Page 2 of Make No Mistake

I shot her a look. “You just used and instead of but.”

“I know.” She smiled.

“I have homework to catch up on, and an article that’s due by tomorrow morning.”

“Good thing you don’t have classes today! You have the afternoon to catch up, then you can come out tonight!”

“Fine.”

“Fine? Fine as in you’ll come?”

“Yeah, I’ll come out tonight, but no guarantee I’ll have fun or that I won’t cry.”

“If you cry tonight, Carter will see and tell Brandon and he’ll tease you forever, plus he’ll tell Matt and that’s just plain embarrassing.”

“Why must you bring our family into everything?” The last thing I needed was either of our brothers finding out about me crying over a stupid day.

“Because we love you!”

“You all love to make fun of me.”

“Don’t make it so easy, my dear.”

We stuck our tongues out at each other and laughed. She might drive me crazy, but she was the one taking care of me for the past few months. I’d probably be sick of dealing with depressed me all the time too.

I finished my plate and gathered hers to take to the sink before going back to my room to get ready. If I had any hope of getting everything done, I needed to get out. There were too many temptations and distractions in my room with my comfy bed calling my name and my TV shows begging to be watched. Nope. I needed to get to campus.

California University was located justbetween Los Angeles and where I grew up, making it the perfect place to feel like I was out on my own without actually being too far away from my family.

The mission-style buildings made up the majority of campus and were separated almost exclusively by palm trees. We couldn’t see the ocean from here, but it was close enough to go surfing almost every day.

I was tempted to ditch my responsibilities and go now. Just as I was getting ready to head back home, someone called out my name.

I turned around and saw Jay running toward me. His blond hair was flopping against his forehead with each stride. “Where are you headed?”

“The beach?”

He laughed like I was kidding. I wasn’t. “Come on, let’s get to the office.”

I followed him, dragging my feet to the communications building where the newspaper office was housed.

I spent more time in that room over the past three and a half years than I did in my apartment. Only those on the newspaper staff had access, so it had become my sanctuary. I’d taken many naps on the couches and spent sleepless nights cramming for a test or deadline on the computers, surviving off of popcorn and ramen noodles from the small kitchen.

“What’s got you in such a lousy mood?” Jay knew me almost as well as Aubrey. We’d been on the staff together since our freshmen year. He was even friends with Sean up until he broke up with me and moved halfway around the world.

I didn’t want to admit to another person that Sean was the reason I was moping, even if he would understand. No person should have that kind of control over me.

“Um … just haven’t had any ideas for my project yet.”

Our senior projects were due in two months, and I didn’t even know my subject. This was past the point of procrastination; this was asking to postpone graduation. This was giving up on all of my hard work and accepting a job at a fast food restaurant for the rest of my life.

“Mckayla, you just need to pick something, anything, and get started!”

He made it sound so simple, but this project had the potential to decide the trajectory of our careers. Publications and companies watched our program, and there had been numerous job offers made based solely on senior projects. No pressure.

Jay was already set. He came from a family that was overly familiar with journalism.

He’d changed his last name to his mother’s maiden name before he came to school. He wanted to be taken seriously, without the presumptions that came from being a Whittaker in Los Angeles. His dad, Jack Whittaker, was an international businessman and playboy.