by Rebel Hart
I reach for the next envelope, my heart already swelling with pride and accomplishment. This one is several more states away and even further down south. I read over the letter, now too impatient to take in each word as carefully as I did with the first two. Once again, accepted. Partial track scholarship. And this one is nearly 800 miles away.
The next letter offers another acceptance and scholarship, and it’s over 1,000 miles away. A full twenty-four hour’s drive. Then I come to the final envelope. The furthest campus all the way in Southern California. 3,000 miles from Jameson. My hands still shake as I rip it open, knowing it is my top pick, no matter how impractical it may be for me to dream of moving to the other side of the country.
But the moment I see the words of acceptance followed by yet another full-ride scholarship offer, something in my heart swells in a way it didn’t with the others. Almost as if I intuitively know this is the one I will choose even before I’ve had time to seriously consider it. The track team has an outstanding record, and like the school that’s two hours away, it has turned out a handful of Olympians. The campus and area around it are beautiful from what I’ve seen in photos. Beyond school, I can imagine weekend trips to the beach or trail running in the mountains. Shopping in the city and maybe even a local coaching gig when my own running career is no longer my main focus in life.
I sit on the edge of the bed and look at the line of envelopes leading away from me. Away from Jameson. A tinge of sadness hits me as Lily’s face flashes before my eyes. I can remember sitting across from her in her family’s restaurant sipping on cocktails. We talked about this very thing. We counted down the days to our escape from Jameson, but now it seems like she may never make it out of here.
First, the Elites destroyed her chances at getting in anywhere. Emmett eventually fixed that, but her obsession with him landed her in the looney bin. She may have done terrible things, but I still wish she could have had the chance to know what I am feeling right now. Without Jameson, she may have been able to move on and live a normal life. Vivian sure seems to have found that.
I let out a big sigh, suddenly feeling anxious about the threat of the Elites. Why haven’t they ruined my chances of getting into college like the old Elites did with Lily? Maybe Bridgett was right and ultimately, they have bigger things to worry about. Or maybe they still see Theo as a threat and want me out of Jameson just as bad as I do.
“Ophelia?” my mom calls out from behind my bedroom door with a light tap.
“Come in!” I answer, scrambling to collect the line of letters. My eyes start to tear up as I prepare myself to tell her all the good news.
“Hey sweetie, you left your backpack in the middle of the floor,” she scolds as she comes in and hangs it on my closet door. She turns back to me with a look of disappointment, but she perks up when she sees me standing there with watery eyes. “What do you have there?” She points to the papers in my hands.
“Acceptance letters,” I reply, my voice cracking with happy tears.
Her eyes grow wide and also start to well up, but she quickly snaps out of it and rushes over to give me a big hug. “Acceptances!?” she beams. “Where did you get in!?”
We plop down on my bed as I hand them all over, letting her inspect them for herself. “Everywhere so far,” I tell her with a deep and shaky exhale. “With scholarship offers at almost all of them.”
She skims over each one, shaking her head with overwhelming emotion. “This is amazing,” she murmurs as she reads. “Ophelia, I am so, so proud of you.” She sweeps her arms around me again, squeezing tight. “We have to celebrate! Dinner anywhere you want tonight. You pick the restaurant. Brendan can join us when he gets off work and you can invite Emmett.”
“Uh, let’s just keep it down to you, me, and Brendan,” I suggest, awkwardly rubbing my arms. “We hardly ever have time with just the three of us anymore.”
She looks down at the letters more thoughtfully. “I guess you’ll be leaving us soon,” she says sadly, trying to hide her dismay with a smile. “We should get in as much quality time as we can.”
I lunge forward to hug her again. “Don’t worry,” I assure her. “We will.”
“So…which one do you think you’ll pick?” she asks, wiping her eyes. “Or do you know yet?”
“I don’t know yet,” I shake my head with wide eyes, still stuck in some disbelief.
“Whichever one you choose, we’ll find a way to make it work,” she insists. I know she’s thinking back on our conversation about accepting Theo’s financial help, but I’m not ready to broach that topic again.
“Well…I do have a favorite,” I explain hesitantly. “I haven’t made up my mind, but there is one in particular…”
“Which one!?” she asks excitedly. I pull out one of the envelopes from her hand and hold it up as if I’m too afraid or nervous to say it out loud. “It’s in Southern California,” she whispers to herself. “That’s so far away!” The sadness in her eyes shows through again, followed by a panicked look. But she’s quick to swallow it all down for my sake. “Tell me about it. Why is it your top pick?”
I start getting ready for our dinner as she sits on my bed and listens carefully. I ramble on and on about the school in California and all it has to offer.
“It sounds amazing,” she beams once I’ve finished. “And perfect for you. I think you should go. Trust your gut. Of course, I’m not thrilled about you moving to the other side of the country. But it’s only an eight-hour flight, I think. And it gives me an excuse to move there when we can afford it,” she winks.
“Well…I should wait until I hear from the rest of the schools I applied to before I decide…and…,” I trail off, feeling worried about even seriously considering California.
“What’s wrong?” she asks. “What is it?”
I sigh and collapse back down to the edge of the bed. “It’s Emmett,” I confess with my heart feeling heavy. “He wants to move with me when I go, but…it’s so expensive there. And when I was researching it, I learned it’s really, really hard to find a job there. Like almost impossible. He’s running out of money and has no work experience. I don’t know what he’d do. I don’t know if he could come with me.”
I avoid telling her that secretly I wonder if he’d be better off staying here and working with Theo. It’s not the life I want for him, and definitely a life I want no part of. But condoning it is almost easier than my constant fear and panic of it coming true whether I like it or not. And I’m still worried that maybe that’s all Emmett has the strength to settle for at this point in his life.
“I know you two love each other,” she nods in deep thought. “It would hurt to leave him, but Emmett isn’t your responsibility. You can’t put your life on hold or settle for less than what you want just for him.”
“I know,” I answer softly. “I have a lot to think about anyway. For now, let’s go eat! I know exactly where I want to go!”
My mom freshens up as well and then we hop into her car and head downtown to the restaurant of my choice. Gusto’s is an Italian restaurant. My favorite kind of food second only to Mexican, but I don’t dare ask my mom to go to any Mexican restaurants around here. We quickly learned within our first few weeks in Jameson that none of them are authentic and can’t hold a candle to what my mom cooks at home.
Brendan meets us at the restaurant a half-hour later after he finishes up at work. They both rave about how proud they are of me, making me blush. I’m proud of myself too but doing my best to stay humble. We laugh and joke and, for a moment, I forget we’re in Jameson at all. The Elites and everything with Emmett feels a million miles away. I smile every time I remember that by Fall, I will be many miles away from here.
But then I look across the table and my mom and stepdad and realize how much I will miss them. Part of me wants to tell them to accept Theo’s offer to help just so they can follow me wherever I go. I swallow down a hard lump in my throat realizing it never occurred to me to consider that optio
n for helping Emmett to follow me.
After dinner, they ask me if I want to watch a movie with them at home. I politely decline and step away to my room to call Emmett. I’m not ready to talk to him about Southern California, but I do want to share the good news with him. He says he’s just watching TV at his apartment, so I ask to come over. Once I arrive, I tell him that I received five acceptance letters that day, all but one offering a scholarship. As I say the words out loud, it’s still hard to believe.
“I’m not surprised at all,” he beams as he takes me in his arms with a flurry of kisses up and down my neck and face. “Of course, you’d get into all of them.”
As I pull back, I want to ask him if he has spoken to Theo again or if he has given any more thought to what he might want to do after graduation, aside from following me wherever I go. But the spark in his eyes pulls me in. The last thing I want to do with him right now is talk.
I lunge forward, crashing my lips into his. His hand rakes up into the back of my hair with a deep moan as he leans back, pulling me on top of him. I breathe heavy with excitement as I look down at him and the crooked, sly grin on the corner of his lips.
“I’ve missed this,” I whisper as I press into the growing strain against his jeans.
All at once he sits straight up and kisses me more deeply, running his hands up my thighs and around to the small of my back. He guides my hips back and forth across him until we can’t stand it anymore and start ripping off each other’s clothes.
The moment he slides my panties down and tosses them to the side, he slowly runs his fingers across my upper thighs before finally reaching my pulsating folds. He slips inside of me enough to feel the pooling wetness, and then uses it to massage in soft circles over my clit, causing me to hiss and groan impatiently.
“Oh, Ophelia,” he hums in his deep voice against my ear. “I want to feel you cum.” He works his fingers faster and harder, knowing all the right ways to push me to the edge.
With his fingers still moving over me, I grab onto his long shaft and begin massaging it up and down, relishing how hard he feels. I love how much I turn him on. I guide him inside of me and begin riding him, keeping his fingers pressed against me.
“You’re so wet,” he murmurs, his voice cracking.
I collapse across his chest, muttering into his ear. “I’m close.”
His eyes burn into me, his chest rising and falling as I claw into it. I pin his wrists against the couch and roll my tongue into his mouth. We explore each other’s mouths with our hands clutching and grabbing at every inch of skin they can find. We move greedily with labored breaths and pained moans.
I throw back my head with the intensifying satisfaction, trembling with ecstasy as he pushes in harder against my tight and aching muscles. He lunges his hips, his skin growing hot and sweaty. Almost too hot to touch. I yell out with unintelligible strings of words and exclamations as a violent wave of ecstasy crashes over me. The moment my own rippling orgasm fades, he quickly pulls out. I take him into my hands and grin as I work him to his own climax with him trembling beneath my touch.
Once it’s over and we’ve caught our breath, we can’t help but look at each other and start snickering over how good everything just felt.
“I needed that,” I laugh as I lay my head across his chest.
“I’m sorry,” he says in a more serious tone as he strokes my hair. “I know I haven’t been…in the mood much lately. I guess I’m just stressed.”
“I know,” I offer. “Me too.”
As I lay across his chest, slowly rising and falling, moving my whole body up and down with it, I feel closer to him than I have in a while. For a moment I think maybe I should just come clean about the prospects of me moving to California, but everything feels so perfect. The room is dark with only the light of the moon shining in through the window. All I can hear are his breaths and the pounding of his heart. My naked body is pressed against his warmth. I just want to fall asleep right here and forget about everything else for a little while.
Chapter Fourteen
BOOK 3
“You’ll have to decide no later than June,” Coach Granger urges me as he looks over my collection of acceptance letters and scholarship offers which has only grown in the past week. It should make me ecstatic. But it is starting to get overwhelming. “Have you at least narrowed it down some?” he asks.
“Sort of,” I nod intently, not wanting to seem indifferent. “I’m trying to.”
“Anything we can do to help?” Jada adds from her seat at the other end of his desk. “These are some amazing offers. You don’t want to wait until the last minute and miss out on anything.”
“I know, I know,” I respond with a sharp exhale. I know they are just trying to help and have my best interests in mind but having so many options has only made me more indecisive. I feel panicked every time I consider making a final decision. At this very moment with my leg bouncing like crazy as I try to sit still, I really just want to take off running.
I’ve been running even more than usual lately, and when I’m not running, I’m usually thinking about it. Which means when I finally do pick a school, I’ll be in top-notch shape by the time I get there. At night I go to sleep imagining that I could just start running and see where I end up. Wherever my legs take me, that’s where I’ll go to school.
“I’m sorry,” I add, snapping back to the conversation. “I’ll do my best to start narrowing it down. Anything else? I told my mom I’d be home in time for dinner tonight.”
“No, nothing else,” Coach sighs, seeming disappointed. “But let’s talk again next week. I’d like you to have made a short list of your top picks by then.”
“I can do that!” I announce confidently, but inside I’m dreading the deadline.
I’m relieved to finally be dismissed and out from under the pressure, at least for a moment. As I start walking to my car, I hear someone call out to me.
“Hey!” Bridgett smiles as she comes running up, carefully looking around to make sure no one is watching us. “I was hoping I’d catch you. What did Coach want?”
“Hey! He just wanted to talk about colleges and stuff,” I explain.
She nods, seeming thrown by my short response. “Which ones have you been accepted to?”
My lips part to answer, but I quickly stop myself. I have come to see Bridgett as a friend. I’ve trusted her enough to tell her the whole story about Emmett and my time in Jameson. And being related to the Henderson’s, she understands more about it than the average person would. But it doesn’t change the fact that she’s still one of them, even if only in appearances. They have a way of getting what they want from people, and they’re especially skilled at pretending to be your friend.
I think back to Lily and how clueless I was to what was really going on in her head the whole time we were friends. Then I think about the Elites calling in their contacts to make her top choice schools rescind their interest. I don’t know which end of the spectrum Bridgett falls on, if any. But it seems smart to keep some things to myself for now.
“A good number of them,” I answer finally. “I don’t want to talk about it. I feel like that’s all anyone ever asks me about anymore. What about you? How are you doing?”
“Good,” she answers sincerely, no longer seeming too bothered by my unwillingness to share more. “Practice was good today. I’m dreading dinner tonight though. We’re supposed to go over to Uncle Liam’s.”
“Ugh, I’m sorry,” I wince at the thought of having to sit down at a dinner table with Liam, Malcolm, Marissa, and Bernadette. And it still seems so strange that Emmett will be eating at my house, while what’s left of his family will be dining with Bridgett. “It’s so crazy...,” I muse. “The way things turn out.”
“How so?” her brows raise.
“That you’re so nice,” I shrug, not knowing how else to explain it.
“Thanks…I guess,” she laughs.
“Well, you should blow them off an
d come to my house for dinner instead,” I suggest. “I guarantee my mom’s cooking will be better than any chef Liam has hired.”
“That is tempting,” she grins mischievously, thinking it over. “Do you think your parents would mind?”
“Nah, they’ll be relieved to see me hanging out with someone new,” I reply. “A girl at that. Emmett is coming too, though.”
A strange look washes over her face. “Do you think he’ll be okay with me tagging along?” she asks hesitantly. “He didn’t seem to like me too much when we were hanging out the other day.”
“He’s just wary of you is all. I’m sure you can understand why.” I drop my eyes and kick some rocks around awkwardly. I hate the way the words sound, but I don’t know how else to put it. She may be one of the good guys, but how can any of us be so sure after what we’ve been through?
“Okay...,” she says slowly. “If you really don’t think it’d be any trouble…”
“Not at all!” I assure her. “Come on. Let’s get out of the cold before someone sees you leaving with me.”
We start walking as I search for Emmett’s car in the parking lot. Once I spot it, I see the dimmed lights and steam billowing out from the back, telling me he’s already heated it up and is waiting on me. I can’t see his face through the windshield, but I can only imagine how he must look as he sees Bridgett walking up with me.
“Hey baby, Bridgett’s coming with us. Okay?” I warn him from the driver’s side window, but I don’t give him much of a chance to respond before we both jump in. “Whew, I’ll be glad when it starts warming up!” My lips shiver as I rub my hands together and rock in the heated passenger’s seat.
“Hello again, Bridgett,” he grumbles, eyeing her skeptically through the rearview mirror.
“Hey, Emmett!” she says cheerfully. “What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing,” he replies as he puts the car in reverse. His voice is dripping with disdain, but I shoot him a threatening look to play nice.