Page 3 of Forever Yours

I sipped my coffee and pondered the hard choice I had to make while staring at the stars faintly twinkling in the early morning sky. I’d told Julien once that I believed things happened for a reason. It was the excuse I gave Jessi the other day when I talked to her about what I was planning on doing. She cursed me seven ways to Sunday and told me I was being emotional and irrational. Perhaps. All I knew was that every fiber of my being was screaming at me that this was the right choice to make. I sat on it for a few days just to make sure. Nothing had changed.

I loved Julien, and he needed me. Plain and simple. I would always choose him.

Carefully setting down my mug, I double-tapped my screen to wake it up. Deep breath in, slow breath out. I started typing.

Me: I’ve decided.

I waited for Fallon’s response, knowing he was up. He never slept.

Fallon: And? I’m kinda mid-coitus in DeeDee Rothsbury and she’s screaming like a cat in heat, so be brief so I can shut her the hell up. She’s giving me a goddamn headache.

I folded my lips under to hold in my chuckle. Only Fallon would text and fuck at the same time.

Me: Can you still get me in to CU?

Fallon: Hold on…

My phone vibrated with an incoming call.

“Okay. Talk to me,” he said in way of greeting, a little breathless like he was walking and talking at the same time.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your… whatever.”

A door opened and shut, then I heard the sound of the wind and a lighter clicking on.

“She wasn’t that good anyway. So, CU?”

I held the phone tightly to my ear. “Yep. Looks like. Is your offer still good?”

His breath blew out, more than likely from the joint he’d probably lit.

“I’ll make the call first thing in the morning. Expect to hear from someone in the admissions office before noon.”

My nerves amped up. I was really doing this. No more dreams of Stanford. I’d have to contact them as soon as I heard from CU. Officially decline the scholarship they offered me.

Fallon’s father went to CU. It was his alma mater. The Montgomery family was a major donor to the school. They had an entire hall and a library named after them. Fallon didn’t go last year like his father wanted him to. Instead, he traveled the world. Who needed a college degree when your future was already set, and you had millions in your bank account from a trust fund your grandfather had given you?

“Are you sure about this?” Fallon asked.

No.

“Yeah,” I quietly said into the phone.

Another exhale of smoke. “Is he worth it?”

“He’s worth everything,” I replied without hesitation.

His sigh was loud over the line, as was the barely audible “fuck.”

“Guess we’re going to CU,” he said, and I almost dropped my phone.

“We?”

“Who’s going to look after you and Ry?”

CHAPTER 2

I really didn’t want to be there.

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