Camryn Quinn is finally getting what she wants...sort of. Moving into a dorm and away from her not so supportive father is a good first step, but like everything with him-it comes with strings. She must attend the college of his choosing for at leas...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I didn't plan on telling Alyssa what Taylor and I were up to, but after I crashed into our room at two in the morning on a karaoke wave wrapped in a cloud of Taylor's pine and patchouli scent, she knew something was up. I blame the newfound high I was riding that triggered a lack of impulse control in my brain and the fact that Alyssa hasn't given me any reason not to trust her. She's allowed me space and surprisingly hasn't pushed me to do anything I wasn't comfortable with. And we can watch Bravo together which only gave us a running start in the friendship race.
Before I could second guess myself, it all came spewing out of me. I told her everything. About my mom, The Incident–the condensed version, I took pills and woke up in a treatment facility– and then about my dad's plan to make me his modern day Repaunzle. I'm locked in a tower disguised as a dorm room, doing the things he chooses, just biding my time until he decides that the world is safe enough for me to leave. If he completely had his way with me, I would probably be growing my hair out to a length of his choosing too.
"I knew something was up," she had said as she sat cross legged across from me on her bed. She hesitantly laughed as she continued telling me about how she called her mom after dinner at my dads house, claiming she thought I had been abused as a child. I tongued my cheek and shrugged. She isn't necessarily wrong. I wasn't physically abused in my dad's home, but our relationship wasn't and isn't normal. It has to be abuse to ignore your child especially at a time when she needed him most.
It was only then that she pressed me about where I had been, and why I was smiling like an idiot despite all the shit I have been dealing with. I folded with force, telling her exactly what Taylor had proposed and about how I begrudgingly agreed.
Alyssa didn't miss a beat before declaring her allegiance to me, and to Taylor's cause. Taylor and I's duo quickly made room for Alyssa, thus the trio was born. It helps that Alyssa is now officially dating Anderson, Taylor's roommate. She sees more of the inside of his house than I do, and I can't help the smile that fills my face everytime a new picture of Taylor comes through in our group text.
The three of us fall into a rhythm over the next few days. Midterms are in full swing and with Taylor's increased practices, lifts, film watching—whatever the hell else makes the team spend an ungodly amount of time at the practice facility—I want to make sure I help uphold my end of the bargain. Along with being his sober support, which I'm pretty sure is just his way of making sure I don't drink or backslide into my past, I am also making sure he doesn't fail any of his other midterms after the biology debacle. He and Alyssa both barely passed. They both called me simultaneously whining after the scores had been posted online. It was as if they rehearsed together, both giving me the same spiel insinuating that I made them spend too much time making flashcards instead of actually studying. I did find joy in hinting around the fact that I passed and well above the curve with an eighty five percent.
After that, both Taylor and Alyssa promised to give my method another try. We have formed an assembly line in Harry's every afternoon after the lunch rush. Alyssa gets there first and hogs the biggest booth, Taylor orders the food because he will eat his and then half of ours, and I supply the necessary tools for an ultimate study session. We move like a conveyor belt, just rotating through each subject to optimize the time spent until our respective exams this week. Taylor and I have American literature and statistics, while Alyssa prepares for public speaking and ethics in journalism. While I help us tick things off our school to-do list, Alyssa and Taylor anxiously wait to remove things from the Help Camryn Build Her Case list.
