*Note: Click on the Youtube link above to listen to the Audiobook version of this chapter voiced by Kristen Maglonzo featuring music by The Dangerous Summer, Something Corporate, and Rooney!
Elias
Something about North Campus puts me at peace the second Caleigh and I set foot on the pavement.
I step off the concrete bridge stretching between the business school and Northern Lights cafe and take in the view.
Things are easy here, no chaos, no crowds, just groups of students lounging under a grove of trees blocking out the LA sun. I haven't even finished checking everything out when Caleigh tugs on the bottom of my shirt and pulls me in the direction of a little convenience store a couple steps ahead.
"You need a hat," she says.
I try not to smile, but the idea of buying my first official piece of college swag has me buzzing.
A year ago, I didn't think I was going to college at all. After Lacey died, I kinda lost sight of life after high school.
Back then, my future basically included getting high or wasted at random people's kick-backs until my family intervened or kicked me out. But then Jersey changed things. She acted like college was something even a guy like me could do.
Granted, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I'm happy I'm here--even if I don't really deserve to be. Maybe losing her for this long was a good thing, 'cause if I can be a better me when I see her again, maybe she'll think I'm worth coming back to.
"Sick! Do you think I can get one of those with the UCLA blew in on it?"
Caleigh cocks an eyebrow and stares at me confused.
"Blew in?"
"Yeah, our mascot. That bear thing."
She slips into the same kind of disappointed smile Jersey used to give me all the time.
"Oh, the Bruin? Of course. Just tell me what color you want, and I'll grab it for you."
"Blue and gold, baby. Wait, can't I come with you? I don't wanna be out here by myself, what if somebody recognizes me?"
I sound like a total pussy, but the idea of standing in a semi-crowded place solo has my heart racing after this morning. Escaping the parking lot crowd was crazy enough. Caleigh had to flag down two security guys to sneak me around the Sunset Village residential area just to make it out under the radar.
Once we were in the clear, the two of us sprinted down a long back road next to two huge sports fields and eventually cut through the business school to get here. Luckily, the stiffs in suits on that side of campus are too old and too busy to pay attention to me.
Maybe the chilled out cafe kids around here will be the same way. Everybody seems too caught up in their piles of books and coffee conversations to notice me.
Yet.
"It's better if you don't. I know the girl who works the cash register here, she's been obsessed with Tanner for the last three years, and it's probably best if she doesn't know that he has a single brother, you know?"
I open my mouth to correct her, but reality keeps me quiet. She's right. I am single. I've been single since February, I guess I just don't feel like I am.
"Sure, I'll just hang out here 'til you come back. Try not to take too long, okay?"
I settle into a metal chair, prop my elbows up on the table, and pull my hoodie further over my face. Caleigh rubs the top of my head like I'm some kind of lap dog.
"I won't. Promise. Enough with the pouting, E. I'll introduce you to cooler, way more datable girls if you want later. But this one's legit crazy. Trust me."
"I do. I just don't wanna be alone right now."
"I know, but it's better if you hang back this time. Believe me, if you had a girlfriend, I'd take you with me. Sarah's a lot less stalkerish if she knows a guy's off the market," she says.
But I am off the market.
"Oh, okay. Go ahead then, I'll see you when you get back."
She jogs off towards the store, but my head's still stuck on the last part of our conversation. Caleigh's acting like I'm ready to play the field again. Like any college girl who's interested can step up to bat and take a swing at trying to date me.
The interviewers from the handful of teen magazines I talked to were the same way. They kept asking about my relationship status like they wanted me to be single for the audiences who pay to read their bullshit.
But instead of giving them the answer they wanted, I told them the truth.
"It's complicated."
Complicated because I'm not looking for a relationship with anyone but--
"Jersey?"
Her name slips out the second I see her. At, least I think I see her. She's standing in front of a row of vending machines no more than a few feet away, kicking the life out of the bottom 'cause her chips are stuck.
She arches her foot back and slams the heel of her Converses into the big metal box 'til just about everybody's staring at her.
From the back, it almost looks like nothing's changed since last summer. Her short brown hair's a little lighter than I remember, but her style's the same. Baggy sweatpants, oversized t-shirt, and she's rocking the hell out of the laid back look without even trying.
I don't even know what the hell I'm gonna say to her, but my body doesn't care. My legs are up and moving me closer to where she is a frantic step at a time.
She lifts up her fist to slam it against the plexi-glass, but I wrap my fingers around her tiny wrist to stop her.
I wait for the spark, for my skin to go live wire crazy the way I thought it would, but nothing happens.
Nothing happens?
"Jersey?"
She turns around and smiles at me like we know each other, but the recognition doesn't go both ways.
"Holy shit aren't you--?"
She knows me.
"--Elias King?"
But I don't know her.
"No."
I don't wanna know her.
"Are you sure? 'Cause you look--exactly like him," she says.
I step away from her, but the back of my knees crash into a chair behind me. The metal screeches across the concrete floor and redirects everyone's attention back in my direction.
Shit.
"Nah, you've got the wrong guy. Sorry I bothered you, I thought you were someone else."
She calls out to stop me, but I don't stick around for her to try to take things any further. I bolt back towards the convenience store to find Caleigh standing outside talking to a girl with hot pink pigtails. I know who she is before even having to ask the question.
Sarah.
Her skirt's way too short for someone who's supposed to be working a student cash register, and her school polo's unbuttoned low enough to leave next to nothing to the imagination. Gross.
Caleigh's eyes cut away from their conversation and over to me. I step towards her, but she shakes her head to stop me before I approach. She whips out her phone and a half a second later mine lights up.
Text Message from Caleigh Davenport :
CD: Head back to the dorm without me. She knows who you are & is asking about you. I'll bring your hat by later. Can you find your way back?
I don't wanna have to, but I nod and turn back towards the bridge without her.
You got this, E.
Bridge, walkway, home.
Bridge, walkway, home.
I'm not even halfway across when I hear it--the tapping of at least a dozen pair of shoes against the ground behind me. I turn around and Fake Jersey is standing there with a group of her friends. Every single one of them has their cell phones pointed directly at my face. My eyes do suicides in their sockets looking for a way out.
Any way out.
A meter maid's golf buggy's sitting on the edge of the parking lot. The woman it belongs to is way too busy dishing out afternoon tickets to see me coming.
As far as I know, nobody's ever gone to jail for borrowing a buggy.
It might be illegal.
It might not.
Either way, in t-minus thirty seconds, I'm gonna find out.
(Part 3 to be posted this weekend!)