Page 13 of Forever Yours

I gripped the back of Ryder’s shirt and pushed up to look at Jayson. “Five if you include Fallon.”

“I don’t.”

Julien rolled his eyes at his twin’s clipped remark.

Ryder dropped me down to my feet once we reached the kitchen. It was decent-sized but felt small with the four of us crammed into it.

Ryder had set up everything on the counter island, so we could help ourselves. I was the first to grab a plate.

Jayson clapped Ryder’s back in appreciation. “You outdid yourself. This looks amazing.”

Ryder’s eyes widened slightly at the compliment. “Thanks.”

“Fuck it,” Julien said when he saw the large platter heaped with spaghetti and meatballs and the garlic toast next to it. “I’ll run an extra mile tomorrow. Load me up, E. I’ll grab the drinks.”

Once we had our food, we took our plates into the living room and gathered on the floor around the coffee table. WhileFast and the Furiousplayed quietly on the television, we talked as we ate. Laughed and joked. Got excited about the first day of classes and about Julien’s upcoming match. It was nice. Normal.

It hadn’t been ten whole minutes before the upbeat mood shifted when Jayson said, “She should be here with us.”

I wanted to throttle him for bringing Liz up and sucking what little joy that had existed right out of the room. Ryder stood up and walked out. Seconds later, the front door opened and closed. Julien excused himself and disappeared down the hall. Jayson looked over at me, saluted me with his beer bottle, then chugged the entire thing in three swallows.

I twirled spaghetti around my fork, no longer hungry.

Once again, the absence of Liz ruined what should have been a fun evening of celebration. The start of college. Julien, Ryder, Jayson, and I together like old times.

And Ihatedthat I couldn’t stop myself fromhatingher just a little because of it.

CHAPTER 5

Sitting cross-legged on my dorm bed with my laptop in front of me, I scanned the available non-academic job openings I found posted on the CU student employment website. I skipped over the jobs listed under student union, housing, and parking and transportation. There were a few jobs under recreation like operations team member, swimming instructor, and personal trainer that looked interesting. All the library student positions were closed and not accepting applications.

Clicking on a link, I read through the requirements for swim instructor. YMCA or American Red Cross WSI certification? Check. I had both, along with one for CPR. Even though I had stopped swimming competitively, I’d kept my certifications up to date out of habit.

Noise from outside in the hallway caught my attention just as the door to the room clicked open. Blaring music poured in from the room across the hall, then muffled to more tolerable levels when Ash shut the door.

“Oh, hey. I didn’t expect you back so soon,” he said as he walked in, carrying a take-out bag of food that smelled delicious and had my stomach perking up.

I never did finish eating the dinner Ryder spent hours cooking.

I closed my laptop. “Dinner got cut short.”

Ryder disappeared to who knew where and didn’t return. Jayson sulked off into his room. And Julien said he wanted to go for a run. Since I didn’t want to sit around their condo and twiddle my damn thumbs, I told him to come over to the dorm when he was done.

“Sorry to hear that.” Ash walked over to my side of the room and dropped the bag of food on my bed. Reaching inside, he pulled out a wrapped burger. “Good thing I ordered extra,” he said with a smile and handed it to me.

I accepted it eagerly. “You are by far the best roommate I’ve ever had.”

“Aren’t I theonlyroommate you’ve ever had?”

“Semantics,” I replied, ripping the waxed paper from the burger and taking a huge bite. So damn good. Almost as good as Ruby’s Diner. “Where did you get this?”

“Place called Belly’s. Heard some people talking about it at the student rec center when I dropped by to check it out. Cool place. Takes about five minutes to walk there from here. They have a trivia night next week and are doing karaoke tonight. We should definitely go sometime.”

I scooted back toward the head of the bed to make room for Ash. He matched my cross-legged sitting position, our knees inches apart because of how small the bed was.

“Have any plans with your friends tomorrow?” he asked, flattening out the paper that his cheeseburger was wrapped in, so it served as a makeshift placemat.

While we had trudged back and forth from our room to the parking lot to get his stuff, I’d told him about Julien, Fallon, Jayson, and Ryder. How we all knew one another. In return, Ash had told me a little about his friends in Seattle and his best friend, Arjun, who had been accepted to MIT.

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