AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Three
Helen
StupidMotherfucker:I’m running out of patience, Helen. You’re past due now.
My cereal curdled in my stomach. Destroying that Bimmer had felt good in the moment, but it didn’t solve my biggest problem. I was short of funds at a time when being short of funds was a danger to my health.
Zadie plopped down across from me at the table I’d claimed for us in the dining hall. “Ready for our first day?”
I tossed my spoon in my bowl. “Yep. I think so. Although, I’m not entirely sure online community college properly prepped me for Savage U.”
If Mads had had her way, I would have been enrolled at Savage U last fall. But the thing was, my grades in high school had been pretty shit. I’d done the bare minimum to graduate, nothing more. It took me all year working my ass off in my CC classes to have a sparkling three-point-eight GPA worthy of admission at Savage U.
Besides the need to raise my GPA, going to in-person school full time would have defeated the entire purpose of being her companion. I actually had to be in her presence to do my job.
I rubbed the pinch in my chest I got every time I thought of my girl. My Mads.
“You’ll do fine, Hells. If you can charge into a frat house and beat a guy up, you can handle classes here.” She started peeling a banana. “I managed to get through an entire year here, you know.”
“That’s because you’re smart.”
Two days as Zadie’s roommate had shown she was smart, chill, and funny when I got her going. Our third roommate still hadn’t shown up, which was fine by me. The dynamic Z and I were developing was an easy one.
“True. But walking into a classroom where I don’t know anyone isn’t exactly easy.”
“Too bad we don’t have classes together.”
Her nose wrinkled. “I know. Next semester, we’ll have to plan it.”
“Yeah.” My stomach warmed. Two days, and this girl had my stomach warming. The bitches who had been her roommates last year had missed out on a treasure with this girl. What the hell had they been thinking?
When we were done with breakfast, we walked to the main quad together, then it was time to separate. I ran my hands down my sides.
“Do I look like a college girl?”
I had my holey Vans, a Hello Kitty Band-Aid on my knee, cut-offs two sizes too big hanging off my hips, a crop tie-dyed tee, and my hair tied back in a pony. Zadie looked me over from head to toe.
“You look beautiful, Helen,” she said softly, like she really meant it.
“Well, you do too, Z. The boys are going to drool, and the girls are going to be jealous, catty bitches. Remember that.”
Zadie was wearing a sweet little pink sundress and leather flip-flops. Not my style, but it fit her to a T. Two days, and I hadn’t gotten over her soft beauty. I had also confirmed she did, indeed, have an ass that didn’t quit. Z was completely oblivious to it, though.
She smoothed a hand over her middle. “See you, Hells. Have a good first day.”
I tipped my chin to her. “You too, Z.”
Last class of the day, and I was doing well. During my time with Mads, I’d learned a lot about myself. The biggest was that I liked taking care of people, and when I put in effort, I excelled at science and math. Losing Mads had affirmed my decision to go into nursing. My courses were focused mostly on those subjects, which I liked, but I still had to take an English class as part of my core requirements.
I wasn’t so great with words, so I wasn’t looking forward to dissecting Shakespeare. Now, if it had been Will’s actual body I was dissecting…
Grumpy mood in full effect, I took a seat on the aisle in the third row of the lecture hall. This was my biggest class of the day, but it was nowhere near the giant auditorium-style classes I’d heard about from my friends who went to larger schools. Each row held two long tables with eight chairs spread apart from each other. There were five rows, and empty seats were quickly being filled. The spot beside me was taken by a massive guy with thick, dark hair falling in his face. He didn’t say a word to me or seem interested in speaking to me, so I was fine with him being there.
A shift in the air brought my head up from my phone. Theo rushed into the room just as the professor was shutting the door and took the first empty seat in the front row, not noticing me.
Wonderful. Perfection. Stupendous.
I’d definitely broken his car two nights ago. That hadn’t been my finest moment, but he probably deserved it, seeing as he was friends with Deacon and his girlfriend had been evil to Zadie. I was surprised the cops hadn’t shown up at my door yet. Then again, Theo probably didn’t know my full name, or that I was a student here.
