Page 2 of Dare to Fall

I hopped off my bed and headed down the hall toward her, careful not to splash the remaining coffee from my mug. “Want me to cook us some breakfast?”

“Mmm. That would be delightful.” Drema peered into my mug. “Please tell me there’s some coffee left.”

“What kind of roommate would I be if I took all the coffee?” I headed toward the kitchen to whip up some eggs and bacon—our decided favorite.

“A really shitty one,” she said as she followed me.

It didn’t take long for me to cook the scrambled eggs and throw a few pieces of bacon into the pan. I extended the plate out to Drema, her eyes growing wide with excitement.

I giggled. “Geez. Did they not feed you all summer?”

“You make the best eggs and bacon in the world,” she said between full bites.

I glanced up to see a giant canvas sitting on an easel in our living room, an array of paints and brushes littering the coffee table.

Drema followed my gaze. “Oh, sorry about that. I’ll have it cleaned up by the end of today.”

I shook my head. “No. Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind at all.” My eyes met hers again. “It’s beautiful, Drema.”

She smiled. “Thank you. It’s for the student showcase exhibit the art department is putting on. We’re supposed to have some pretty big names show up too. I’m really excited about the opportunity to network.”

Her face glowed with excitement as she spoke. It made my heart swell, and at the same time, that nagging feeling clawed at my gut again. I stared back at the beautiful canvas filled with skewed lines and a palette of golds and browns and reds. It was absolutely gorgeous.

And somewhere deep in my bones, a longing to create something just as beautiful pulled at me.

I adjusted the strap of my weighed-down leather backpack that was digging into my shoulders. The biochemistry book was unnecessarily large. I never understood why textbooks were so big when there was no way in hell students had time to read the entire thing in one semester.

My phone pinged, and I took it out of the back pocket of my Hollister jeans to see that Paulina was engaging in her usual dramatics.

Paulina:Where the hell are you?!

Me:Almost there. This book is killing my back.

Paulina:You still bring your books to class? Lame.

I rolled my eyes at her text. Paulina was practically a pre-medical prodigy. Her mother was a pediatric oncologist, and her father was a general surgeon. They met while attending medical school at Yale. The past three years had been a breeze for Paulina, while the rest of us normal humans were forced to spend days holed up in the library, reading until our eyes bugged out. She was like a sponge, soaking up everything our professors said in class without having to take notes. It all just made sense to her.

Rounding the corner of one of the science buildings, my eyes landed on my best friend since grade school. Her brown hair was perfectly straightened, hitting just below her ribcage. She exuded the classic Florida look with tight Buckle jeans, Rainbow flip flops, and a Hollister top. Everything designer all the way down to her Dior mascara.

She saw me immediately, and we ran up to one another, jumping into each other’s arms, giggling like schoolgirls. But the soft sound of her laughter was familiar, and all the tension I felt earlier from my worried thoughts drifted away. I pulled back from her, taking her in. She had spent the entire summer with her family in the Hamptons. Her parents bought a vacation home up there last spring, and the perfect tan of her skin told me she’d had an amazing time—likely spending her days sipping on one of her mother’s dangerous mojitos.

“I’ve missed you so much!” She squeezed my arms and shot me a bright, white smile. “We have so much to catch up on.”

“I know! I need a full update on the Hampton house…or I guess I should say mansion. It’s totally a mansion, isn’t it?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

She rolled her eyes and smirked. “Listen. That’s going to be us one day. Just one more year. Then, we will be in medical school, paving our way to a life of mansion living and cute pool boys.”

I gaped at her. “You did not!”

Throughout the summer months I would get random photos of an insanely hot guy with a pool skimmer in his hands. Snapped at weird angles, I knew she had to be sneaking pictures of him.

Paulina wiggled her eyebrows at me. “A true lady never does tell.”

“Ha! Lady my ass.”

We started back up toward the chemistry building. As the weight of my backpack really settled in, I was thankful the Florida heat hadn’t made its appearance yet.

“Have you heard from Connor at all?”

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