THERE'S NO WAY ❥ JACKSON AVERY

PROLOGUE

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚"There's no way that it's not going there." ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚
˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Her parents thought it was stupid to leave Boston to chase after some guy—a guy she wasn't even dating—but he was her best friend, and she wasn't chasing him.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

"What do you mean you accepted a teaching job in Seattle?" her mother asked, following her daughter through her the front door to her one bedroom apartment towards her small kitchen.

Blair's apartment was just so her. The greens, browns, and blues that filled the space, the plants she was somewhat killing, the light brown matching furniture and bookshelves filled with different books. She had gotten the apartment when she had was finishing up graduate school and as well as getting a teaching credential, allowing her to work as an English teacher as the high school near her apartment. She had student taught there, too. She had worked as an English teacher for a few years while also doing her doctorate degree on the side, wanting to be certified to be a college professor. She finally was.

"I mean that I accepted a teaching job in Seattle," Blair shrugged, swinging open one of her cabinets to pull down her coffee beans, needing to brew something to keep her awake while she packed. "Pacific College."

"A professor job," her father added in, taking a seat at the kitchen island on one of Blair's stools.

"Yes," she nodded, though her face was turned to them. "Coffee?"

Both her parents mumbled a yes from behind her. Her parents weren't exactly taking the news with the excitement she wanted, but what was she expecting? She just told her Filipino parents she was moving across the country.

Granted, she was a grown adult with two doctorate degrees—which was in English Literature and Creative Writing so it somehow made her feel like people would take her less seriously despite the amount of years she went to school and the extensive studies she had to do on authors, especially Shakespeare, and no one sane wants to study Shakespeare—but do you really become a grown adult ever when your parents are Filipino?

"Blair, why—"

She cut her mother off by pressing the on button on her coffee bean grinder, the blending noise filling their space and engulfing her mother's voice.

When it stopped, her mother started again, "Why can't you just work somewhere here? Boston University, Harvard?"

She scoffed a laugh. "A professor at Harvard? Me? As if."

"I think it's obvious why she chose Seattle," her father said softly, and she could hear him tapping on the counter top with his nails as she switched the coffee machine on. "We always knew one way or the other, she was ending up in Seattle."

She turned around, leaning against the counter behind her to look at her parents and crossed her arms.

"And why is that?" Blair asked.

Her parents looked at one another, knowing looks causing downward tilts of their lips.

"You're finally at a place in your life where you can chase after him," her father said matter-of-factly. He sighed and rubbed his face.

"God," she whisper-yelled, exasperation in her voice as she knew exactly who he meant. "I am not chasing after him."

"You tried this when he left all those years ago for med school, Blair," her mother pointed out. "You wanted to transfer somewhere near him, and again when he started his internship at Mercy West. You looked into MAT programs in Seattle, and after you got your teaching credential, you looked into high schools in Seattle. But circumstances always kept you here. And despite good teaching hospitals being near here, he always kept himself in Seattle."

She looked away from her parents, the sound of the Mr. Coffee crackling behind her as the last drops of the coffee got filtered into the pot was the only thing that filled the apartment.

"He's my best friend," she finally said, closing her eyes as she said it.

"So you're choosing Jackson over us?" he asked.

She paused, opening her eyes and hesitating now. She couldn't tell if he was trying to guilt trip her about it or if he was he just genuinely wanted to know. Out of everyone in her life, was it Jackson that Blair couldn't live without?

The no response was all he needed, and he nodded. He stood up, walking towards her but going past her to get mugs down from her cabinet. The three soaked in the silence as her dad prepared their coffee for them. As he handed hers to her, they both stood leaning against the cabinets while her mother stared at them from the island.

"I think you're making a mistake" her dad said. "Moving across the country because of some boy you're not even dating? I thought I raised you better than that."

Blair just sipped her coffee, not meeting his eyes.

"It's not like that," she denied.

"It'll always be like that," her mother said. She stood up, the stood scraping against the chair behind her. "I don't approve of this. His family doesn't even like us."

Her mother grabbed her back, going for the door and leaving her coffee untouched. Blair looked at her father for the first time since he told her she was making a mistake, and he was just shaking his head with a clenched jaw.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Her friends thought it was inevitable, even if they think her decision was a tad bit crazy.

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"You're insane," Hannah said, putting her ube latte down, shaking her head. There was a frown on her face. "Absolutely insane. Moving out to Seattle, are you serious?"

"Does he know? What did he say when he found out? Did he cry those little bitch tears he cries sometimes?" Ryder asked, his mouth half full of carrot cake, not even looking at the look on his wife's face.

"No," she shook her head, laughing at Ryder and gently wacking his arm. "I don't want anything he does or doesn't say to influence me going or not going so that my parents can't insist that this really is only because he's there."

"He's going to want you there, so there's no influencing you not going," Ryder said matter-of-factly, pointing his fork at her before leaning back in his chair and stabbing his carrot cake with it again.

"It was inevitable," Hannah said, blinking a few times as she shoved a smile onto her face that didn't reach her eyes. Finally, she shrugged. "I knew we would lose in the tug of war over you." She reached over the table and held Blair's hand. "But I am really proud of you."

"Remember to write us in as your supportive best friends who called it since we were sixteen when you write your love story with Jackie boy," Ryder said.

"Oh, Lord," Blair shook her head, laughing. "You sound like my dad."

The trio broke out in tear-jerking laughter, but Hannah looked away from them at the end.