If at first you don't succeed, then level the playing field and take a second chance.
Two years ago, Ellie Harrison collapsed under the weight of her past and the fallout that caught up with her. Like a shell of her former self, she retreated away f...
While his counselor approved waiving this condition his freshman year, in a moment I was incredibly proud of him for, Jake declined and still continued weekly sessions with him. The brief moments I'd seen him, he'd also looked different. Gone were the tell-tale signs of his anger. Instead, his shoulders were relaxed, his smile brighter, and he just radiated a calmer aura from inside.
Apparently all he needed was just one giant kick in the ass.
"Me too," I replied quietly. "Me too."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
My mind held several weird one-sided internal conversations with itself during what ended up a twenty hour car trip up. The last ninety minutes were no different as my mind jumped from topic to topic but always settled back on my unknown roommate. A fluttering bundle of nerves built up inside my stomach from the uncertain anticipation of only knowing that the stranger I had to live with obviously wasn't Charlie.
Hope he's tolerable. And clean.
Fate somehow continuously thrusted me into the world of football players. I saw those cocky guys in my classes and Charlie gave me free home game tickets for a studying break. I worked with Darrius and Kade under the team's partnership with the Nutritional Science department for meal planning and other guys I'd shared a lot of my general education program requirement courses with and tutored some of the others.
Wes and I met in, across all the possible classes UW offered, Dinosaurs. Both of us took it for our Natural World general ed credits. Before he and Charlie dated, we were study partners once everyone in class realized I was 'that student' who answered the lecture questions correctly.
Put me in a lecture hall with five hundred people and for some reason, the football player sits next to me.
Maybe because I'm not intimidated by them.
When the sloped streets and gleaming silver buildings of downtown Seattle finally, finally surrounded all sides of my yellow Volkswagen beetle, I heaved a huge sigh of relief.
I'm here! Finally!
Charlie and I were both ecstatic that we'd gotten an apartment in Commodore Duchess. Normally they were reserved for graduate students and football players with the complex's close proximity to Husky Stadium but she'd put us on a waiting list and we'd gotten in. Once she moved in a month ago, she had warned me our apartment was small, but the only thing I hadn't packed light was the kitchen stuff my gadget-obsessed mother insisted I needed for my high school graduation present.
Most kids have hotplates and I show up with a freaking mandolin slicer.
I was excited that we were also just a few blocks from the library where I worked as a part-time aide. At Charlie's urging, our freshman year I also applied for and was accepted into the Huskies' student athlete tutoring program, which was also how I knew some of the guys.
