Well… I know they are like totally loaded, like old money loaded. His grandfather founded some major medical kind of thing. I forgot what it was. His dad is the owner of like two major companies and in the stock market and all that stuff. I also heard he’s been going to school in Europe for the past few years…how cool is that?” They look at each other. I am hoping they aren’t planning to set me up with him. “He has gorgeous wavy black hair, and is about six feet tall or close to it.” Kara rattles on. I tried to listen, tried to act as if I cared, but anymore talking about boys was not high on my agenda at all.
“You’re quiet Corrine, what’s up?” Beth scans my face. I shrug my shoulders, trying to hide my feelings.
“Oh just tired; it’s nothing.” I sit back with a sigh.
“I have an idea.” Kara gets up clapping her hands together. “Let’s go meet the new guy and his family.” Her face lights up. “We could bring over cookies or something, you know, be neighborly and all that.”
“Oh hell no, you guys go meet him. I am not.” I groan. The whole deal sounded like sheer torture to me.
“Corrine, you can’t tell me you’re not a little curious.” Kara pushes. I luck out. We hear Gram come in; our party is over for now. Gram is a stickler for me getting my rest, so the girls would have to call it a night. All of us hugged and promised to call each other. As I closed the door, I took a deep breath, glad all the talk of this new guy next door was over.
Chapter 4
Fate Steps In
My doctor had told me I was making progress. I really couldn’t tell myself. I had expected to be back at school by now. I had thought wrong. I didn’t realize how much stress going back would cause me. I thought it would be easy, but apparently, I was wrong. It seems I wasn’t as strong as I felt and my doctors knew it.
My therapist had a meeting with my dad and me. She had evaluated me and had decided I was still mentally unstable to deal with typical social situations. I was nuts in other words, how nice for me (not). I had really thought I was ready, well, most of the time. I didn’t think everyday social situations would freak me out, but my therapist clearly did.
I still had some nightmares, and a few panic attacks, and the thought of meeting new