Page 27 of Forever Yours

Jessi’s image bounced as she walked with her phone into her small apartment kitchen. Last night when we talked, she gave me a video tour of the new place she was renting with two other girls who were also going to NYU. I had never seen such a small living space before, but apparently, her tiny two-bedroom apartment was considered decent-sized in the city. My dorm room was bigger than her entire apartment.

“Just wanted to say good morning. Did your dad blow up your phone first thing?”

Dad called right as my alarm went off. He was more excited about today than I was. I was the first Barnes man on the paternal side of the family to go to college.

“Yep.”

Jessi went offscreen for a second and came back with a steaming mug of coffee in her hands.

Jealous of the coffee she was flaunting, I teased, “Bitch.”

She took a sip as she smirked. “Text me later. Love you.”

“Ditto,” I said and pressed the red icon at the bottom of my screen to disconnect.

“Cafeteria or student union?” Ash asked as we walked down the sidewalk toward the main quad of the campus.

Carolina University had a gorgeous campus full of old-world charm, mature native trees, and bright flashes of color where flower beds dotted the manicured grounds.Many of the old historic buildings, some dating back to the early 1800s, still stood and were used as lecture halls. Taking it all in as we walked, it was like entering a different world.

The weekend had been chaos as everyone moved in and got settled. This morning, however, the campus was busy and full of life, but in a different way. The air seemed crisper, charged with an excited energy that crackled in my ears. There were tons of people walking around carrying backpacks or shoulder bags, many with earbuds in or headphones on as they listened to music. A few scattered clusters of couples held hands or kissed. However, there was one common thread I noticed. Everyone was smiling.

“If there are already this many people out, the cafeteria will be packed. SU would be quicker.”

It wasn’t. It took us ten minutes of impatient waiting in a long line that stretched out the door before I got my coffee and an everything bagel with cream cheese.

Ash and I parted ways right after we paid for our food. I only had a short distance to travel before I was walking up the concrete steps of Hathaway Hall where biology was taught. I stopped and gazed up at the building’s Doric façade. Grandiose and awe-inspiring. Thelight-colored sandstone blocks that were used to build it were pot-marked and bumpy from over a century of being exposed to the elements.

I took a deep breath and…

“Come on, pretty boy. Get that ass moving.”

My mouth gaped open when Fallon swaggered right by me and ascended the steps into the building.

I scrambled to catch up to him, having to squeeze a path through the sea of students loitering in the hallway.

“You’re taking biology?” I asked as I finally reached him.

“Sounded interesting.”

Uh-huh. He was full of it, but it made me smile.

When we entered the already packed auditorium, all eyes turned our way. It was freaky as hell and reminded me of that old horror movieInvasion of the Body Snatchers, without all the creepy finger-pointing.

Fallon stopped in the aisle at the back row. “Move.”

That was all it took. One word.

The guy sitting in the end-row seat said nothing as he grabbed his bag and got up.

“You, too,” Fallon said to the blonde girl in the next seat over.

She blinked up at him a few times in a daze, then nodded and followed the guy to the empty seats farther down the row.

Fallon had that star-struck effect on every girl at school, so it shouldn’t surprise me that his voodoo would extend to college.

He dropped to the now vacant seat and gestured for me to take the one beside him. I tried hard to ignore the transfixed stares I felt aimed our way. I knew no one was looking at me.

Just as I pulled out my laptop and booted it up, there was a loud bang when the professor walked in through an exit door to the right of the auditorium stage. He went over to the podium and hooked a clip-on mic to the collar of his shirt.

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