Tethered Hearts | ✓ | Books 1 & 2

Episode 15| The Return of Kennedy

Bryce's P.O.V.

"You're early," Kelsey jolted me awake with her fingers, poking my side. She crashed into the empty chair next to mine. I had dozed off for only a second. The anthropology class went from empty to full during the short duration of time between me closing my eyes and opening them again. "You didn't wait for me at the east gates."

"Someone's sitting there. Move." I pointed my chin to the seat to my left. Sinking my teeth into the half-eaten apple in my hand. I surprisingly didn't drop it during my nap. "I wasn't aware that you wanted me to wait for you."

Kelsey snickered and collected her things, changing seats. "What's that supposed to mean? Bryce, we always go to class together."

"You didn't show up. I thought you were ditching so I decided to go early."

"Liar." She mouthed, shifting her eyes to the door that had swung open at the top of the stairs. I resisted from twisting in my chair to see who it was. I knew who had walked in. I had come to class with her.

When I was waiting for Kelsey to show up at the east gates, I ran into Sophia.

Sophia was ahead of schedule by an hour. She was hesitant at first when I asked if she wanted to grab a cup of coffee at the Daily Brew since we had a lot of time on our hands. Her nearly empty lipstick stained cup was on her desk now—the one Kelsey had sat in first. We spent up to half an hour in the quad. The café was packed, and I didn't like the tight atmosphere, and thankfully neither did she.

"What did I miss?" Kelsey whispered.

"You didn't miss anything." I simply stated. "We're friends."

Kelsey covered her mouth, holding back a laugh.

"What is it?" I hissed.

"Nothing." She bit the inside of her cheek. "You just won me fifty bucks."

I squinted at her. "You did a bet? On what?"

She clashed her hand down on my shoulder. "Conner bet that you would've slept with Sophia by now. I said you wouldn't. I bet up to four months, maybe more. He gave you a week. You don't want to hear Anthony's guess."

"What was it?"

"A day and a half."

"Do you guys have nothing else to do with your day?" I snarled. "I need better friends."

"From the looks of it, you're already working on that," she muttered, on cue to Sophia's arrival. She took her previous seat, flashing me a brief grin. I reciprocated the smile and returned to my apple, munching down on it.

Kelsey's words didn't faze me. This was an unusual side of me that I was seldom to show off to the common onlooker. The people I had met in California didn't see me when I lived in New York City. A few years back, I would've insulted Sophia far too much for her to even suggest a friendship.

I'd like to think that I've grown-up. Just a tad bit.

My new crew gathered their opinion of me from what they heard on the streets or what they saw with their very own eyes. More often than not, an unsettling story was shared, revisiting how I had gained my reputation as 'One Shot Matthews' in New York. I had so many skeletons in my closet, I lost count before my eighteenth birthday.

I had calmed down from when I had first started off as petty thief at the ripe age of thirteen. I lost a hold of my anger at some points, but my exterior was manageable for the most part. Something I couldn't have said if I was the same hot-headed seventeen-year-old a couple of years ago in the streets of Queens, New York.