➵
As a child, Bea McAdams knew she didn't have much of a choice in her own future if she wanted to make her parents proud. She knew that if she wanted to please her family, she would follow her mother's rules and go to a reputable university, work her ass off for a degree, get a respectable job, and marry a wealthy man with a good reputation. This didn't leave much room in her life for negotiation, and although Bea was a bit of a stickler for the rules, she wasn't opposed to bending them every now and then.
That is why she chose a reputable university in another province, far from her parents and their controlling ways. The only respectable profession in her parent's eyes was a surgeon, so Bea chose to study to be a vet, arguing that it was still a career in medicine. And the marriage thing, well, that was a whole other argument.
"You're going to want to take the next exit," said Bea, looking up at her best friend to make sure she heard her over the loud music. After a moment of Lottie bopping her head to the tune of some noisy and disruptive song, Bea sighed and turned the music off completely. Lottie's head immediately snapped to the side with a look of betrayal on her face, causing Bea to laugh as she pointed to the exit.
Lottie shook her head, turning back to the road. With an exaggerated sigh and a tiny smile, Lottie said "Why is it always Crooked Arrow that pays the price when we fight?"
Bea laughed, "Your boyfriend and his little boy band won't suffer if we only listen to their songs for three and a half hours of our four-hour drive," said Bea with a pointed look as she held back an eye roll.
Sure, Crooked Arrow wasn't Bea's favourite band, but she kept her negativity to herself around her best friend. Lottie was always a huge fan of the band; she went to every gig, promoted them to those around her in any way she could, and she was always the loudest in the crowd. Lottie was a fan before the boys even became a band, partly because she loved the genre, but mostly because her boyfriend of four years was the lead guitarist.
"Plus, if the music is too loud, I can't talk, and I haven't had the chance to rant about my impending doom," Bea added dramatically, "now that I'm going to have to room with some random stranger!"
Bea wasn't angry that Lottie chose to live off-campus with her boyfriend and his band instead of rooming with her in a dorm room, but happy wouldn't be the word she'd use to describe the situation either. Not that Bea would ever say anything, she knew how excited Lottie was to finally see her boyfriend after months of being separated.
"Oh, I'm sure you'll end up with someone nice, maybe someone as obsessed with schoolwork and studying as you," she said, turning down what looked like a deserted back road, "you guys can have nerdy study sessions or whatever it is you do."
"My 'nerdy study sessions' are how I pass school. And you speak as though you're someone who won't be joining these study sessions," Bea laughed.
Lottie gave her a look, "I don't study."
"You do realize you're studying to be a lawyer, right? Which entails many sleepless nights of studying and law school after these first four years?"
Lottie cringed, eyes wide as the realization slowly seeped in, though a sheepish smile slowly crept onto her lips, "I'm not so sure I want to be a lawyer anymore..."
Eventually, after miles of nothing but trees and a few more empty dirt roads, the two reached the main road leading to their destination. Lendale, Ontario wasn't known for anything but its university. Other than the shockingly large school, the small town didn't have much else to offer - a few corner stores, a single restaurant, and a pathetically small strip mall. For some that would be a deal-breaker, but Bea couldn't care less as long as she was far away from her mother.
Lottie gestured towards her phone as it buzzed, asking Bea to read out the text.
"Finn says they might be a little longer with their agent than they thought." Bea turned, peering at the mountain of boxes and bags in the back, most of which belonged to Lottie. "I'll help you carry your stuff in, can we drop mine off in my room first?"
➸
As Bea shuffled into her dorm room, immediately she hoped her roommate was someone she'd like - because for roughly seven and a half months they'd be living in extremely close quarters.
The side closest to the door had a regular twin-sized bed with a small desk beside it while the other side had a twin-sized loft bed with a desk beneath it. To separate both sides in the middle of the room was a small couch, a TV on the opposite wall that looked older than the school itself, and two small armoires for clothing.
"Pretty nice for a dorm room," commented Lottie, huffing from the weight of the boxes in her arms, "which bed?"
Bea pointed to the bed closest to them, "The one that's not in the air," she said, tossing her bags onto the mattress, "they must've been re-furnishing some of the rooms."
Lottie shrugged, "Who knows. I'll go get the last of the boxes."
As Lottie left, Bea sighed, taking in her surroundings. She felt like something was missing, not in the room or something physical that she forgot to pack, but just some aspect of the whole moving process. Bea couldn't quite place her finger on it.
Then, she heard laughter in the hall. Eventually, the laughter passed her doorway, revealing a girl and her parents as they all struggled to lug arms full of boxes down the hall. Bea sighed, trying to busy herself with unpacking her belongings to distract herself from the fact that she didn't have a family here with her.
Bea always wished she had a family like Lottie's. Although Lottie complained about her younger brothers, often referring to them as the "blonde baboons" or the "triplets of terror" --it went without saying that the Andrew family all loved each other unconditionally. That was a dynamic that Bea's family had never adopted, at least not when it came to Bea.
If Katherine McAdams showed any sort of affection towards her youngest daughter, it must have been hidden within her degrading comparisons between Bea and Bea's older sister, Isabelle.
Isabelle McAdams was the golden child and when it came to competition between the sisters, Isabelle always came first. Firstborn, first to get accepted into a reputable university, first to enroll in one of the top medical programs in the country, and the first person Bea found to be a real pain in her ass.
Bea's father was the only family member that she had a good relationship with. Henry McAdams had most of the characteristics that Katherine McAdams lacked: kindness, humility, acceptance – and on top of it all, Henry didn't dictate his daughter's lives, unlike Katherine.
Bea turned back to her suitcase, ripping it open.
Lottie walked in a moment after, dropping the boxes at her feet. Although Bea tried her best to wipe the bitter expression off her face, she wasn't fast enough for Lottie.
"Everything alright?" she asked.
Bea nodded, plastering a smile on her face.
"Yeah, I'm just not looking forward to all this unpacking."
The frown melted from her face, morphing into a grin as she slid into the room, "Well, it's a good thing there's two of us! We'll have it done in no time."
Bea's face relaxed into a genuine smile as Lottie dived into the mess without a second thought. Perhaps Bea wasn't close to her parents or her sister, but she had Lottie, and she knew Lottie would always have her back.
Maybe this won't be so bad, she thought as she began unpacking her clothes.
➸
The band house looked quite homey from the outside, something Bea was not expecting from a house that housed three young guys. It was on the opposite side of town in an area with very few neighbours close by - a choice that was most likely intentional. The house was white with a small wrap-around front deck. Though they didn't have many flowers, the house was lined with bushes and other green leafy plants that would require some tending to; at that moment, Bea wondered which one of the boys took the time to plant and maintain the yard.
Lottie led Bea up the driveway, pausing by a bush to search for the extra key. Though Lottie looked quite ridiculous with her arm engulfed by a bush, Bea supposed hiding the key under a bush was better than under a welcome mat or a rock.
As the two entered the house for the first time, Bea was yet again surprised. The house was very tidy and just as homey as it appeared from the outside. Upon entering, the staircase to the second level was on the right and the living room was to the left. A swinging door led to what Bea assumed was the kitchen.
"Bea, are you coming?" laughed Lottie from halfway up the stairs. She nodded, rushing after the blonde.
They continued like that for half an hour, up and down the stairs with boxes and bags and suitcases until they were finally finished unloading Lottie's belongings. A couple of hours later, they'd finished unpacking her stuff as well.
Lottie fell back onto the bed with an aggravated sigh, "I thought Finn would be back by now."
Bea plopped down next to her with a sigh. The only way to describe Bea's relationship with Finn would be indifferent. They'd only met a couple of times despite the fact Lottie and he had been dating for years, and the only opinions Bea had been able to form about him were from what she'd heard from others online. And some of that online chatter didn't give Bea the best impression about the boys. Of course, Bea knew not to trust everything she read, but it still made her cautious.
"I'm sure he'll be b-" Bea began to console but was quickly cut off by Lottie's screech as the front door creaked open. She shot out of bed, swinging around the doorframe and down the hall. Her feet were already thundering down the stairs by the time Bea lifted herself from the bed.
Lottie had launched herself into Finn's embrace (who had already been waiting at the bottom of the stairs with his arms outstretched) and was just pulling away as Bea approached.
"Finally! Took you long enough," said Lottie with a pout to her boyfriend.
"I know, I'm sorry. The meeting went longer than I thought," he paused to take off his jacket before turning to Bea, "hey Bea, nice to see you again."
Bea smiled awkwardly with a tiny nod, "you too." she said quietly enough that Finn probably couldn't hear - not that it mattered anyway, his attention had already gone back to Lottie.
"How was the drive over?" Finn asked, but Lottie never got the chance to answer as the door swung open with a loud creak yet again.
Bea would have been able to recognize the boy from a mile away. Local news outlets hailed him as a god, the type of guy girls would give nearly anything to spend even just a fleeting moment with.
Archer Westbrook, Crooked Arrow's lead singer and bassist. He stopped in the doorway, tossing his leather jacket carelessly to the side as he brushed wisps of golden hair out of his face. When he realized that someone unfamiliar was in his home, he froze, blue eyes landing on Bea as he quickly looked her up and down.
Just for a moment, Bea's breath caught in her throat.
"Who's the kid?"
Suddenly, she could breathe again.
➸