Page 91 of Your Fault

“You’re crazy,” I said with a trembling voice.

I heard noise on the other line, traffic.

“Crazy about you. Do you like them?”

“I love them. They’re gorgeous,” I said, wishing I could jump into his arms and hide from everything.

“How was your first day of school?”

I told him quickly what I’d done, skipping the dorm and my roommate. I’d never been good at hiding things, and I wanted to end the conversation before he found me out.

“I need to go, or I’ll be late to class,” I said, chewing the inside of my cheek.

“I can tell something’s up with you. I don’t know if it’s Sophia or if it’s me having to leave right when you moved in, but whatever it is, I’ll make it up to you, okay?”

I said a quick goodbye and put my phone on the table. I felt horrible, horrible, because I was lying to him and I would be responsible for disappointing him when he got back and realized we wouldn’t live together.

Hating myself for it, I dressed quickly, put out food and water for N for the next few days, and carried my last few things out of the apartment. When I turned off the light, I knew there would be hell to pay when he came back and I wasn’t there.

I had three days to come up with a plan.

I spent the next two days going to class and hanging out with new friends. I’d only talked to my mother once, and that was because she’d threatened to drive down there if I didn’t pick up. Nothing was resolved, things were just as uncomfortable between us asever, and I didn’t see that changing, at least not until I’d found it in myself to forgive her for extorting me.

I was sitting in the cafeteria talking to Jenna. She’d already found a roommate, Amber, who worked at an IT company in town while taking classes at the same time. She must have been doing all right for herself, if she could afford campus housing on her own.

“When’s Nick back?” Jenna asked as I finished my salad.

“Tomorrow night,” I murmured. I didn’t want to talk about that.

She seemed to find it funny, almost as if she took pleasure in knowing what a difficult spot I was in. “Does he know you’re living with a stranger in a campus apartment yet?”

With a nasty look, I replied, “He’ll find out when he gets here and I tell him. Now I don’t feel like talking about Nick. Tell me again what the plan for tonight is. I still don’t really know what’s up.”

Jenna gave me a sarcastic look, but she couldn’t hold it for long. She got excited.

“These frat guys told me there are parties all over to celebrate the new year. Apparently Phi Delta, the medical fraternity, throws one that’s totally off the hook. I can’t wait to be there surrounded by handsome doctors, people who understand the future is medicine and not physics or literature… No offense.”

I frowned at her, and she laughed, picked up her books, and stood.

“See you in a couple of hours. Pull out all the stops when you get dressed.” She winked and walked off, shaking her hips in that way that drove all the guys wild. Single Jenna was something new, something I just couldn’t get used to. Since I’d known Jenna, she’d been with Lion, but I guess she must have gotten around before then.

Unlike most of the parties I’d been to recently—all held at rich kids’ beach houses—here, I could finally hang out with people from different backgrounds, different origins, different classes. That was the good thing about it being a public university. I’d never felt totally comfortable surrounded by all those millionaires; being rich was new to me, and anyway, as much as my mother insisted that was my reality, she’d just made clear that it didn’t have to be and that she could cut off William’s money at the drop of a hat. Here I felt I could finally fit in. I quickly found Jenna, who was with Amber drinking beer in a corner of the kitchen. I couldn’t believe it when I saw her with a Budweiser in her hand—Jenna, who always preferred Grey Goose or Cristal. I wanted to snap a photo to make fun of her afterward, but she looked so at ease that I decided to play nice.

“Noah,” she said when she saw me come in. I walked over and she hugged me so tightly, she almost strangled me.

It was the first time I’d met Amber, and she seemed as wild as Jenna, almost—just a tad more reserved. She smiled and moved her head to the rhythm of the music while making seductive comments to a boy next to her.

I drank a few beers quickly, and randomly I found myself surrounded by fifty drunk students jumping around a room that had been cleared of all furnishings. The music was blasting, and I could barely hear anything else. Jenna was bumping and grinding against me, and Amber had walked off with the muscular guy she’d been talking to earlier.

“I need to chill for a bit, Jenna!” I shouted as people started to shriek along to a popular song. “I’m going to go to the kitchen!”

She nodded, but really she was ignoring me and immediately joined another group there.

It was hot as hell. I rolled up my sleeves and wiped down my forehead. When I got to the kitchen, they were pouring out a round of shots.

“Hey, new girl,” a guy shouted at me from some distance away. “A toast to the hot chicks!”

Every guy in the circle brought a shot glass to his lips, knocked it back, laughed, and shouted. I thought it was funny, but I didn’t stick around, going instead to the back of the kitchen and leaning against the table. I took out my phone to check the time, and the guy who’d been shouting came over.

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