The Secret (Book 2 in The Deception Series)

Chapter 2: feelings and Rocky

Jules

~~~~~

"That Funny Feeling"- Phoebe Bridgers

"How can you find this funny?" I ask my best friend as we make our way to our dorm building to grab all our shit and leave.

"Come on, it was fucking hilarious." She laughs.

I sigh and shake my head as I think back to what we did in Organic Chemistry. We decided to mix a bunch of shit in Chemistry and the teacher found out right before it exploded everywhere. The sprinklers went off, it was not pretty.

Norah Bartels. My best friend for the last 4 years, and let me tell you she was a hassle. She's always getting us into trouble, and it's not like she forces me to. I do it because it's funny. That was our third strike this year, the other 2 strikes are confidential but now we just got kicked out of college and we're only sophomores.

We get to the dorms and she doesn't waste a second to start gathering her things. I fall onto my small twin sized bed and run my hands through my dark brown hair.

"My parents are gonna disown me." I groan.

"Just stay with my family." She offers.

"Your parents hate me." I remind her.

It was true. They hated my guts because they believed that I was a bad influence. Which was true, I was not the greatest kid out there. And it didn't help that I got involved with their son too. I had a bad track record with the Bartel's.

"Oh yeah, but that's because they think you're a bad influence on me. But it's ok." She says.

I sigh and shake my head. I wish my parents were as chill as hers. My whole childhood, I felt like I was suffocating. They wanted me to be this picture perfect child. I hated it. The only time I got a fresh breath of hair was when I was him. The boy who completely flipped my world on its axis.

"Why are you this excited?" I ask her.

"I hate it here, I'm glad we're out." She smiles as she stuffs her clothes into her suitcase.

I roll my eyes as I get up and grab my suitcase. I gather all my clothes and neatly place them into the suitcase. My mind was wandering with thoughts and explanations I could give to my family about how I got expelled from school. My whole future was fucked. I had no idea what I was gonna do.

"Oh my god!" Norah yells.

I jump as I turn around and look at her. I was afraid that she was slowly going psychotic. What would I even do if she was sent to a mental hospital?

"What?" I yell back.

"We can stay with my brother." She says.

I stare at her as she grabs her phone. Her brother? Brennen. Fucking hell. I haven't seen him in years. And now she wanted me to move in with him?

"He has a mansion." She tells me.

"Really?" I ask.

She nods.

"He stays with some of his teammates." She explains.

"We have to live with a bunch of hockey guys?" I ask.

"It's fine, I've met some of them. They're funny." She smiles.

I groan, "Will he even let us stay with them?"

"Nope, but if we just show up at his door, homeless. He'll have no choice." She says.

I stare at her in shock. It was a shitty plan. But I was weighing my ideas and this one was my best bet. I rather live with him than go back home and deal with the wrath of my parents.