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She swallowed and yanked the car door open. Sprinting through the rain, she tugged at her hood until she reached the front door. Her wet shoes squeaked against the tile in the main hall as she headed to her classroom and grasped the doorknob.
“Ready or not,” she whispered, pushing it open and navigating to her seat at the back of the room. And within minutes, Dr. Lavine dropped the exam on her desk, Casey’s heart thudding to the floor as twelve pages of test questions looked back.
She swallowed, fighting the vomit rising in her throat. Every high school exam she’d ever taken flashed before her eyes, the anxiety from each test pooling in the pit of her stomach.
I’m just so bad at this stuff!
She sighed and lifted her gaze to her neighbor. Her pencil flew across the page, hastily filling in bubbles on her scantron sheet with quick answers. Casey rolled her eyes and heaved out a sigh, slouching in her seat as a familiar bout of insecurity settled in her heart—her sworn enemy.
Pressing her pencil to the paper, the tip flew into oblivion.Fucking great.She rummaged in her bag, wrapping her fingers around another pencil as the back of her hand brushed against Austin’s note. With a small shake of her head, she scratched her name onto the page and looked down at question one.True or false: States are cultural entities while nations are political.
She wrinkled her nose, waiting for Austin’s smart and sexy lawyer voice to invade her mind with the nuances of a nation-state. His methodical explanation reclaimed her brain and she bubbled in false.
Stealing another glance at her neighbor, Casey frowned.
“Are you okay, Miss McDaniels?” Dr. Levine leaned forward in his chair, his gaze peering down the aisle of students to the back row.
Oh shit! He thinks I’m cheating!
Casey nodded and dropped her gaze back to her own paper. With a sigh, she powered through the multiple choice and true-false questions as Austin’s explanations and examples replayed in her mind with each flip of the page. After an hour, she turned to the essay. Pressing her pencil back to the paper, she wrapped up the test with a five-paragraph essay about the practical application of a political science course on her future career.
She turned in the exam and rushed to the door, ready to sprint across the parking lot.Lauren’s flight lands in less than an hour.But as her hands pushed open the building’s main door, her phone vibrated in her back pocket with a text. Jim’s name appeared with the schedule for the next week at The Broken Shaker. Casey eyed it, scrolling through the double shifts she’d begged for to accommodate a couple of free nights while Lauren was in town.
“Ugh,” she groaned, ramming her hood back over her head. Casey pushed open the door and jogged back to Mavis’s car, throwing her body into the front seat as the rain lessened to a steady drizzle. She swallowed, willing the unease away as her phone rang.
Austin.
“Hello?”
“How’d it go?”
“Umm... I mean, I think I did okay.” She stuffed the key in the ignition and waited for the engine to hum to life.
“I’m sure you did great, Casey girl. But ah, hey... I’m running late. Can you swing by and pick me up at the office instead?”
“Yeah sure, no problem. I can be there in about fifteen minutes.”
“Great. See you soon... Oh! And Case, Lauren can’t wait to meet you.” Austin ended the call.
Casey swallowed, dropping her phone into the cup holder. Her hand fell to the gear shaft, cupping the faded material with a dab of blue nail polish. She grinned.
Mavis.
“I miss you, Mavs,” she whispered as her feet pressed into the petals. Shifting into reverse, her best friend’s voice wafted to the forefront of her brain.He’s not like us. The Templetons... They see the world differently.Her warning echoed in her ears as she pulled up to the stop sign.
What if Lauren doesn’t like me?
Disquiet crept back into her mind, wrapped in a blanket of doubt and self-pity. Her gaze lifted to the building as she continued down the road. “Harold Washington Community College,” she whispered to herself. “Not exactly impressive...”
The last month of her life looped on repeat through her brain, the fairytale story of her heart falling for the man with white eyelashes. Glancing back up at the community college sign again, the air caught in her throat. “I hate that you’re right, Mavs.”
Insecurity followed her as she turned left and hit the highway.
––––––––
“I’m a safe driver,Austin.”
He snorted, pulling his gaze from the line of stop-and-go traffic at O’Hare International. “Casey, you duct taped the rearview mirror to the windshield.” He tapped the newly repaired mirror, professionally adhered to the center of the window with perfection. “That’s not exactly within my definition of safe driving.”
