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Chapter One
Lilac had been sittingon her big news for days—well, more like hours, but it certainly felt like days. She’d wanted to tell Gavin almost immediately, but she hadn’t been in the mood for one of his mood-killing—though well-intentioned—lectures, and waiting until Brielle and Pembroke joined them seemed like the smarter idea. They’d act as a buffer for Gavin’s paternal instincts coming to fore and then she wouldn’t have to repeat herself to each oneindividually.
Besides, she wanted her college life to go out with a bang. And boy, would this be abang.
She hadn’t eaten much of her farewell-cafeteria-food lunch. Instead, she opened her mouth, about to deliver the news, when she noticed Brielle staring down at her lunch tray as if it were the ashes of a recently-lost pet. “Are you crying?” she asked, the wind knocked out of her sails just a bit. “Bri, are you actuallycrying?”
Laughing, she looked at Gavin and Pembroke, hoping to share her amusement with them, but one was blowing his nose and the other was trying to touch up her makeup.Okay,everyoneiscrying…
“Just because some of us are made of stone doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t going to miss this place,” said Brielle, her mouth full of a tater tot she was chomping withwaytoo muchrelish.
Sometimes Brielle really got on Lilac’s nerves. But not today. No, she wouldn’t let her get to hertoday.
“A college is but four walls and a roof, my dear,” Lilac said, putting some of her high school drama teacher’s advice into effect by gesturing grandly as if about to deliver a Shakespearean monologue. “Albeit four veryexpensivewalls and a roof, but walls and a roof nonetheless. No graduation is going to take away what this place means to you.” She put her palm to her heart. “You’ll always find ithere.”
Gavin gave Lilac such a mischievous grin at that, she could have recited what he said next if she’d been so inclined. “In your ginormous boob?” heasked.
“Har har,” retorted Lilac, whapping his shoulder. Gavin was the only one she’d ever let get away with talking to her like that. He had a heart of gold and was as sweet as a grandma—to everyone except her. But that’s why she knew she was his best friend. Suddenly hit with the realization that she wasn’t going to be seeing her bestie every day from now on, she started playing with her food, mushing the greasy tater tots into one corner of her tray.It doesn’t matter, she thought.This is just how life goes. We’ll never not be friends. You can’t get stuck in thepast.
She nodded to herself more than to anyone in particular. “I don’t know. I think it’s about time we move on. Crappy French toast and tater tots served on a divided tray? What are we, middle schoolers or soon-to-be-independentadults?”
“Says the soon-to-be elementary school teacher,” said Brielle between sips of her orange juice. “Get used to these,” she added, pointing to the crumbs left in the squares on hertray.
Ha! The perfect segue. Thank you, Brielle’s need to rub thingsin.
Lilac shrugged. “Maybe someday. Maybe not. I don’t have to anytimesoon.”
Pembroke spoke up then—Lilac had almost forgotten she was even there. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Aren’t you going to be teaching at Jacobson Primary thisfall?”
“Nope.” Lilac dug into her scrambled eggs with glee.Let them chew on that, she thought, taking her time to swallow herfood.
“Shut up,” said Gavin as he nudged her. “Are youserious?”
“Would I joke about something like that?” Lilac grinned, doing her best toddler-caught-breaking-Mommy’s-favorite-lamp impression. Then she laughed.On second thought…“Don’t answerthat.”
Brielle practically threw her fork down on her tray before crossing her arms. “When were you going to tellus?”
Ah, Brielle.She’d been Lilac’s roommate the first two years of college before Lilac had spent a semester her junior year in Spain. When she’d come back, she’d wheedled her daddy into splurging on an apartment off-campus for her and Gavin. Not because she hated Brielle or anything, but because she’d preferred spending time with Gavin. And frankly, after she’d come home from living in another corner of the world, Gavin—with his broader horizons, his love for big cities—had seemed like more sophisticatedcompany.
Brielle cradled her head.Cradledher head. Like what Lilac did was any concern of hers. And what wassheplanning on doing that was evidence she had her life any more together than the rest of them? Job hunting. While working her high school job, cleaning for old folks and snobs with cash to burn and slobs too lazy to do it for themselves. True, Lilac’s mom and daddy usually hired cleaners after throwing one of their soirees or when they’d be gone for a while—which was pretty often. But there was something about having strangers going through your house on that kind of intimate level that gave Lilac the willies. But that was what Brielle had to show for herself. Going through other peoples’garbage.
“Don’t have a conniption over it,” said Lilac, shrugging as she gently placed her own fork on the table. “Something better camealong.”
“Better than a job offer?” asked Gavin, studying Lilac like she had a screw loose, but grinning devilishly nonetheless. He knew her too well. He might not have approved of everything she did, but… “Apayingfirm job offer, I mightadd?”
Therein lay the crux of the matter. Sweet Gavin, smart and handsome and ready to take on the world… But the world wasn’t so ready to take him on. He’d gotten what could lead to the job of his dreams—in marketing, which, if she were being honest, Lilac thought dull and a waste of his talents—but he had to start off as an unpaid intern. If Gavin hadn’t already known some friends in Chicago whose couch he could crash on until he started raking in the big bucks, there was no way he could have pulled it off. All because he was gambling on being hired by summer’s end. He had nothing to fall back on, no one else to turn to if that didn’t pan out. There was his grandma, but she lived in such a small town, Lilac had thought she’d phased through into another dimension—a dimension where people dug holes and only peeked out from under their rocks to spit out a strange sense of pride in their vitriol and hatred—the one time she’d gone with him there. Even though Gavin’s grandma was a peach, there was no way Lilac would abandon Gavin to that place once more. No, if things didn’t work out how Gavin hoped they would, she’d find a way to let him come stay with her and AuntFrankie.
Clearing her throat, Lilac tapped her fingers on the table, trying to shove all thoughts of unpleasantness aside. “I repeat: Somethingbetter.”
“Did you… get a job offer abroad?” Pembroke didn’t even try to hide her gasp as Lilacsnorted.
Poor girl. Lilac knew Pembroke had been envious of her time in Spain—not because she’d wanted to go to Spain, but because her own plans to study abroad in Japan had fallen through. Lilac really had no idea what Pembroke planned on doing—that girl was quieter than a nun who’d taken a vow of silence. She didn’t even remember how exactly Broke had started hanging out with their group. It had had something to do with Gavin, of course. Easily two-thirds of Gavin’s day was devoted to taking care of others. Sometimes Lilac hated the fact that she had to sharehim.
“Iwish,” she said, thinking about how nice it might have been to live in Spain long-term—or to live anywhere stylish, really. But she’d only ever pictured herself lounging around in a Spanish villa, and Daddy had been quite clear he wasn’t going to fund an extended vacation. As if he ever did anythingbutgo on extended vacations himself. “About the only thing that would guarantee me that is a job teaching English, and I don’t think a change in venue would make enough of a difference when I really wanted a… change injob.”
There. She’d said it. The whole and honest truth she’d been keeping even from herself for far toolong.
Leave it to Brielle to shit all over that. “You’re not going to be an elementary school teacher?” she asked, the acid practically dripping off her tongue. “After all the hard work you put into becomingone?”
