Page 2 of Only With You

Senior Year,Fall Semester

Let it go. He’s not worth it. Ignore it.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

The mantra I’ve been repeating for the past two minutes and over the last three years is interrupted by the reason I started it to begin with.

Let it go. He’s not worth it. Ignore it.

My brain begs me to continue unpacking the rest of my mugs, to not entertain his bullshit, but my mouth works faster.

“If you call me Hollywood one more time,” I grit, grabbing the box cutter from the counter and pointing it at Landon. “Iwillstab you.”

Though I doubt no matter how many times I stab him, he won’t die.

Landon Taylor is evil incarnate. I bet he was molded from Lake Cocytus and put on Earth for the Devil’s guilty pleasure.

Getting rid of him would take an exorcism and an ungodly amount of holy water.

“My name is Julianna. Ju-li-a-nna.” I slowly enunciate each syllable, but I’m sure he’ll find some way to fuck it up. “Julianna Sparks. I can write it down if that’s still too hard for you to memorize.”

I’m not sure where he got the name Hollywood from, but anytime he’s around, it’s all he ever calls me.

“Hol-ly-wood,” he enunciates just as slowly as I had from the living room. “Hollywood Sparks. Fitting, yeah?”

I drop the box cutter, letting it clang against the counter. “I see you’re still a piece of shit.”

“And you’re still a bitch,” he counters. “Almost four years, and that still hasn’t changed. At least you’re consistent.”

“Fuck—”

“You.” He finishes for me and levels me with a blank stare, letting me know my counter is lame.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Polly blows out a harsh breath, hands at her hips. Her eyes leap between the Spawn of Satan and me. “We didn’t want to do this, but Gabby and I can’t take a year of this.”

“You’re kicking her out?” he asks with hopefulness in his voice.

Jagger, Landon’s best friend, quietly chuckles next to him on the couch.

“No.” Gabby shakes her head at him and smiles at me as if she’s reassuring me that that’s not going to happen. “We’re just implementing a new rule, that’s all.”

Living with Gabby and Polly my senior year of college wasn’t in my plans.

The apartment complex I had gotten a lease on burned down last week. Thankfully, I hadn’t moved in yet, but that left me with nowhere to stay. I could’ve moved into my sorority’s house, but after living there my freshman year and dealing with a shitload of things, I chose not to.

After I told Lola—a girl I met last year, who’s now become a really good friend of mine—what happened, she said she had a solution. She told me that Gabby and Polly have a spare room.

I had forgotten all about their extra room. When I asked the girls, they didn’t hesitate to let me move in, but there’s a downside. Atall, atrocious downside that has me questioning whether the Devil had a part in my apartment complex burning down.

The sweetest girls I’ve ever met in my entire life just happen to be best friends with the Devil’s incarnate.

Maybe I was better off living alone.

“A rule?” we skeptically say in unison.

“For every mean thing you say to each other, you have to end it with something nice. If you don’t…” Polly trails off, but then her face alights. She comes into the kitchen, opens the cabinet door, and pulls out a huge jar. “If you don’t, then you have to add a dollar.”

“Pols, you’re a genius.” Jagger laughs, throwing his head back.

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