Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 110(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 110(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
I’m sitting on the step in front of my house, waiting for Katelyn. We’re going shopping for our dorm room, something my mother wants to do with me, but I refuse. We don’t like the same things and she’s a minimalist and doesn’t think I need much. Me, on the other hand, thinks I need everything. Mostly, I plan to buy a phone and get a part-time job so Liam can call my dorm room and not have to call the payphone in the hallway.
Katelyn pulls up to the curb and honks. It’s as if she doesn’t see me even though she’s staring right at me. I take my sweet time making my way to her car.
“We need coffee,” she says when I sit down in the passenger seat. “Java Joes?”
“Is there another place in town I don’t know about?”
“Nope,” she says as she speeds down the street, forcing me to hang onto the door handle for dear life.
“Why are you trying to kill us?”
“Ugh, I’m pissed at my mother.”
“What else is new?”
Katelyn sighs heavily. “She put a lock on the shed door.”
I can’t help it and bust out laughing. “Really? After all these years?”
She looks at me and rolls her eyes. “I got the holy lecture this morning about promiscuity and fornicating before marriage.”
“Did she think you were a virgin until now?”
Katelyn shrugs as she pulls into Java Joes. It’s our favorite coffee shop, smack dab in the middle of a parking lot. According to the owner, Traci, this is the new hype, these boutique drive-thru only coffee shops. I’m hoping one opens near campus so I can get a job there.
We order and pay, and then head to the mall. We have a list of things we need. I swear it’s like moving to an apartment, only we won’t have a kitchen or a bathroom, but still need those essentials.
Our first stop is Kmart. I really hate this store, but things are cheap and when you’re on a super tight budget, cheap is your friend. We’re not in the store for five minutes when the blue light siren sounds and we’re sprinting toward the bathroom accessories to get our towels on sale.
Katelyn may or may not have pushed someone out of the way to get the last set of black towels. She said they’ll hide Mason’s dirt better, which leaves me with questions. First, why is he using her towels and not his? Second, does he even own damn towels? Third . . . well I’m sure there’s a third, fourth, and fifth but I’m too frustrated at the situation to move past the first two.
After the towels, we grab all our shower needs, including those ugly shower shoes. When I went shopping with Liam, he made me promise to wear them all the time because he likes my toes and would hate to see me lose one to some type of fungus.
I pick up new bottles of my shampoo and conditioner, and a couple bars of soap to go in the caddy we found in the “Back to School” section. I never looked to closely there before, but they have dorm room supplies and decorating ideas.
Katelyn and I decide we’re going to decorate our room with posters of some of the bands we like and I’m going to ask Liam to send me a University of Texas pennant for my wall, as well as a shirt or two. Preferably one he’s worn because it’ll smell like him and the one I have now barely holds his scent.
God, I miss him. Talking to him on the phone doesn’t do my heart justice. I need to see him, touch him, and feel his body against mine. I miss him nuzzling against my neck and holding me against his chest. Those are things I took for granted when we were together daily, and now that he’s gone, doing his thing in Texas, I yearn for them. For him. The physical ache I feel when we get off the phone is debilitating at times. I don’t know how I’m going to last four years without seeing Liam every day.
After we finish shopping, Katelyn drives me back to my house and helps me unload everything into my room. I’ve packed some stuff, mostly clothes and anything Liam has ever given me. There’s no way in hell I’m going to leave something behind.
Katelyn stays for dinner and well into the night because being at my house is better than hers, even though mine isn’t great. Mason is the only one of the four of us who has amazing parents. If I could live there, I would. The Powells’ is warm and inviting, the door is always open, and Mason’s mom loves to cook. If he had a pool, we’d never leave his house.
After Katelyn leaves, I spend some time organizing the things I bought for our dorm room. I wash the towels, the extra-long sheets, and the new quilt I happened to find with some of the University of Texas’s colors in the flowers. They’re a little darker than what the rest of our flower décor looks like, but who cares.