Summer Breeze Kisses - Addison Moore Page 0,199

lets me know my roommate has already settled in.

“Try to be nice to her,” she fires the words off at me as if I’ve got a reputation for being anything but.

“I’m always nice.” I sneer at Ava and Lucky as if daring them to contest the fact.

Lucky raises a brow. “I bet Knox thinks you’re really nice.”

“Yeah”—Ava laughs it off—“very friendly. That’s quite a welcome you gave him to Briggs.”

“Please. That boy will have every skirt on campus chasing him come fall. All he has to do is don that jersey.” Or take it off. God, what would that kiss have been like without a stitch of clothing between us? As much as I find the thought naturally arousing, the three of us head off to my room to greet the new girl.

Sitting on my bed, crossed-legged and barefoot—I’m a bit abhorrent to the fact anyone would land their naked toes on my comforter—is a squatty brunette, pretty in a bullish way, her hair coiled up in a bun.

“Hi, I’m Harper.” I extend my hand for a friendly shake just as I notice it’s not my comforter she’s squatting over, yet one similar in nature, and for a moment I’m stumped as to why she’d change my bed cover.

She looks up from her oversized book and gives the three of us a rather bored once-over. “I’m taking the bottom bunk.” She stares at my hand dangling in the air as if it were a rotten fish. “I also took the top two drawers. I’ve got slight scoliosis, so I can’t be expected to bend over.” Her tiny inset eyes narrow in on me as if somehow I were at fault for her spinal anomaly.

Crap. The top two drawers were all I was utilizing at the moment, as I too hate to stoop down like Quasimodo while digging for a clean sports bra to wear in the morning.

But instead of complaining and bitching, like a childlike part of me wants to, I simply force a grin to come and go. “That’s totally fine. I’m all up for accommodating you in whatever way necessary.” I can practically see the halo popping over my head. I’ve never had a roommate with disabilities before, and seeing that I have a brother with a very serious condition, I plan on being an ambassador of kindness to those in need whenever I can. It’s not like I’m consciously trying to be a saint—it’s just called not being a jackass.

“Good,” she grunts up at me. “Because that’s why I took the bottom bunk.”

I suck in a sharp breath without meaning to. I glance up at the top bunk, which might as well be on the ceiling, and my life flashes unceremoniously before my eyes.

Lucky postures between us and I’m hoping she’s about to rip my roomie a new one for even thinking of making me climb an entire story to catch some z’s. “I’m Lucky,” she introduces herself. “And this is my roommate, Ava. I’m sorry I didn’t get your name.” Wow, Lucky actually sounds kind and accommodating herself. Little does she know this girl and her crooked spine just hijacked my sanity.

She pokes her head from beneath the bunk and sneers at the three of us. “That’s because I didn’t give it. I’m Sabine, but you’ll call me Garfield.”

The three of us exchange a brief yet highly curious glance.

“Garfield?” Ava asks for us.

“Yeah, you know, like the cat. All my friends back home used to call me that because I used to dye my hair orange.”

Lucky’s chest pumps. “You sure they were your friends?”

“Very funny.” She bites the air with her words as she scans those squinted eyes over Lucky. “I think I like you.”

“Great.” I look to Ava while suddenly basking in two rejections in a single night.

I give my two best friends a quick hug goodbye as I dig for my sweats, which I find rumpled in the corner of the bottom drawer. I may as well have to stoop to hell to reach them. I bashfully get dressed in the privacy of the corner and eye the top bunk as if my mattress were sitting on the Empire State Building. My heart begins to pound as if it’s attempting to shatter itself, and my body breaks out into a cold sweat as fight-or-flight kicks in.

“You know”—I swallow hard as I grab my Kindle off the desk—“I think I’ll go read a book in the commons room.” And accidentally on purpose fall asleep doing