Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,95

out. “Come on!”

Taylor got out on legs that were shaking so badly, walking took real effort.

“Everybody get in,” Brooklyn said as she held up her phone to take the pic. “Everybody say, ‘Alpha Chi.’”

The shaky feeling never really left even though none of them seemed to remember the previous conversation when they got back in the car. Taylor remembered it as well as the near weightless feeling as her senses screamed they were going to have a wreck when LaKeesha had stormed into that parking lot. The other cars. The fence. The building. There were so many ways that could have gone so wrong.

What if it had?

What if someone had called her parents to tell them she was in the hospital? Or worse?

What if she hadn’t gotten back to the dorms, victorious but feeling utterly defeated, only to find a hair tie on the door again?

As Taylor curled onto the couch in the lounge area, her mind slip-slid through it all, adding in bits and pieces from the thousand other times things could have gone way worse than they had. In fact, it was a wonder she was still here. That thought only brought with it others that brought actual tears to her eyes, and only a few of them were about the hell she had endured over the past semester. What she wouldn’t give to go back and start life all over again. She would have done it all so very differently. But that was impossible now. No. She was stuck with the life she had chosen over and over again. The problem was that tonight had shown her with vivid Technicolor-clarity she had no desire to live the life she had obviously been sent here to live. “God, I hate this.”

The funk that had come over him after the letdown of the interview followed Greg all the way to the breakfast table on Wednesday morning. He kept thinking he should just snap out of it, but so far, that hadn’t happened. He was munching on Cheerios when Nelson appeared and started digging in the refrigerator.

“Hey, I was going to ask you,” Nelson said. “You got anything going Friday night?”

“I work Friday ‘til six. Why?”

“Oh, yeah. Huh? What about Saturday?”

“No, not that I know of. Why?”

Nelson shrugged. “Paige’s birthday party. We were thinking Friday, but we could do Saturday too, I think. We were kind of thinking about having something at the student center. Nothing big. She said she wants to keep it chill. Just us.” He came out with an apple and bit into it.

That crawled all over Greg and not in a good way. “Define ‘us.’”

“You, me, Wes, Lauren… uh, Clara, Ryan, Max, Crystal, couple of the girls from her dorm and their dates.”

This was starting to stretch the words nothing big. “Are we playing for it?” Greg asked.

“Probably. I’m assuming so. Maybe a playlist at the end like we’ve done before. She just doesn’t want to do the cake and presents and decorations and stuff like that although I think Lauren and Clara will probably do some snacks. You know how they are.”

Greg nodded slowly. He hated to ask, but it had to be done. “What about Tay?”

That dragged Nelson’s face down into aggravation.

“I know it’s going to bum Paige out,” Greg said, “but Tay really is trying. I mean, I don’t know.” His heart hitched at the thought, but he continued like he hadn’t felt it. “She might have something with Alpha Chi that night, so she might not even be able to come…” Hope collided hard with disappointment, obliterating both. “I just don’t want her to feel like we’re leaving her out on purpose now that she’s here.”

Nelson exhaled long and hard before pitching the apple core into the trash. “You’re probably right. I just don’t want any fireworks.”

“I hear you there.” Another thought struck him hard. “Uh, you know, if… if we sing, are we going… will she…?”

Putting his hand over his head, Nelson looked completely wrecked. “Man, this is complicated.”

“Tell me about it,” Greg said, and he thought that his friend had no idea.

“Yeah, we can’t make her not sing.” Nelson rolled his eyes. “Do you think she’ll be okay, or is she going to show up and ruin everything?”

That was completely impossible to know.

“I guess I can try to talk to her,” Greg said, wondering even as he said it how he would manage that.

“Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That’s a good idea.”

The idea of talking to Taylor about all of it was