Taking a deep breath, I glanced at my phone, noting the texts. My cousins, Viola, Lottie, Scarlett, and Aurora, were all there, blowing up my cell with well wishes—or in Ror's case just one text sent super early this morning. It read "Are we actually doing this?" followed by three wide-eyed, OMG emojis. I chuckled at that—then saw the ones from my parents. I'd begged them not to see me off. I didn't want Dad crying or Mom frowning as I drove away. We'd said goodbye this morning and that was more than enough guilt, thank you very much.
Surprisingly, there were even a few texts from my writers group, girls I'd only grown closer to recently.
"They remembered," I breathed, feeling my eyes get misty for some reason.
We weren't tight, not like I was with my cousins. But I could definitely see myself hanging out more with them.
"I've got this," I said. "I am a freaking amazing musician." With a grin, I added, "HERS won't know what hit them."
I was about to start walking again when...
"Hey! Look out!"
That was all the warning I got.
Something hit me in the head.
Hard.
And I went down like a stone.
Didn't even have time to catch myself. The force of whatever hit me knocked me clear off my feet. My head bounced off the pavement, my right wrist, the one I used to control my bow, was crushed beneath me as I tried and failed to slow my fall. There was no other way to say it. I was ambushed. By what I didn't know, but as I looked around in a daze, I saw a human-sized blur running toward me. Fast. The person didn't slow, and suddenly, a pair of eyes came into focus.
Blue.
Light blue like the sky.
But also deep like the ocean.
Possibly the prettiest blue I'd ever seen. Right now, those eyes were filled with turmoil.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
No, I thought. I'm on the ground, looking up at what was quite possibly the most attractive guy I'd ever seen. Well, besides Ryker Cordova.
I tried to nod, but that made my head hurt, and a groan escaped instead.
He winced. "Do you need help getting up?"
"No," I mumbled.
"You sure? You look kind of…"
"What?"
"Rough," he finished.
"Thanks," I scoffed.
It turned out standing wasn't an easy task. As I struggled, finally getting to my feet, my head still felt like I'd been struck by a brick. Speaking of…
"What hit me?" I muttered, looking around.
"Well…" the guy-who-thought-I-looked-rough said. He was acting suspicious, seeming guilty as he glanced away.
I spotted the basketball, rolling harmlessly on the ground feet from us, a second later and scoffed again. "Wow. You threw a ball at my head then decided to double-down with an insult."
"I didn't mean it like that."
