The Replacement Boyfriend

Chapter 1

Tace

"Tace,"

My hands were trembling and sweaty and my heart was beating so hard, I was pretty sure it was going to break through my rib cage and kill me. I felt like throwing up and it was unquestionable that if Dane wasn't standing right next to me, I would probably be on the sidewalk, holding onto the mailbox I had just taken a letter out of, which was addressed to me.

"Tace, you've got to calm down," Dane had his arm around my waist, supporting me and ready to catch me in case my knees actually gave in. "It's just a letter."

"It's not just a letter," I said, my voice raspy from all the panicking. "This letter is going to make or break me."

"The University of Chicago isn't the only college offering a major in psychology," he laughed, his tone airy and light as if he didn't have a care in the world.

But this was my future – psychology – and no one knew it better than Dane. I had grown up having panic attacks and rejecting even the thought of talking to people. I had spent my entire childhood being friends with only the Harris twins and in middle school, it was pretty much the same. If Zayne was too busy with his ever-changing girlfriends and Dane hadn't come to school, I would spend recess and all the time in between my classes hiding out in the bathroom. Zayne and Dane had seen how much my anxiety was affecting me but there were some parts of my life which I hid even from them. Slowly but surely, the Harris twins managed to turn me into the social butterfly that I never thought I could be.
No one had expected it but since my change, I couldn't think about doing anything else but Psychology. I wanted to understand the human mind and why people did the things they did. I wanted to be able to council kids like me and help them find better ways to deal with their problems. I wanted to help people.

"Dane, you know the University of Chicago has always been my dream college," this wasn't the first time I was telling Dane, or anyone for that matter, about this.

He smiled, politely, like always and pecked my check sweetly, something he always did when I was panicking. Having him next to me always seemed to calm me down and even though we had started off as a pretend-couple and had never spoken about what we really were, we were each other's safe houses.

"Red!"

A black MV Agusta F4 skid to a stop in front of us, making us jump back even though we were on the pavement and not the street. Zayne got off the bike in one swift movement and pulled his helmet off, shaking his messy blonde hair which was short on the sides and spiked up in the middle.

It was hard not to stare at Zayne, even though he looked exactly like Dane, except that Dane didn't style his hair the way Zayne did or wear tight fitting jeans and a leather jacket the way Zayne did. Okay, scratch that. Zayne and Dane didn't look exactly alike.

"What's this?" he asked, plucking the envelope out of my hand. Before I could answer, he ripped it open and unfolded the letter inside, ignoring my loud gasp.

"Zayne! Dude, what the hell?" Dane demanded but didn't make any attempt to grab my letter back, probably because they had torn multiple letters, cards and books of mine in the past by fighting over it.

"Well, it'd be next year by the time the two of you ever got around to opening it," Zayne said, he voice gruff, unlike Dane's soothing voice.

I stood there, mortified and shaking even more than before, if that was possible. Dane's fingers slipped between mine and I clutched on tightly, turning my knuckles white.

Zayne's face turned solemn as his smile slipped away and I felt my heart sink before the tears stung my eyes. I didn't make it. This wasn't happening. It was a rejection. But how was that possible? My ACT scores were pretty high and my grade point average had never gone below 3.8. I had met all the requirements to apply. Was Zayne playing around with me? Was he trying to scare me on purpose? If he was, it was working.

I felt Dane's other arm go around my waist, as if he was going to hug me because he knew the water works were about to start but Zayne grabbed my arm harshly and pulled me to him, mushing my face against his hard flat-board chest. Shocked, I froze as his arms came around me, my letter crumpling slightly as they did.

I heard Dane take the letter out of Zayne's hands slowly. I didn't move and neither did Zayne as Dane read the letter quietly and then gasped.

"Tace, you did it!" he exclaimed, the happiness unmistakable in his tone. "You got in! And you've got a scholarship!"

"Congrats, Red," Zayne whispered in my ear, his breath ticked my neck, sending shivers up my spine.

"Sorry for the scare, love. I just wanted to be the first one to hug you."

Annoyed, I placed my hands on his chest and shoved him back, making him stumble backward, despite the fact that I was an entire head shorter than him and barely had any strength.

"You gave me a heart attack!" I screamed at him even though he looked apologetic. The look on his face wasn't like Dane's and wasn't enough to make my anger vanish.

"I was only playing, love," he smirked. "Don't get your panties in a bunch. Shouldn't you be squealing in joy or happy dancing or whatever it is you girls do?"

"Piss off, Zayne," I spat, tired of his games. "That wasn't funny at all."

"Hey, hey," Dane caught my arms and pulled me close. I took a deep breath of his clean earthy soap smell and felt better instantly. "Be happy, babe. You're in. Congrats."

"Thanks," I sighed into his chest as my hands went around the soft fabric of his knit-pullover.

I watched Zayne glower at us before rolling his eyes and getting back onto his bike. He started it and it growled in response and jerked forward as he drove down the lane and stopped in front of his house. Zayne had already gotten his acceptance letter from the University of Chicago for the music program he had applied for.

It was easy for Zayne since he already had a band which was pretty famous in Omaha. Everyone in town knew him and his band and he had secured multiple gigs at various clubs and other events. He had nothing to worry about since him getting into any music program was inevitable. Dane seemed to think he applied to the University of Chicago because I had applied there and as much as I refused to believe it, I couldn't admit to him that I was slightly relieved about it. Even though we were going to be in different programs, we'd still be in the same campus and knowing someone before I got there kind of made everything less scary.

Dane, on the other hand, had applied to the community colleges in Omaha because he didn't want to be away from home. He wasn't sure what he wanted to study and wanted to pick his major later on. I found it quite unbelievable since both of their parents were lawyers and had asked him multiple times to go to law school. They couldn't expect much from Zayne because he had his mind set on music since he was a kid. Dane was different, though. He always wanted to make his parents happy and maybe that was partly the reason he wanted to stay home. It would be hard on their parents to let go of both of them at the same time. But he was so smart and he could do so much better than community college in Omaha. I knew he could and I knew he wanted to. He had always wanted to make a difference to the world. He even told me he was thinking about going into social services in sophomore year but maybe he changed his mind?

And as much as it hurt me, it wasn't my place to ask him to do otherwise. It was his life and I didn't have the right to dictate where he should study.

I knew I was being selfish, but I wished I was enough to make him follow me.