Penny For Your Thoughts? [unedited]

c h a p t e r • t h i r t y f o u r

We walked Evie through the front door and her eyes went wide.

"Hello New York." She chuckled while her eyes scanned the entirety of Tommy's condo. Maybe I was just noticing it, but it was enormous.

"Your room is upstairs, second door on the right." He smiled.

Evie gave him an exuberant look before taking off like a shot towards her new room. I'm happy she seemed happier than she was living practically alone with our abusive father.

"You'll be okay here taking care of her?" I sighed, turning to him.

He scoffed.
"I've taken care of 7 kids my whole life, I think I'll be fine."

A weak smile formed on my face but eventually fell. The bad thoughts in my head were having a fucking ball and it was only making me feel worse. My anxiety was sky rocketing as I began to think about how much of a mess we were in.

"Hey," Tommy murmured, taking a hold of my shoulder. "It's almost over."

A sigh escaped my lips as I looked into his reassuring eyes. He was right. We were almost at the finish line, we just had to push through.

***

School came back around quickly the following morning and I was less than excited.
We set Evie up with a personal tutor so she could be homeschooled. The rest of us, however, had to walk back to campus like nothing happened.
I sat in my dorm, getting ready. I squeezed my feet into the tight heels before fixing my knee-highs and smoothing out my skirt. A sudden knock on my dorm caused me to look up and furrow my brow.
Kenna never knocks.

"Come in?" I called.

The door peeked open and in walked someone I've been longing to see.
A genuine smile spread like butter across my face as Parker walked in.

"Long time, no see stranger." He smiled, flopping onto my bed.

"It was one weekend." I rolled my eyes before going in for a kiss. My lips crashed into his, before he pulled away with a grin.

"One weekend too long." He went in for another kiss, and this one lasted longer.
God, how I missed this.
I'm glad that Parker is one of the more stable things in my life.

"Oh God my eyes!" A voice screeched.

Parker and I snapped up to see Sunny standing in my doorway, her hands covering her eyes. I chuckled and sat up, grabbing my bag in the process.

"Good morning to you too, Sun." Parker chuckled before standing and shoving his hands into his pockets.

"You guys need to get a room." She scoffed.

Parker and I shared amused glanced before looking back to her.

"This is my dorm." I laughed.

She thought about it for a moment before realization struck. She sucked her teeth and turned towards the door.

"Anyways, time to go. We're gonna be late."

"You ready?" I asked Parker, slinging my bag over my shoulder.

"I'm actually gonna skip Entre today, I have some stuff to handle. But I'll see you later, yeah?"

I nodded as he placed a quick kiss on my cheek. I smiled as he rushed out of the door, giving Sunny a quick pat on the back as he left my dorm.

"Just you and me then." Sunny smiled.

"Actually, Chris is gonna walk with us. He has some business in the Warren Dorris building so he said he'd walk us to class."

We left my room as I watched the color drain from Sunny's face. She went pale and her eyes went wide.