Page 23 of The Professor's Possession (Crystal River Billionaire Brothers)

I don’t even get the chance to respond before Luke’s speaking again.

“You want to come to the party, Olivia?” he asks.

“I can’t...”

“Please come,” Ava says as she steps away from the mirror. “I really want a girlfriend with me tonight. Luke will probably disappear on me to be with his buddies like he always does, so I need company.”

“Don’t be boring, Olivia,” Luke adds. “What else are you going to do? Sit here and read like a little geek? This is college.Party central. It’s not a place to spend all your time studying.”

“Don’t pressure her,” Ava rebukes her boyfriend. “She can do what she wants, even though I would love it if you came, Olivia. Just once. I’ll look after you.”

Maybe I should go out and meet some people. I’ll just stick by Ava and make sure to avoid this friend that Luke’s talking about. It’s time I soak up some college experiences. Be more social, like Mom is always pressuring me to be.

“Okay, sure,” I say uncertainly. “I’ll come.”

A big smile erupts across Ava’s face. “Great. That’s perfect. I’ll help you get ready.”

Luke, meanwhile, just stares at me, and I begin to seriously wonder what I’ve let myself into tonight.

11

OLIVIA

The party is notwhat I was expecting when I agreed to tag along. I mean, I didn’t really knowwhatI was expecting when I left the dorms with Ava and Luke, but it certainly wasn’t this. To be honest, I thought we might be going to another dorm building or something for some drinks. A chill event. Maybe with, like, twenty or so people, max.

But instead, we take a short walk to a house just outside of the university campus. Like, a regularnormalhouse on a regular Crystal River street. Not a dorm room. Nothing connected to CRU at all.

It’s such a typical upper-middle-class suburban house, with the white picket fence and everything. Two-story brick. A neatly trimmed front lawn.

Not exactly a college party house...

“It’s owned by someone who’s in my Psych class,” Ava explains to me as we approach the doors. “Their parents are away for a week, hence the free house.”

“Ah. And do the parents know there’s a party tonight?” I ask.

Ava grins in the moonlight. “I don’t know, but I’ll bet all my money they havenoclue what’s going on right now.”

“Oh.”

“Scared of a little party, Olivia?” Luke asks me in a teasing way. Ava shoots him a dirty look.

“I just want to know what I’m getting into,” I reply.

“Time to pull up your big girl pants,” he says. “You’re going to grow up tonight.”

“Stop it, Luke,” Ava says. “Stop teasing her.”

I just ignore him and continue walking through the front door. The boy is not worth my words.

Music is blaring from inside the house as we open the front door. There are college students everywhere. This is certainly not the small gathering I’ve been anticipating at all. The whole place is crowded from top to bottom. I’m pretty sure most of the university has managed to squeeze in between these four walls somehow.

The place is lit with a dim redness. Everyone’s drinking, holding red cups of various alcoholic beverages. Some people are dancing in the living room, inebriated beyond sanity. Good thing that it’s a pretty big house. Whoever owns it must have some money coming in.

I certainly hope they do; they’ll probably need the money to hire a good cleaning service in the morning.

I follow Ava like a puppy as she navigates us through the crowd to the kitchen. We lose Luke on the way; he sees some friends of his and disappears with them without even a word to us. I’m happy to just be with Ava though, but I do feel sorry for her for putting up with a boy like Luke; one who just does his own thing and disappears from her every time they go out. I don’t want to judge, but she is a woman who deserves a lot more than that flaky former quarterback. He’s just so...rude.

“I haven’t been to a real big party like this before,” I tell Ava, having to practically yell in her ear to be heard above the music.

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