AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I almost sagged in relief. I wanted to be done, like, yesterday. “Great. Thanks.” I pushed that bag in her direction, set my oversized satchel on the desk, then unzipped the luggage that held my bedding, toiletries, and everything else. I didn’t need much.
Most of the stuff I’d brought was because Brooke had insisted. She hated that I was moving in without their family being a part of it, but I needed to do it alone. And when she’d enveloped me in that last hug—hers were incomparable and something I deeply cherished—I knew she understood.
It didn’t take me long to make the bed with the cool blue-gray sheets, stow my toiletries, hang a towel in the Jack-and-Jill bathroom we shared with another room, and put away my laptop and desk supplies. I shoved the empty suitcases under the bed and withdrew my purse from the oversized bag. Then I reluctantly set the shoebox Brooke had handed me on the top of my bed and waited for Piper to put on her shoes.
I took a second to sweep the room visually. Her side was an explosion of pink and silver. She’d always liked those colors, and nothing had changed there. But she had an air about her that was entirely different, and I couldn’t place what it was just yet. Hopefully, I would figure it out when we caught up over much needed coffee.
My purse slipped off my shoulder, and as I bent to pick it up, my elbow snagged the corner of the shoebox. The box tumbled off the bed. Raw panic washed over me as the unopened letters from Mom scattered across the floor, banded together by year. Each bundle contained twelve letters, one for every month, from the last eight years.
We bent at the same time, gathering the bundles and stuffing them back into the box.
Piper picked up a stack and turned it over in her hand, the California State Penitentiary stamped on the upper-left corner as clear as day.
“Why haven’t you opened these?” Her voice was gentle, but I still felt too exposed. “Maybe they contain something you’ll want to know. The trial was a big deal.”
Of course, it was. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been there. I was a witness. “My mom has nothing to say that I want to hear.” My voice sounded strange, robotic almost. “I hope she dies in prison.”
I meant it, too, and by Piper’s raised eyebrows, I would assume she registered the truth in my words. I grabbed the letters from her hand, shoved them back in the box, then stashed them under my bed. Out of sight, out of mind.
But Mom wasn’t. She’d been sentenced to ten years in prison for manslaughter, and only two remained on her sentence. It wasn’t nearly long enough.
“Let’s get out of here.” I adjusted my purse strap on my shoulder to secure it, pocketing the new key to the space I would call home for the next semester.
“Sure.” Piper wisely dropped the topic, and we swept out of the room then the dorm.
Outside, we walked the handful of blocks to the Spot. It was a local coffee shop popular with Thane U’s students. Or that was what she said.
When we arrived, I breathed in the rich aroma, wishing I could infuse it into my veins. We placed our orders and got lucky when two girls got up from their table, tossing their empty to-go cups in the trash on their way out. We grabbed the table before someone else could.
“Is it always this packed?” I asked.
She shrugged then took a sip of her caramel macchiato. “Pretty much.”
“Since it’s been years—”
“Eight.”
“Right. What I was trying to ask”—I flashed a small smile to soften my words—“was, what’ve you been up to? You seem… different.”
A perfectly sculpted brow arched above her sky-blue eyes. “Aren’t we all? It’s been ages, Winter.”
“That’s true.”
“You seem different too. So maybe we should take things slow?”
I pushed out a breath before answering. “Sounds good.” I tapped my nail on the shiny wooden tabletop. “Do you like it here? At Thane, I mean?”
Her face softened, and the guarded expression she’d worn since I’d started my awkward questions melted away. “Yeah, it’s pretty great. There are so many people. It’s not like high school.” A mocking chuckle fell from her lips. “And I’m glad for that. I’m majoring in architecture with a minor in business, and I’ve never been busier. It’s…” She looked to the ceiling as if the words would fall from above. “What I’m meant to do, but it requires a crazy amount of work and time.”
“No more cheerleading?” She’d been involved in the peewee leagues when we were small.
“I thought about it but decided it wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. This is sort of like a fresh start, though a ton of people from Hidden Valley Academy go here.”
I crossed my legs, my foot hooking around one of the dark metal poles of the table. The coffee shop had such a great atmosphere. I could see myself doing homework or sketching with copious amounts of coffee over the semester. I glanced at the counter and the sugary goodness behind the glass. Coffee wouldn’t be my only treat.
Before I could turn back toward Piper, my gaze snagged on a guy placing his order at the register. His shoulders were impossibly wide, the muscles bunching and shifting under the light-gray Henley. His body screamed athlete, and I couldn’t help but wonder which sport as I visually traced the V of his back to a tapered waist and thick, muscular thighs. His dark, almost black hair was cropped short on the sides and a little longer on top.
Come on. Turn.
