When Gracie is humiliated after following her best friend's brother to college and finds he's moved on without her, she grows closer to his rival--the captain of his basketball team--the infamous Kalen Rush, and suddenly Gracie wonders just what len...
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"I should've known you'd be here instead of the five other places I checked first."
My head swiveled to the side in a comical fashion at the voice interrupting my train of thought, a popping sensation cracking in my neck as I did so.
Franny inspected my manic studying alcove with an air of sympathetic pity on her heavily made up face.
"You do realize you've been missing for over four hours now, right? I've been blowing up your phone, asking Colby if he'd seen you...I was this close to having campus security look for you."
"I've only been studying for four hours, Fran, it's not that long."
"It is when it's a fucking Friday night."
Her eyebrows rose up significantly while I rolled my eyes, glancing back down at the mound of work I'd already completed in such a short time.
The internship at the museum had only barely started and I was only TA'ing for a short time out of the week, but combined, it would be easy for me to get behind and I wasn't about to let that happen.
Letting my grades slip meant my scholarship would be in trouble, and it was kind of the only thing I had going for me at the moment.
The quiet sanctuary of the library was my only reprieve from my tumultuous thoughts and emotions as a rollercoaster of uncertainty and dread piled on top of me after my latest confrontation with Kalen.
He'd been all too happy to keep watch on me anytime we were in the same vicinity, those icy, frigid eyes seeking me out like he was waiting for me to come up to him and make a fool out of myself, again.
"I couldn't study in the dorm. The library makes it easier for me to concentrate."
"You do realize we already made plans tonight though, right?"
A stone sunk in my stomach at the awaiting expression on her face.
"Tonight?"
"Yes, the movie you were so excited to see? Those plans?"
"I...shit. I'm sorry, Fran. This week has been getting to me. Can we still make it in time to see it? Or we can pick one you want to see, or do anything else you'd rather do?"
Franny's blue eyes softened as she came around the other side of the desk to plop into the chair beside me.
"Gracie, I don't blame you for checking out, but you can't pull what you did back in high school. The ulcers, the stress, it was too much. You know I'm not mad—it's typical Gracie and I know by now not to get offended that you forgot about our plans because you got so lost in your own head, but you need to start taking better care of yourself here, especially now that my parents aren't here to watch out for you, too."
"I know, I've been trying. I'm sorry—do you still want to go to the movies?"
Franny laughed as I started frantically pulling all my things into my bag and stopped me with a gentle hand to my wrist.
