Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,204

definitely be going to bed angry. She heard him come back down the hallway, and with that, she turned the light off, skirted around the wall, and headed to bed herself.

In his room, still stacked with her boxes, she closed the door quietly. Her mind was spinning with all he’d said. He was right. He was. She did morph into Queen Taylor with Alpha Chi. But that was just who they wanted her to be…

As that thought went through her mind, she snagged on it. That’s who they wanted her to be… It was just like with her parents. With them, she was who they wanted her to be. The perfect child who upheld the family name and was going to make something of herself to prove to the world they were worthy of the place her father had landed.

Spiraling, she asked the question she had never really asked before. Why did she sometimes diverge so incredibly far from that? The night at the beach house with Paige at the party when she’d gotten so drunk she couldn’t stand up straight. The parties at Tech when she’d first arrived. The Alpha Chi parties with the various frat houses. Was that the real her, or was she just trying to be what they all wanted her to be?

She wanted to be mad at Greg, and she was. But she was more frustrated because he kept bringing up things she didn’t want to talk about or think about or deal with—holding up a mirror on her life so she could see things she hadn’t wanted to see. Clara and Ryan crossed her mind. She hadn’t even said hi to them tonight, hadn’t even tried. Why? Because of what happened at the restaurant or because she had other friends around? Better friends…

Horror struck her hard.

Better friends… why? She didn’t even know most of those girls and she knew none of the guys. LaChelle was the only one she would even consider a friend, and yet, what did LaChelle know about anything? Heck, she thought Taylor was going out with Greg. That’s how clueless she was. It was a good thing Taylor had begged off from going on Tuesday—for so many reasons. One, she would probably still be moving into her new place on her merry-go-round of living arrangements. Two, she knew Greg’s opinion of Alpha Chi. Then a terrible thought struck her, what if he wouldn’t go with her to the Valentine’s dance? What if he really was saying sayonara to their whole single-but-together arrangement?

Her heart hitched hard at that. Surely he wouldn’t do that… would he?

One thing was clear as she sat there thinking. It was time to do some serious damage control, and as she thought it all through, she decided the best place to start was tomorrow with Clara. She hoped Clara would be at the student center. If she was at home…

No, Taylor decided. Clara would be at the student center, and they would talk, and Clara would understand, and somehow, some way, Taylor would right this ship that was about to capsize under her. “God, help me know what to say to her. Please.”

The question of why kept coming around and around in Greg’s heart, mind, and spirit. Why would he say those things to her? What was that going to solve? Nothing. Absolutely, positively nothing.

In fact, if anything, it had made things a million times worse.

Now Taylor was mad, and she had every right to be. Who was he to tell her how she should live her life? She was a free woman. Unencumbered by any strings to him or anyone else. She could do whatever she pleased with her life, and he had no say in that whatsoever.

And of course, she was waiting for something better to come along. Of course she was. She always had been. Nothing had changed about that, and nothing ever would.

He rolled over, grabbed his phone, and saw that it was 2:30 in the morning. He had to get some sleep. He had to be out the door in three hours. “Lord, please, please help me get some sleep. I’m asking. I’m begging here.”

Greg was long gone, his blankets all folded neatly under his pillow in the corner when Taylor got up the next morning. For living out of the same room, they were doing a remarkable job of staying out of each other’s way. Only 2 more days.

Not wanting to run into anyone else, she grabbed her coat and headed