Page 9 of True Blue

“I thought you broke up with him!” Layla’s voice shouts from the open door of my room down the hall.

“I did! Hence the need for an excuse!” I shout back, shaking my head at Dad.

Dad nods, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Tell him your dad is requiring your presence at a final family dinner and game night before his children leave him all alone in an empty house.” I roll my eyes as my sisters come rushing out of my room, flying past me to stand in front of our dad.

“You’ll be fine,” Layla says, at the same time as Gwen assures, “You can call us anytime, Dad,” her mother hen tendencies on full display.

“I'm not picking up if I’m in class,” I say, leaning against the edge of the wall on my left. Dad chuckles and Layla glares over her shoulder at me.

“I'll be fine girls, but I will probably check in every now and then.” They each nod. “On each of you,” he adds, leaning aroundthem to pointedly look at me with a smirk. “And I do want to have one last family night before you all leave. If you’re all free?”

“Of course,” Gwen says, taking out her phone and typing quickly on the screen. Cancelling whatever plans she had probably.

“Can we play Scrabble?” Layla asks, glancing over at me as I groan. “What? Scrabble’s fun!”

“For you, maybe. You always win.” I fold my arms over my chest, the box in my hands brushing against my side as it ends up behind me.

Layla walks over, grabbing my forearm with both of her hands. “Please, Axe. We can play Uno after!”

I look skyward, avoiding the pleading eyes she’s aiming at me. “Fine,” I sigh as she starts shaking my arm.

Dad laughs again, turning back to his laptop. “Go finish packing,” he says, Gwen already heading past us down the hall, face still bent over her phone. “I’ll order sushi and we can go get ice cream at Scoops after dinner, before the games begin.” He waggles his eyebrows over his wire framed glasses, some white and grey hair sprinkled amongst his naturally black strands. I smile.

Layla nods, dragging me by the arm down the hall and back into my room. Tossing the box onto my bed, I sit down on my desk chair, swiveling back and forth a bit.

“Why is Mason inviting you to parties?” Lay asks, grabbing the box I just brought in and walking over to my dresser. Gwen sits on the floor, still organizing my shoes and placing them into another box.

I roll my neck, hearing a satisfying pop as my spine cracks. “I don’t know. He can’t take a hint?”

“Did you hint at a breakup or actually break up with him?” Layla starts pulling things off the top of the dresser and dropping them into the box, now balanced on her hip.

I let my head fall back, staring up at my ceiling. “I broke up with him. Very direct. ‘We are over’ wording.” I close my eyes, focusing on breathing through my nose and out through my mouth.

“That why you made out with Sofia in front of everyone next to the fire at Tyler's last week?” Layla asks. Gwen’s head shoots up in my periphery, but she stays silent.

I tip my chin back down, narrowing my eyes at Layla. “How’d you hear about that?”

“I ran into Kiera at Weston’s yesterday,” she says, glancing over at me. I mutter a curse under my breath, knowing Kiera was probably all too happy to gossip about me to my own twin sister. “She filled me in when she realized I skipped the bonfire.”

Silence stretches as they wait for me to say something, but I don’t.

“It’s probably good you guys broke up. Long distance starting college never works,” Gwen says, standing up to start pulling clothes off hangers and folding them on the end of my bed.

Layla nods. “Plus, he’s a dick.”

I shake my head, smiling and getting up from the chair. Taking the box from Layla’s hands, I open my top dresser drawer and start pulling out the random shaving accessories and contact cases I’ve thrown in there. Layla smiles at me, sitting down on my bed and organizing the clothes Gwen has folded. As we work on packing up my room, they each chime in with different things we’ll have to do when we get to the Coast, and my excitement to leave starts to grow.

4

My foot taps impatiently against the carpeted floor as I lean against the elevator wall emblazoned with the Imperium Coast University logo. Pressing the button for the eighth floor, I wave to Autumn and her new roommate, Aria, as they head for the stairs, only needing to go up two floors from the lobby of West Tower dorms. Mira, April, and I stand in the elevator in silence, each leaning against a different wall, the two of them feeling docile from all the pasta we ate at lunch. I feel energized though, finally able to go see my room.

Pulling up to the Coast this morning, I practically bounded from the car the second April put it in park outside the West Tower dorms. Mira had been quick to follow, the two of us taking a moment to just stare up at the massive building, half covered in crawling ivy with bare brown brick on the other side. Rounded turrets lined the two front corners of the ten-story structure, making the facade look like a skinny greenish castle with two massive black doors set in the center. One sat propped open, glass sections in the other revealing the cozy looking lobby on the other side. A massive stone fireplace took up over half the wall across from the entrance with plush looking chairs and acouch, an industrial elevator sitting beside the set up. Other new students waltzed in and out, some carrying bags and boxes while others passed them empty handed.

Grinning at Mira, I started bouncing on the heels of my feet, up until Ramsey knocked into me, carrying one of Mira’s overstuffed boxes and telling us to get out of the way and start helping.

Six rounds of carrying Mira’s stuff up to her room later and the initial excitement had died down a bit. My room was being set up by movers Mom and Dad hired and the longer it took for them to finish, the more antsy I got.

Now, coming back from the lunch April bought all of us, that initial excitement was back tenfold. Mom texted me while we’d been out at Romero’s.

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