Dressed and ready for my first day of college, I’m regretting that I decided to pile my schedule full of hard classes like statistics and economics. I’d chosen them on one of those days where I felt like I could conquer the world, wanting to get them done and out of the way so that I could really enjoy my senior year. But senior year is a ways off, and as I walk under the already warm summer sun—having declined a ride from Evan and trying not to sweat through any of my clothes—I’m kind of wishing I’d signed up for electives like horticulture or folk dancing.
At least I know that Natalie is going to be in my first class. We’ve been texting back and forth, and I don’t waste a moment in grabbing the empty seat next to hers in economics. After the professor combs through the syllabus and goes over expectations, he gives us the last ten minutes to get to know any of our approximately sixty classmates a little bit better, if we’re so inclined. About half of the students aren’t, and so they take the other option, which is to get out of class ten minutes early. I probably would have gone along with them if not for Natalie.
I’m introduced to what are mostly sophomores and a few freshman like me that Natalie is familiar with before she and I head to the periphery and say hello to some of the meeker ones. Natalie appears to be a born extrovert, unafraid of anyone, and I think by the end of her four years at Well’s Creek, she’ll probably have hundreds of friends. I’m still okay with just a few and am grateful she’s apparently taken a shine to me.
“It’s kind of weird getting used to the accent,” I say to Natalie once our ten minutes are up. Of everyone we’ve met, at least half of them had some variant of a Southern drawl. “Before I came here, I’d only heard it in movies.”
She laughs at that while we slip through the door and leave class. “You have a lot to learn, Paige. I actually tried to get rid of mine in the seventh grade because I thought it sounded less civilized, but it came right back, so I just go with it.”
“Really? I didn’t know you could kick an accent.”
“Kick one or take one on. If you end up staying here, you might just start talking a little easier… a little slower… you’ll be serving sweet iced tea and mint juleps by the time you’re a senior!”
“And sounding like Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolia’s?”
“Absolutely!”
More confident in becoming a teacher, like my mom, and not an actress, like Julia Roberts, I ask Natalie if she wants to meet after our classes are over and study at the library together. I’m a little nervous she might say no if Evan isn’t part of the equation, but she easily agrees, and I wonder how far our friendship might go.
In between classes, I walk over to Creek’s Coffee. After a lull in customers, I ask the manager, the same college-aged guy with a perma-smile on his face I’d talked to the other day, if he’d received the résumé I’d emailed him.
“I sure did, Paige Kessel.” He obviously remembers me, and his perma-smile grows wider, but he doesn’t say anything about what my next step should be.
“I hope this isn’t pushy, but I just wanted to find out if I might get an interview soon?” I’m beyond anxious for a part-time job so that I’ll have some spending money in addition to my savings. And if things were to go really wrong with Evan and I living together, then maybe I could even get my own place.
“Everything looked good on your application,” he says from behind the counter. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t go ahead and hire you. I can text you a schedule, and we’ll get all the formalities out of the way on your first day.”
“Wow… yeah, of course. Sounds great!” I give the manager—his name is Dean—my phone number, and he says I’ll be hearing from him soon.
It’s crazy how giddy I feel over a part-time job and one that won’t be much different from working at Pamela’s. But I’m in a new place, on my own, and it makes me feel like even more of an adult. I cross back into campus, sit on a bench and text the good news to Garrett and my mom. Mom calls me back, and we talk for a few minutes—it’s so nice to hear her voice. And then Garrett texts from his first day at football camp, congratulating me but saying the coach would probably murder him if he attempted to make an actual call. I feel terrible for not remembering his camp started today and text him back, asking him to be safe and drink plenty of fluids. He’d probably rather see me text an “I love you,” but I refrain from any terms of endearment.
I’m grateful for the shade from the tree above the bench I’m sitting on, as the day has gone from warm to hot, and fall seriously can’t get here fast enough. I start to slide my phone back into my bag and am about to get up and leave my shady sanctuary but stop, realizing there’s one more person I want to share my news with. It’s Evan’s first day of school too, but his classes started later than mine, and I’d been happy to let him sleep in even though he’d told me he’d just as happily given me a ride. He’s probably stuck in a class right now, and I hope he has his phone on silent as I type away. He and his father have already done so much for me, and so it feels somewhat liberating to be able to tell him that I’ve gotten a job and might be able to contribute to whatever expenses my scholarship doesn’t cover at the apartment.
I hit send, and he calls right back.
“Hey, you’re not in class, are you?” I ask, not putting it beyond him to try to make a call out during a lecture.
“Professor is out of the room,” he says like he’s letting me in on a secret. “So, congratulations! We are absolutely celebrating.”
“That’s so unnecessary,” I say, even though it’s beyond sweet.
“Oh, but it is,” he says, and I begin to hear other voices on his end of the line.
“We’ll celebrate when I get my first paycheck, and it will be my treat, to thank you for everything you’ve done.”
“Why wait when we can celebrate tonight?” Then I hear a girl’s voice, muffled but with an obvious Southern accent. I don’t think it’s Natalie, but I still feel a twinge of jealousy.
“Evan—”
“I’m taking you out tonight. It’s a done deal.” And according to the determination in his voice, I believe him. And then I hear, “You are?” from the same female voice, and it makes me wonder if Evan was even talking to me in the first place.
“Not you.” I hear Evan say. “Sorry. Our professor leaves us for ten minutes, and the place turns into an animal house.”
That makes me laugh.
“Anyhow, my new buddies say there’s this amazing Mexican place downtown called Señor Paco’s. Will you be back to the apartment later?”
“I’m going to study with Natalie for a while,” I say. “Maybe I can just meet you there?”
“It’s not a problem for me to grab you,” he says.
Downtown Well’s Creek isn’t very big, and so it can’t be that far to this Señor Paco’s place. “I’ll just walk,” I say, feeling like I should keep him somewhat at arm’s length for Garrett’s sake. Besides, I know I’ll enjoy the walk, as long as it’s under the shade of the trees that are thankfully very prevalent on campus and in town.
“Fine, meet me at six?”
“Six it is.”
I get through two more classes, statistics, and anatomy and physiology, which go by pretty slowly considering the boring syllabus overviews, expectations and note taking. By now, it’s nearly four, and I head to the large library to meet up with Natalie, loving being caught up in the throng of other students going here and there and everywhere. Even the idea of being back in Basin Lake and waiting around to start BCCC seems foreign to me now.
The outside of the library is a bit more modern than the rest of the structures on campus, and the inside matches with large open spaces full of tables, couches and row upon row of books as well as computer screens. Students bustle through, head up and down the stairs and spread out over the tables and couches and closed-door rooms for group study sessions. I walk a basic loop before coming back toward the front and finding Natalie at one of the tables nearest the entrance, her laptop open
in front of her while she madly takes notes.
“Hey.” I set my book bag on the table, grateful to have found her, and start digging my notebook and books out.
“Well, hey yourself, girly. How were the rest of your classes?”
“Good… I mean… hard? I don’t know, it really wasn’t that bad, but I just don’t want to get too cocky and feel like it’s going to be a breeze and then fail.”
“What’s your GPA?”
“From high school?”
She nods.
“3.9,” I say. “I was always trying for a 4.0, for scholarships, you know?”
“I wouldn’t know. Privileged white girl sitting here,” she says with an impish laugh and pointing a pen at herself. “I had a 3.2 going in and my Daddy’s money to make up for it, so I’d say you’re going to do just fine if you’re used to pulling a 3.9.”
“That’s a bit of a relief,” I say, exhaling a breath I didn’t realize I was holding in.
“Finals are a bitch of course, and you have to stay on the straight and narrow as much as you can. I mean, there are going to be parties and boys and generally having fun, but you’ve got to keep your nose to the grindstone too.”
“I kind of thought you’d be a rule breaker,” I say, thinking a girl as pretty and sociable as her would be spending her afternoons and evenings out, not in the library.
“I can be,” she says with that laugh again, “but Daddy only pays my way if I can keep a 3.5 while I’m here—that was our deal.”
Her deal makes me think of my scholarship and the fact that there were no such constraints about what my GPA needed to be. I’d read it through several times, and I couldn’t find any bar being set. Of course I’d do my best to get as close to a 4.0 as I could, to make sure Mr. Mattson wouldn’t regret helping me, though I’m not sure he’d care either way considering how he’d acted when he picked Evan and I up at the airport.
I make a mental note to ask Evan about any grade requirements later, but it’s something I’ll likely forget as Natalie and I go through spurts of chatting—as quietly as possible—before spending another half hour or so pouring over books and taking notes. Toward the end of a pen-to-paper spree, I stretch my arms out and take note of the time on my phone.
“I’m going to head out to dinner soon,” I say, wiggling a cramp out of my fingers.
“With Evan?” she asks with a high degree of interest.
“Actually, yeah,” I say. “Would you like to come?” I’ve asked before I can think better of it, before I can resolve within myself that I’m a little afraid that Natalie might make a play for Evan. She’s certainly shown interest in him, and even if he hasn’t reciprocated, I think he might given the right amount of time.
“I’d love to,” she says with a smile and an uplifting tone to her voice. Her interest seems genuine, and I could hardly take the invitation back now.
“Okay, great,” I say. “He wants us to meet him at six. That okay?”
“Perfect. Gives me just enough time to finish up these notes.” And as if there isn’t a minute to spare, she returns to her task.
I grab my phone and start to text Evan to let him know to expect a plus one, but I’m actually a bit nervous at what his response might be. Will he text something back like “Great!” or “She’s the pretty girl from orientation, right?” Good manners dictate that I need to get over that fear and tell him anyway, but then again it can’t be that big of a deal for him—he’d made friends so easily with those guys from orientation, and he’s always loved being around people. So, I decide it won’t matter and set my phone down and continue to study, but after ten minutes, I start to worry again. This time it’s not so much about Evan but about my current wardrobe.
Not having had the chance to run back to the apartment to change, I’m still stuck in the T-shirt, shorts and a pair of running shoes I put on this morning. Natalie, on the other hand, is wearing a cute yellow summer dress and strappy sandals.
“Is there some kind of clothing store close by?” I ask, thinking back to the time I’d gone to the boutique next to Pamela’s so I’d look good for Garrett.
“A bunch,” Natalie says, perking up at the mention of clothes. “Did you want to get something for tonight?” She takes a bite out of a long red licorice stick she’s been nibbling on.
“I feel underdressed,” I say, and a little sticky from the humidity if I’m being honest.
“Oh, sure,” she says, already starting to pack her laptop up. “We’ll stop somewhere on the way.”
I’m grateful for how easily she goes along with the change in plans and has her things packed up even before I do. A few blocks from campus, we’re already passing several small boutiques before I eye a dress in the window of one that seems to be speaking to me.
“Let’s go in this one,” I say.
“Good choice,” Natalie says. “I’ve bought a few things here myself.”
With the knowledge I’ll be getting a paycheck soon, I don’t torture myself about the hundred dollars I spend on a baby blue scoop neck dress and a black pair of heeled sandals. After I’ve been rung up, the manager lets me use the restroom at the back of the store where I change into the dress and heels and freshen up. I put on some mascara, add some red lipstick, tousle my hair and then pull it up into a loose high ponytail. I’m keenly aware that I’m doing this for Evan. Yes, I love looking cute and dressing up and needing to impress only myself, but if it were just going to be Natalie and me, I’d have honestly stuck with the shorts, T-shirt and running shoes that are now in the store bag next to me.
“Do I look okay?” I ask Natalie just as we’re about to exit the store. I’ve never been one to preen in front of a mirror for too long, but I guess what I’m really doing is comparing myself to her perfectly curved body in the full-length mirror near the glass double doors of the store.
“You look amazing,” she says with a smile, revealing her brilliant white teeth and high cheekbones.
I take her word for it and wish I didn’t feel this need to compare myself to her, which is really more about wondering what Evan wants in a woman. Part of my back and forth about whether he liked me or not in Basin Lake was because I’m so totally different than the girls he’d dated and definitely different than Lexi DeNero. She’s petite and tan with dark curly hair and brown eyes while I’m taller with lighter skin, blue eyes and hair that is naturally blonde, at least now. Yes, I’m curvy like Lexi, just at a different scale, but am I really, truly Evan’s type? And Natalie, even with her height, looks a lot more like Lexi than she does me, and I wonder if Evan will finally take note of her tonight.
We have a few minutes to spare as we leave the store, just enough time to make it the three or so blocks my phone shows we are from Señor Paco’s. Natalie is just finishing up an incredibly dirty but hilarious story about her ex-boyfriend as we come upon Evan’s BMW. It’s parked in front of the restaurant, a stucco building with a large patio, filled with black metal tables and chairs that are half full of patrons, lanterns the color of the sun hanging from above. Music is wafting out from hidden speakers, and among the diners already enjoying the evening, I see him.
Evan is turned away from us, looking toward the entrance while we’re coming from the opposite direction. It looks to me like he’s nursing a drink, one that I hope is non-alcoholic.
“Let’s sneak up on him,” I say, Natalie’s story having relaxed me and made me more playful than the girl who’d been staring at her own reflection just a few minutes before.
“Oh, let’s,” she says with a grin.
We walk through an opening in the gate surrounding the patio, trying not to make too much noise with our heels. A few guys at a table look up at us as we pass, but I don’t really register what any of them look like as my focus immediately returns to Evan. He’s just checking his phone, perhaps wondering if I’ll be on time or not, and then he takes another drink. I turn to Natalie and put a finger to my lips, then sneak up the last few steps behind him and put m
y hands over his eyes.
“Guess who,” I say, wanting to giggle like I might have that first summer Evan, Garrett and I started hanging out away from school.
He doesn’t even flinch, setting his drink down with full control. “The Dalai Lama?” he guesses.
“Guess again,” I say, taking in the masculine scent of his light body spray.
“Donald Trump?”
“No! Gross! One more try.”
“Hmm… how about the cutest, most beautiful girl I’ve ever known in my life?”
I roll my eyes while my heart swells. Natalie puts her hand over the left side of her chest like she just can’t handle the sweetness. I wonder if she’s jealous or if she’s telling herself that Evan and I are of course just friends and that there’s still an opening for her.
“Sorry to disappoint, but it’s just me,” I say, walking around with Natalie to the other side of the table.
EVAN
As if I’d ever be disappointed to see Paige. I am, however, surprised to see Natalie with her.
“Oh… hey there.” I stand, pull out a chair for Paige and then do the same for Natalie. But I keep my eyes on Paige. She looks gorgeous in a dress I’ve never seen her in before, and it really makes me wish we were alone.
“Hey, Evan. I hope you don’t mind that I’m tagging along?”
I barely register Natalie is talking to me but pull my gaze away from Paige long enough to say, “Yeah, it’s fine. Did Paige tell you what we’re celebrating?”
“Oh, it’s a celebration?” Natalie looks surprised and embarrassed at once, like she thinks she should have shown up with a wrapped gift.
“It’s nothing,” Paige says.
“It’s not nothing,” I reminder her. “Our girl here got a job at that coffee shop down the street, and we’ve only been here for what, three days?”
Natalie pushes her lips out like she’s impressed. “Which coffee shop?”
“Creek’s Coffee?” Paige says it like she’s waiting for Natalie to say it’s the worst place in Well’s Creek to work.
“One of my favorites,” she says instead. “You can be my coffee hookup now. I’m seriously addicted.”
Between the Boys (The Basin Lake Series Book 1) Page 15