{18+ COMPLETED • COLLEGE ROMANCE}
When a college freshman with a learning disability and a reputation collides with a straight-A, straight-laced girl in the dorm kitchen one night, he sees the darkest parts of himself reflected in her. But the two o...
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B R E N
"Madddayyyyyy!" Beau barged into the room without a care in the world, flinging his hands up in a dramatic entrance.
I glanced apologetically at Madie. "Also, Beau has been taking shots of this new bougie tequila for the last hour, and I was supposed to ask if you wanted to go to a party with us."
A smile threatened to break free on her face, and I was positive I'd never been more grateful for Beau than I was at that moment. It also didn't escape me that Madie quickly hid her arms behind her back, leaning on the mattress.
Beau tripped over his feet a little but somehow managed to land gracefully on the end of Nessa's bed. "So. Are ya coming?" He wiggled his eyebrows, and Madie laughed a little. "You have to. Nessa is coming!" He prolonged the last word, adding about five extra syllables.
"I sure am," I heard Nessa's voice say, and her head popped into the doorway.
The three of us turned to look expectantly at Madie, but she merely gazed longingly at The Awakening. With a big sigh, she eventually relented. "Okay, I'll come. Just give me a minute to get ready."
Obeying, we all flooded into the hallway, giving Madie space.
"Did you talk to her?" Nessa muttered under her breath as we walked toward the commons space to wait.
"I tried to," I breathed back. "But I don't know..."
Who knew if anything I said to Madie would ever make a difference. I'd spent the better part of the last week trying to decide if I should say anything at all. But as time went on, it became clear to Nessa—and to me—that something within Madie had changed after that day at The Grounds. We weren't sure what that meant, but we couldn't ignore it. So Nessa had sent me in.
"There's something else I didn't tell you," Nessa said, grabbing my arm to stop me. Beau continued to prance away, not even realizing that we'd halted in the middle of the hallway. "Quinton cheated on her, too."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I grumbled, dragging a hand down my face in frustration. The idea of Quinton as a cheater wasn't one bit surprising, but it pissed me off that he'd found more than one way to hurt Madie.
"Well, Madie won't put it like that," Nessa said. "She won't call it cheating. According to her, he just kissed some other girl at a party when they were playing a drinking game." Nessa sighed, folding her arms over her flowy black top. "But I know that's part of why she's acting so strange this week."
"Shit." Shaking my head, I took off to find drunk Beau. I didn't want to lose him before even making it to the party.
Madie joined us in the dorm commons about ten minutes later. Shockingly, she'd tossed the black hoodie aside for the night out, instead wearing a thin grey sweater beneath a leather jacket. Tight, dark jeans clung to her legs. Her messy bun remained, but it looked like she curled the escaping wisps. They fell around her face in soft waves.
