Secrets, Lies, and Summer Skies

Chapter Thirty-Four

"I am taking it seriously!" she protested. "Babe, if it's this difficult to figure out, you can just take a break. So many people do that all the time. Mature students are a whole thing. Just stop for a while and think about where you're going with your degree, then go back to it later. It's not the end of the world if you take a breath sometimes, you know?"

"And what am I meant to do when I'm taking a break?" I challenged. "Tour Europe like you did?"

"I would support that plan. Not sure Grayson would be stoked that you're fucking your way across a continent, but I'm pretty sure if it happens in another country then it doesn't count as cheating. Also, I would so go with you. I found so many great places to pick up guys. And girls." Jenny sighed. "I wanna go back so bad. Can we just do that? Your dad would cover your trip."

Dad probably would've covered a short trip overseas, but not a solid year of trawling around the world. Especially not if he thought that Jenny was being a bad influence on me.

And she was always a bad influence.

"Dad would rather I finished my degree before I did anything like that."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize that this was your dad's life."

"Okay, you can't see it, but I'm hitting you with a judgmental glare right now," I said. "Tell you what, if you can name me five people who got far in life without a degree off the top of your head, I'll actually consider Europe."

Jenny paused. The silence lingered for a few seconds before she admitted, "Okay, I can't think of anyone on the fly."

"Because there isn't anyone."

I knew it was a lie. Of course, there were people who lived perfectly good lives without going to university. Hell, there were even high-powered CEOs who'd dropped out of school and gone on to make huge differences in the world. Sure, many of them had wealthy parents who'd bankrolled their endeavors, but that didn't change the fact they'd not finished college. I just wanted Jenny to drop the idea of heading across Europe instead of finishing my degree. Waiting was always an option, but then the knowledge that I'd left my work unfinished would hang over my head. I'd rather just get it out of the way and figure things out after I had a degree in my hands. Someone as impulsive as Jenny would never understand that. She was the sort to just take off to some distant corner of the globe the moment she got bored with her life.

Sometimes I wondered why we were friends when we were such opposite personality types.

My phone beeped to announce a waiting call and I snatched it up from the bed. "Jen', I'll call you back."

"Sure. I'll find a list of successful billionaires without college degrees while you're gone."

"Shortest list ever, but you do you."

I closed the laptop with one hand and connected the call with the other. It was another anonymous number. Great. Every time I considered blocking withheld numbers from my cellphone, I second-guessed my decision. It might have been Dad calling from somewhere in England, or my landlord wanting to know whether I intended to return to the apartment I'd shared with Trey. Hell, if Dad had thought to reach out to the college on my behalf it might have been someone from the administration trying to talk to me about a transfer. I could put up with a few nuisance calls if it meant I wouldn't miss something important in between.

I pushed myself up from the bed and connected the call. "Hello?"

For a moment, there was no reply. The prank caller liked to hit me with heavy breathing the moment I picked up, so it made a nice change to be met with total silence. I crossed my bedroom with the handset to my ear and peeked through the window. Grayson was outside going over paperwork while his new car was delivered.