“You assigned two different families the same fucking apartment,” I grit out, losing what little patience I have left. “Not my fault that your department is incompetent.”
“Miss. Rose,” she replies, aghast. “Do remember that you are attending GOU out of the goodness of our Dean’s heart? Do refrain from speaking in that manner. We’re doing the best we can.”
Absolutely loathe when someone brings up my situation like it’s leprosy or something. I’m a single mother, not like the condition catches or anything. It doesn’t spread through water, and you can’t pick it up from putting your hands on something I touched. Freaking ridiculous.
Huffing, I sit back. “What am I supposed to do, then? I was promised an apartment with two bedrooms, and I expect an apartment with two flippin’ bedrooms.”
Jerricka purses her lips in disapproval. She’s like one of those sixty-something librarian types—a severe bun at the crown of her head, comfortable, sensible footwear, and a suit-skirt that comes to her knees. Oh, and let’s not forget the glasses that hang around her neck on one of those strings.
Let’s not forget, I’m not her favorite person right now, so I’m receiving all the resting bitch faces that she managed to perfect by the 70s.
“Miss. Rose,” she sternly replies. “We have no available apartments on campus. I am sorry. The only thing we have available are dorms. Would you like me to put you into one of those?”
Like, is she stupid or dense? As of now, I can’t really tell. “I cannot have my son living in a dorm, Mrs. Talcum.”
She purses her lips. “I’m not a powder, dear.”
Throwing my hands into the air, I yell, “Are you sure? Because I’d swear, you’re trying to make things better, but instead, you’re like a rash with that prickly personality of yours!”
Today just is not my day, which is a hell of a lot different from what I thought before stepping foot on GOU soil. How can things change so quickly? What am I going to do now? Maverick will need a place to lay his head down at night when I’m at school. And I need that before he comes to live with me in four months after winter break.
I sigh, releasing all the pent-up energy inside me. “I know you said you had dorms, but unless you can get me a room by myself, heavily fortified, with two beds—I simply cannot do it. My son’s safety means everything to me, Jerricka.”
My eyes meet hers to see her face softening by my words. Not that I want to guilt-trip her, it’s the truth. Maverick is the only thing I care about in this entire world. God gave him to me to protect, and I’m not going to risk his safety because of someone’s mistake. I refuse to go down like that.
“Again, I’m s—” Her words are cut off by the sound of some crazy banshee of a girl screaming to the top of her lungs.
“You can’t play me!” she cries out. “I know my father did this, and I refuse to sleep in that freaking apartment instead of the dorms! I’m a co-ed bitch, bitch!”
Apartment? I quirk a brow at Jerricka, then we both jump to our feet when the sound of crashing hits our eardrums.
Jerricka magically gets to the door before me, opening it with a flourish. She barrels into the main room of the housing office, and while I quickly follow behind her, I still manage to use her body as a shield. I’m no idiot.
What I see confuses me but makes me burst out laughing.
What in tarnation is she doing? My eyes follow her movements as she climbs on top of some poor guy’s desk, then starts jumping to the next one, and the next, and the next. She seems to be running away from the people chasing her. But the more I look at it, they seem to be corralling her, instead of wanting to pull her from the office and off-campus.
She must be … it hits me then—her voice. Face—the quirky way she gives no fucks.
“Oh, my god!” I howl with laughter, already feeling lighter than I was before. “Jenna. Jenna Doyle!”
She stops automatically. Her body turns to me, eyes narrowing as she looks me up and down. The moment I smile, tip my hip to the side and make fake fangs in front of my lips, her screeches can be heard off the walls of the housing office as she barrels toward me, jumping from desk to desk.
Jenna Doyle is a rebel without a cause. The yin to my yang. My best fucking friend. She’s changed over the years, that’s for sure. No longer the long, dim chestnut hair, and in its place is platinum blonde with peekaboo pinks, purples, and bright blues. She dresses like a stripper. At least what I think a stripper would wear. But somehow, it fits her. It showcases her taut stomach, petite size, and the bright ass bellybutton ring that’s flashing lights.
She’s short, skinny, and curvy—everything I want to be.
“Harloe!” she crows, jumping off the desk and into my arms.
If it hadn’t been for my mommy muscles, there’s no way I could have caught her without both of us going down to the ground.
“What are you doing here?” she asks as she slides down to the ground. Her violet eyes catch mine.
I smile, ruffling her hair. “Going to school, nerd.”
Her mouth threatens to fall open before she catches herself. Her eyes ghost around the housing office, grimacing the tiniest bit when she sees what her tantrum has done. But does she apologize? Nope. Because that’s not something Jenna does. She gives no fucks, which is what made us best friends back in high school.
Only, I wish we’d stayed in touch when I left. For a while, we did, but it seemed the longer I was gone, the easier it was to let go of everything in Golden Oaks.
She seems to be thinking the same thing as she says, “Sorry I haven’t been in touch.”
I release a small smile, patting her shoulder. “Me, too.” Then, I go onto more important business, we can always catch up later. “So, you said you had this apartment you didn’t want. Wouldn’t happen to be a two-bedroom, would it?”
She rolls her eyes, huffing. “You know how my dad is. Super protective, which is why I’m going to school here and not in New York like I wanted.”
Yes, I remember Mr. Doyle very well.
“He still hot?” I smirk.
Her face screws up in disgust, for about two seconds. “Unfortunately. But no speaking like that, it’s disgusting. I feel my ovaries shriveling.”
I should probably say Mr. Doyle is her stepdad, shouldn’t I? Well, he is, so no grossies there for looking and no touching on her part. She only considers him her dad because he’s been there since day one. Legit, he was in the delivery room when her mother gave birth. He’s the one who brought Jenna into the world. He and her mother got to know each other when Jenna’s biological father disappeared without a trace, and the rest is history.
“Anyway, I’m legit in a bind here. I need an apartment, and the only thing left are dorms. Do you think we could—you know?”
She nods, and I don’t miss the way she shoots a relieved smile toward me. That’s like the calm before the storm if what I used to know about Jenna is still true.
Surely, she hasn’t changed that much since high school. Hopefully, she’s still nice and wouldn’t mind letting me have her apartment.
True to the past, Jenna snaps her fingers and turns to the right and left, looking at all the people like they’re her loyal subjects. And then she damns me to hell.
“I’ve decided that Harloe Rose will live with me. Do the paperwork.”
Ah, shit.
CHAPTER 5
Lugging the last box through the door, I drop it unceremoniously to the floor. My nerves are tied in knots and have been ever since Jerricka allowed this to go down. Seeing each other around campus every once in a while and living together in the same apartment are two vastly different scenarios.
Hunter goes to this school, and there’s no way that Jenna will be able to keep a secret. Especially one who has the mouth exactly like his father.
Dammit, how am I supposed to tell Jenna that in a few months, it won’t be just the two of us living here?
Jenna’s unknowingly saddled herself with me and the m
ini version of Hunter Prince for the next four years, and the crazy bitch doesn’t even know it. Lord, give me strength because she’s going to flip when she finds out.
Again, for the hundredth time, I ask, “Jenna, are you sure about this?”
Flicking a look over her shoulder, she deadpans, “Again, yes!” She walks over toward the window, stretching her arms out wide. “What do you think about having some of those, kind of, like, mosquito netting curtains to hang right here?”
I nod, taking in the area. My stomach may be churning with unease, but the longer I look around, the more relief I feel.
Actually, this apartment is bigger than the one I was originally assigned. The bedrooms sit on opposite sides of the living room, which is a plus because Maverick pisses like a sailor during the night. This apartment was created with roommates in mind, not some family with a crazy girl like Jenna.
“I think that’d be perfect.”
The place is already furnished by the school, but, even now, I can see little tidbits here and there already from Jenna. How the world did she get so much already set up in the time it took to lug all my boxes up here?
She’s always been a firecracker but being fast isn’t necessarily her default setting. At least, it wasn’t in high school.
“We can get some pillows for the couch, too,” I put the idea out there as I run my hand along the back of the soft, worn, dove gray piece of furniture.
A small, carefree sigh releases from Jenna’s mouth. My eyes automatically drift to her as I return to my boxes and pick up the one labeled kitchen. She’s looking out the window, lost in thought, with a serene smile resting on her lips.
Lord have mercy, I wouldn’t even want to be stuck in her head right now, let alone subjected to it. But I also can’t deny that her peace is addictive. I want some of it for myself.
Instead of saying anything, I take my things to the kitchen and start unloading the box. I’m grabbing my Gammy’s cast iron when her voice reverberates off the walls and hits my ears, freezing me in place as my eyes widen in my skull.
“Why did you leave, Lo?”
Swallowing hard, I pretend not to understand her question, asking around a forced laugh, “What do you mean?”
She turns around to face me, a crestfallen expression lingering in her eyes. If I were a stranger, I’d want to console her, with her looking like someone ran over her best friend. I suppose they had—Hunter did a number on me in high school, and instead of staying, I ran away with my tail tucked between my legs.
So, high school must have been what she was thinking about when staring out the window. Now it makes sense. And, with everything in me, I wish I had an answer that I could give her. An answer that wouldn’t rat me out and risk getting tossed out onto my ass.
Of course, blaming it on Hunter would be an easy out, but something tells me Jenna would see right through that. We may not have been as close as when we were younger, but she still knows me. She was my best friend for a reason.
I lick my lips nervously. “I just needed new scenery, I guess.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Lo.” She stomps toward me, her tiny five-foot-nothing body coming to stand on the other side of the counter. Hands grasp the edge of the counter, fingers digging into the faux marble. “I know you, remember? I can tell when you’re diverting my line of questioning by pretending not to understand.”
Fuck. I forgot how forward she could be. “Damn, going to law school or something?”
She cocks a brow. “Yes.” Double fuck. “Now, answer the question.”
What do you say to someone in a situation like this? Especially to one of the only people who made your high school years bearable. There’s no way I can tell her about Maverick. At least, not right now. Some people just aren’t as welcoming of small children as I am.
Hell, for all I know, Jenna may loathe the very thought of children and hiss like a diseased cat when they come too close to her. With everything I know about her, this is something I’m unsure of.
So, Maverick will be my little secret until I can find the right time to tell her. Not that I don’t trust her or anything, because Jenna has never done me wrong—I just can’t take the chance she’ll want to leave.
Not that it’d be so terrible in the grand scheme of things. However, now that I’ve gotten a chance to be near her again, I know I want her here with me. And that also means hoping, when the time comes, that she will handle a little person tripping her up and asking a million questions.
Being near Jenna will make these months pass faster until I can have Maverick here. I need someone I can trust and that I actually enjoy being around to keep me company. I’ve never been by myself.
Thankfully, I didn’t pack any of his things on this first trip. Explaining that to Jenna would have been, undoubtedly, the worst thing I’d have to do. I’m thoroughly glad I decided to wait until I picked him up after winter break. We can assemble his bed and nightstand together, like Mommy and son fun time with pizza and milk, while I try to explain myself out of this hole with Jenna.
So, until then, I need to skirt around the subject. And in order to do that, I need to bring up that bona fide piece of horse’s ass, Hunter.
Without looking at her, I say, “Hunter forced me out of town.”
“Hunter?” She gawks, and her tone piques my interest, so I look, instantly regretting it when I see an expression of abject horror. “He was your boyfriend, best friend—hell, you were going to marry the guy! What happened? How come no one knew this? Everyone thought your parents were drug dealers and had to move really fast one night to keep from being arrested. Wasn’t until people saw your daddy still at the Prince’s company that those rumors died down.”
“Drug dealers?” I deadpan, cocking a brow. “Mr. and Mrs. Do-Right-By-the-Lord?”
She nods. “Not even joking, Lo. Everyone thought that because it happened so fast.”
Nodding, I resume my unpacking. “I guess that makes sense. We did leave in the middle of the night like criminals.” I force out a laugh, but it’s dead and bored. “But no, it was that bastard.”
“Harloe—” I can tell by her tone of voice that she’s going to get all ooey-gooey on me, and I decide to stop her right there.
Shaking my head, I give her a half-smile, not really meaning it but just a front to get her to stop. “Don’t even worry about it, Jenna. He’s not worth another thought.”
She gives me a hard look. “You do realize that Hunter isn’t in California, right? He’s here.”
My thoughts return to earlier, causing my lip to curl up in a sneer. “Oh, trust me,” I answer, giving her a dark look over my shoulder. “We’ve already been reintroduced. Unfortunately.”
“Oh, fuck. I know that look. What’d the bastard do?”
Opening a cabinet next to the stove, I shove a stack of pans inside on the bottom shelf. Situating them, I close it and turn back around to face her. “Basically, he told me that this campus wasn’t big enough for the two of us and that I needed to leave.”
She looks taken aback. “Such a prick!”
I nod. “You have no idea.” The idea of him telling me what to do, coupled with all the things he did to me in high school, cause me to reach a mini-explosive point. Slapping my hands down on the counter, I level Jenna with a glare. “He thinks he freaking owns everything just because his family has money and owns three-fourths of the town. Bullshit!”
“Preach it, sister!” she croons, slapping the countertop just as hard as I did.
“He treated me like shit when we were younger. Had me doing everything for him yet giving me nothing in return. So, fuck him. Golden Oaks Uni is my only hope because they’re the only ones that offer what I need, so he can go … he can go,” I stammer, growling under my breath, “he can go shove his dick in a fence gate for all I care.”
My anger must snap through her better senses because she stops and stares at me. Hard. I’m not acting like a woman who was done dirty by her best friend. I’m acti
ng like a scorned lover with a vendetta.
“You sure he didn’t do anything else? Because whatever he did sounds big,” she murmurs.
Fuck. I knew running off on a tangent like that would provoke Jenna to ask questions. But she doesn’t need to know the sordid details of that night my life went to shit. Maybe I can get by with telling her the bare bones? Worth a try.
“He cheated on me with that Radcliff girl.”
Her eyes widen to the size of saucers. “Cassandra?” I nod, my body temperature elevating even now just thinking about that night. “That fucking bitch! They didn’t start ‘seeing’ each other until a few weeks after winter break was over, but I knew something was up. That low-down, dirty asshole! I never would’ve pegged Hunter as a cheater.”
I nod, swallowing the emotions trying to build in my throat. “Christmas Eve, I showed up at his house to give him his present. He’d been acting weird the last couple days, so I didn’t really think anything of it when he didn’t come over that morning. Anyway, I went, and there they were all cuddled up on the love seat.”
“You’re lying!” she exclaims, mouth falling agape in shock.
“Nope,” I say with a shake of my head. “Her parents were even there, talking up Hunter’s dad like he was the president of the United States. And when I said something about their precarious positions, Hunter called me this name—little con—saying I almost had him fooled.” I shake my head, dumbfounded. “I still have no idea what he was talking about.”
Jenna sadly shakes her head. “Sorry I asked. But damn, that’s a piece of shit thing to do to someone who loves you.”
“Loved. I feel nothing for that asshole anymore.”
No one is supposed to be able to live through their entire world being ripped apart. To feel the person they’re connected with the most sever that tie between them as if their connection meant nothing in the first place.
Hunter did that. He tossed me away like I was yesterday’s garbage, trading me in for someone newer, popular, and prettier. If he didn’t want to be with me anymore, he should have just told me like a man, instead of sneaking around like some coward.
Our Secret: A College Bully Romance (Golden Crew Book 1) Page 6