Fame

Chapter Thirteen

Sawyer dropped us off at the dorms and I got to work on packing up my clothes immediately while Blair was at her classes.

Amy was the transporter back to her dorm while I did most of the heavy lifting with my big boxes filled to the brim. It was easygoing and light and I was glad that I was finally going to have a roommate that I actually liked.

"Do you have a mini fridge?" I asked her.

"Yeah, Sawyer pretty much paid for everything in my dorm...and my tuition actually."

"Oh yeah, duh."

It was easy to forget that Amy was famous-adjacent. They had grown up middle class just like my family was and they knew how to stay grounded in reality when it came to money, but if I had the money Sawyer did and Ryan was still alive, then I totally would have paid for his college as well.

"Well, I don't need this then," I commented, deciding to leave my expired yogurt in there for Blair to find as a cheeky moving out present.

"So...what's going on with you and my brother?"

I dropped the packing tape onto my foot.

"Ouch. Um-I don't know what you're talking about Amy. I hate his guts, end of story."

"Mhmmm. You know I used to believe that, until I saw you staring at him earlier this morning."

I rolled my eyes.

"Ugh. You can hate someone and still think they have a nice body, okay? I just...I can't forgive him for what he's done to me and I can't forget about what's happened in the past."

"So, when you say you can't forgive him for the things he's done...like what do you mean? Because from my point of view, the only thing bad he did was ditch you for Ryan and while that's totally shitty, I still don't think he deserves this amount of hate."

I blew the hair out of my face and collapsed into my desk chair.

"Yeah, but he's your brother and you love him, so of course you wouldn't see things from my side of it. And that wasn't just it...for a long time, I blamed him for bringing Ryan to that party, but I know that it wasn't his fault. If Ryan didn't want to go, he would've stayed home. What I can't get over is the fact that the night Ryan died in the hospital after being in the ICU for days, Sawyer was-"

"What's going on in here? Are you moving out?"

I whipped my head around as Blair had interrupted me mid-sentence. She was joined by her fellow posse.

"Do you guys always travel in a pack? Damn. And yes, I'm going to be staying with Amy for a while until she starts feeling safer. So, you get the fridge to yourself, no more expired yogurt to piss you off."

Blair cracked a smile, something I hadn't seen in the entire two weeks that I'd known her. She leaned against the doorjamb and placed a hand on her hip as the girls behind her texted away mindlessly on their phones.

"Well, I'm glad that Amy will have someone to make her feel safe. After the...incident last night, none of us could sleep."

"Yeah, until you guys came and kept us company," a new voice interrupted and I realized Elliott and Brake had entered the conversation, although Matt wasn't anywhere to be found.

Elliott draped an arm around Blair's shoulder and she swiftly brushed it off, a sneer placed on her features.

"Okay...as scintillating as this conversation would be, would you guys mind helping move some heavy boxes for us?"

"Sure. I didn't get my workout in today anyway."

Brake and Elliott exchanged some laughter and Sienna and Blair rolled their eyes when finally Matt joined the group.

"Whoa what's going on in here? Oh, I hope you're not leaving school because of what happened last night?"

His question was directed towards Amy even though it was clear we were packing up my stuff. Talk about unobservant.

"No, I'm moving into her dorm for a little while since she's in a single. Don't want her to be alone."

"Ah, gotcha. Well what do you need us to do?"

I pointed to the stacks of boxes filled with my clothing and saved the heaviest box filled with my books for myself, not wanting to make it seem like I was taking advantage of their help.

I huffed and puffed my entire way up the hallway to the elevator that I hardly used since it was so far out of the way until finally a hand came up to the left of me and took some of the weight off of me from my box.

"Whoa, this is heavier than all the other boxes combined! Come on, let me take that," Matt said, and before I could protest he was already carrying it with ease.

I still had a few plastic bags draped over my shoulder and in the crook of my elbows filled with some of my snack foods so I followed him into the elevator to drop them off at Amy's room.

"Thanks. I didn't think it was fair to ask you guys carry the heaviest box when I was the one who asked for the help."

He gave me a confused look and I suddenly felt a blush creeping onto my face with how stupid I sounded. Why would I have asked for their help anyway? They were all so popular and I was...well, decidedly not.

"You're really weird, you know that?" he asked as the elevator doors closed us in together.

"Um, yeah. I know," I added with a light chuckle, wondering why he would bother to point out that detail.

I brushed a piece of golden hair away from my forehead and silently wished that the elevator could climb two stories faster than the snail's pace it was currently at.

"So, the other day in class, I never got the chance to ask you...I was wondering if, since you and Connor aren't together, that you'd maybe want to go to the party after the Sawyer Reeves concert together?"

I whipped my head around to face him.

"That's the party at Connor's frat right?"

He placed the heavy box on the ground and made his way closer to me. I backed up as far as I could without making it obvious that I was trying to make a quick escape from him.

"Yeah, so what do you think? Would you want to go with me?"

I gulped as he kept getting closer.

"Well, I don't know...I haven't really gone on an actual date with anyone in a really long time...I'm not sure I'd be any good at being someone's date."

My eyes were probably wide as saucers as he came to stand over me, but I couldn't help but picture Sawyer's face on Matt's body, although the proportions didn't line up at all.

If it had been Sawyer asking, would I have said yes? I hated myself for knowing the answer to that question.

"I'm sure you'd be fine."

His fingers grabbed a piece of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail again and brushed it back, but just as I was about to say a firm 'no thank you', the doors opened at the very end of the hallway, away from all prying eyes.

All except one distinct pair of blue eyes that were hidden by a shield of reflective sunglasses.