Crooks & Nooks

College, College, and More College

Chapter 32

"This is definitely the best part about spring break," I said and spooned more ice cream into my mouth.

Will and I were sitting on the couch in his apartment, and we were watching Agent Carter under the blankets and eating ice cream.

"I wouldn't wanna spend it any other way," Will said and we focused on the TV again.

"Why didn't Jackson come down here?" I asked, always ready to talk about anything other than myself.

Since Jackson usually came down here for some weekends, I was sure that Jackson would be coming down for spring break. It had been a while since he was down here.

"He had a lot of classwork or something. He said he'd come down once the wedding planing was done and when finals were over."

I nodded and ate more ice cream.

We had spent most of spring break like this, either watching TV, working, or hanging out with each other.

"What time is it?" Will asked me.

"7:30. Crap, I have to get home. Since I'm going to Washington State and Southern California tomorrow to check them out, my parents want me to discuss college options with me over dinner," I explained with an eye roll.

"I'm planning on going to see San Diego's university tomorrow, because of their engineering opportunities," Will said.

"Have you applied yet?" 

"Yeah, they accepted me, but I want to see it for myself," Will explained, a smile blossoming on his face.

"You didn't tell me!" I hit his shoulder lightly. "Congrats!"

"Thanks, Ray," he said and kissed my cheek.

This was the first time that we were actually talking about college and where we were planning to go. Saying it out loud and discussing it made it that much more real, and I wasn't sure that I could handle this much change.

I quickly kissed Will and hopped off his couch, grabbing my phone, keys, and left his apartment.

"See you later?" Will yelled from his living room.

"Yeah, bye!" I called back.

I drove home, hoping that my parents wouldn't notice that I was fifteen minutes late.

"Glad that you could make it," my mom said sarcastically from the kitchen. Guess they did notice. 

"What's for dinner?" I asked.

"Pasta. Chris's mom gave me her chicken penne recipe so I'm trying that out. And I baked some brownies earlier so that's for dessert," Mom said.

"Yum," my dad called from the island counter where he was chopping some veggies for the salad he was going to eat.

My dad was really healthy, but it didn't pass to any of us, because neither Charlie, Brandon, or I liked salads and green smoothies for breakfast. Brandon ate the healthiest, but he still enjoyed junk food more. 

I unloaded the dishwasher and put in the other dishes sitting in the sink, then started to help cut the chicken.

Since the three of us worked together, dinner was ready and put on the table in forty-five minutes, but Brandon was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Brandon?" I asked.

"I don't know, he said he'd be home for dinner when he left for basketball practice, but that was over two hours ago," Dad said.