Chapter One

“Our first semester is almost over, and you still haven’t talked to him yet, Bree! You need to talk to him!” my friend, Dawn, declares as we walk to our college campus. “You’ve had a crush on him for four years now. Muster up some courage to tell him how you feel and stop stalking him!”

“I’m not stalking him!” I protest while tucking a strand of brown hair behind my ear.

Dawn cuts her cool blue eyes at me as she ties her long blond hair back in a ponytail. “You decided to raise your grades senior year in high school so that you could go to the college that he is at,” Dawn retorts matter-of-factly.

Dawn and I have known each other since we were three years old. We’ve always been close—inseparable, even. She has always been there when it matters most. While we are as close as sisters, sometimes, Dawn tends to act like a mother towards me.

“Yeah, I did do that,” I reply in defeat. What’s the point in trying to deny the obvious? “I’m actually lucky that he decided to go to a school that was more attainable for me.”

“Bree, you’ve had a thing for Liam since high school… And I’m telling you this as a friend who cares about you, but if you’re going to move on with or without him, you need to say something.”

“I don’t know…” My voice falters with anxiety. “It seems too risky.” I can feel my heart starting to race while my stomach churns and my palms become sweaty at the thought of merely uttering a word to this handsome guy who most likely doesn’t know I even exist.

“I think she should try going out with someone more in her league,” Chad chimes in, suddenly appearing from thin air and startling us. His voice sounds bitter.

“When did you get here?” we question in unison. Neither of us noticed he had joined our walk or conversation.

He shrugs. “I got up early to walk Bree to school. I was waiting for her around the corner.” Chad’s voice sounds a little hurt that Dawn and I didn’t realize he’s been with us. “You both were so absorbed in your conversation about Liam that I didn’t bother to say anything.”

Dawn snorts. “More likely you were listening in on the latest news about Bree…” she mutters.

“You don’t have to work today?” I question quickly, noticing the look on Chad’s face while opting to ignore his previous statement of Liam being out of my league.

“Nope,” he replies excitedly, instantly forgetting about Dawn’s remark. His light blue eyes instantly light up. Chad works as an apprentice cook at one of the fancy restaurants in town. He decided not to attend college because he isn’t the brightest bulb, but he has always had a heart of gold and is a very hard worker.

“Oh!” Dawn suddenly cuts in. “We should all hang out after school then! It’s been a while since we’ve all had a chance to hang out together!”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Chad replies excitedly.

“Have either one of you talked to Ellen lately?” I question, not wanting to leave her out.

“I was texting her last night,” Dawn replies. “She was wanting to spend a day with just us soon.”

“I’ll call her while you two are in class,” Chad states. “We can all meet up in the courtyard after your classes have finished or at Bree’s house.”

“Why my house?”

“Oh, please, Bree!” Chad begs with big puppy dog eyes. “I’m tired of eating restaurant food! I miss eating my Bree’s homecooked meals!”

“You would think the food at the restaurant would taste better than what I make,” I retort as we turn left around the corner.

The community college campus is now in view. A massive old brick building at the end of the street rests behind a beautifully green and heavily wooded courtyard with benches and tables placed in the shade for studying and socializing. Many people are scattered throughout the courtyard, waiting for their classes to start.

“Oh, look, Bree!” Dawn starts teasingly. “There’s Liam!”

My eyes move towards where her gaze is resting. Liam sits alone at a bench reading a book with the morning sun shining behind him, illuminating the dark brown highlights in his short black hair. A bunch of the women and men on campus stare as they walk past, but he casually ignores them as he focuses on his book.

“So go over and talk to him!” Dawn continues, giving me a slight push in his direction.

“No!” I shriek in horror, cowering away.

“No!” Chad protests with anxiety suffusing his voice.

Dawn and I stare at him questioningly.

“Chad…you know Bree has a—” she starts.

“Why would you want her to do something like that? Guys like him aren’t interested in people like either one of you,” Chad starts, cutting Dawn off.

“What?” Dawn and I question in unison, becoming angry and insulted.

“Oh, you know what I mean,” he states, embarrassed.

“Actually, we don’t, so elaborate,” I reply.

“It’s just…”

Glaring at him angrily, I finally retort with determination, “You know what, I will go talk to him.”

As I start to make my way toward Liam and ignore Chad’s protests and sounds of anguish behind me, Liam suddenly closes his book, looks at his watch, stands up, and begins walking towards the college entrance. I stop dead in my tracks. My heart is beating in my throat. An overwhelming feeling of nausea consumes me as my mouth becomes dry as I consider what I would have said to him if he hadn’t left at that moment.

What would I have said? What would I even do? I didn’t make it over to him to talk, and I was already embarrassed.

Dawn appears beside me, hugging me. “Well, you have plenty of chances to talk to him today since you both pretty much have the same schedule.” She gives me a reassuring smile. “We need to get to class. Good luck!”

“See you at lunch!” I call to her as she walks towards the other side of the building.

I turn back to see that Chad is already walking away. Relief washes over me, but I still want to run and hide.

Walking down the hallway to my first class, I’m not sure what to do. Dawn is right about my infatuation with Liam. Because of this, I am a 19-year-old girl who has never had her first kiss or been on a date. My mind has always been stuck daydreaming of what it would be like to be with Liam. I must be pathetic.

The classroom is relatively big but feels cramped with so many students. There are three rows of six tables that can easily seat two people. At the front of the room, the instructor sits at his desk with a massive dry erase board hanging on the wall behind him, almost entirely covering it. room is painted with very bland colors, and there are no paintings, diagrams, or anything appealing to the eyes hanging on the walls.

In the same classes I have with Liam, I always sit a table or two behind and a couple of seats over—just out of the way enough so that I can stare at him.

The instructor starts his usual lecture for this remedial course that is required for all freshmen, but nothing he says is making any impact on me while I stare and fantasize about Liam. Unfortunately today, Liam must’ve felt someone watching him because he turns and notices me staring at him.

His facial expression instantly changes as our eyes meet from cool and uncaring to instant aggravation. This sudden change catches me off guard, and I begin to choke, coughing loudly and uncontrollably. Everyone in class turns to stare in annoyance at the disruptive person coughing. I can feel my face turning red with embarrassment.

Once I finally stop coughing, I decide to keep my head down for the rest of the class and avert my gaze from Liam. But the amount of embarrassment I feel still prevents me from listening to the lecture.

When class is finally dismissed after what feels like years later, I wait for most of the class to empty before grabbing my bag and leaving. As soon as I set foot in the hallway, Liam is standing there, waiting.

“Why are you in this class?” he questions in annoyance. “Don’t you think your money would be better spent studying the material than studying college guys?” His beautiful brown eyes shine with intensity. “So, what is your problem? Why are you always staring at me slack jawed?”

Anxiety rises in my chest, making my mind whirl. I can’t think of what to say. I don’t know what to say. What excuse could I make up? As I start to speak, my brain turns into mush, and I blurt out, “I love you.”

Liam and everyone who hears me stares at me, dumbfounded by my remark, before laughing hysterically.

Lord strike me now… My eyes start to fill with tears as my face turns beet red.

“You what?” Liam questions in between chuckles. “Well, you should get over it then. I’ve seen your scores. There’s no way I would consider going out with someone who makes grades as bad as you do.” His voice is stern and conveys offense, as if my mere presence and confession are somehow an insult.

My head drops down, and I stare at my shoes as if I’ve been scolded.

“And what’s worse than your questionable intelligence is that you obviously have no humility or pride. If you had either of those, your grades would be better AND you wouldn’t have put us both in this situation we find ourselves in right now.”

Liam’s cold words cut through my heart like a dagger, but I refuse to cry in front of him and the onlookers. Instead of cowering, becoming sad, or sobbing, I decide to become angry. What makes him think he can talk to anyone in this way? Who does he think he is? “I do have pride!” My voice rings angrily as I take a step towards him. “And I can’t be as dumb as you think I am if I can get into the same college as you!” His facial expression doesn’t change at my sudden outburst, but his eyes show surprise. “Since you want to question my intelligence, then fine, I’ll show you how smart I really am!”

His eyes narrow. “Why would I care? It’s not like any of this affects me in the least.”

“If I fail, I won’t bother you anymore. I’ll even transfer to different classes every time our schedules align. It’ll be like I never existed to you. But if I pass, then you have to admit that you are wrong and sincerely apologize to me in front of everyone while kissing my feet.”

The onlookers start cheering at my suggestion.

Liam stares at me for a few moments in silence before starting again. “Fine.” Then, he walks away, leaving me and the onlookers in a daze.

Embarrassment rises within me again as everyone starts coming back to their senses and begins staring and snickering.

The sudden realization of what I just said hits me. What was I thinking? It was hard enough forcing myself to study in high school. I had a whole year to fix my GPA back then, but now, there’s only a couple of weeks to change my grades around before finals. Even with as much effort as I made when in high school, I was barely able to make it into college.

The rest of the day passes by in a blur as I continue to wonder if I can pull this off. My mind is so preoccupied that I forget to meet Dawn for lunch as I continues to overthink everything.

As I walk in the courtyard after my last class of the day, my mind is still in a fog when I suddenly trip, knocking someone down with me lying on top of them.

“I’m sorry!” I immediately respond before looking at the person I’m on top of.

“Get off me, will ya?” Liam’s voice mutters in annoyance as I let out a gasp of surprise.

I roll my eyes as I get back on my feet.

“You really are troublesome…” Liam states bitterly, walking away.

Ugh! Why is he so mean? And why does he look so good from behind? My desire for him grows even though he’s cruel. What is wrong with me? I never imagined in my life that he would be like this toward me. Yet I still dream of being with him…I must have issues… I contemplate all of this while longingly watching him walk away.

“Earth to Bree!” Dawn’s voice cuts through my thoughts as she waves her hand in front of my face.

“Huh?” I reply, startled and looking around to see that Dawn, Ellen, and Chad are staring at me quizzically.

“Whatcha looking at?” Ellen questions with a big grin while Chad sulks.

“Let’s go home,” I respond, rolling my eyes.

Ellen hugs me before starting sternly, “You haven’t called me in days!”

“Now, I want some coffee,” I reply, smelling the scent of coffee on Ellen.

She is currently working at a coffee shop as a barista until she figures out what she wants to study at college.

As we venture back to my house, everyone is interested in the latest gossip that happened to me today.

“So. did you really challenge Liam?” Dawn questions in awe.

“Umm…” I reply, recollecting what occurred. “It didn’t happen like that…” After telling them everything that happened, I continue, “It wasn’t exactly my idea…well, maybe it was, but he was trying to humiliate me in front of everyone! And you know I can’t keep my mouth shut when I get angry.”

Dawn lets out a drawn-out sigh. I can only imagine the memories that are flooding her mind right now. Every time someone tries to belittle my friends or me, my mouth will keep running; for better or worse, it just keeps going.

Ellen is laughing, having enjoyed every minute of the story as it played out. But Chad doesn’t seem too pleased, falling silent at first and then becoming enraged.

“Who does that arrogant prick think he is?” Chad begins angrily. “How could anyone do that to another person? Especially to Bree?”

“Well, maybe he is just feeling the pressure with finals coming up and is on edge,” Dawn counters.

“Why would you try to stick up for him!?” Chad questions, enraged by Dawn’s words.

“I’m not sticking up for him,” Dawn remarks.

“He tried to make your best friend a laughing stock. He wanted to make her feel small and prove his superiority over her!”

I cut my eyes at Chad.

“Yeah, I really doubt that’s what this is all about, Chad,” Ellen states.

“I think it has more to do with him feeling inferior to Liam,” Dawn states quietly to me.

Thankfully, by the time the four of us reach my house, the topic of discussion has changed. But unfortunately, my bad day is about to get even worse.

“What’s going on at your house, Bree?” Dawn questions curiously, staring at the front yard.

The front door of the small white two-story house is wide open. Filled cardboard boxes litter the front yard and porch and make a trail through the front door.

“Why is your dad home?” Ellen question.

“I don’t know…” I reply, stunned, and rush into the house. “Dad?” I call out as I make it inside.

The sound of footsteps grow louder until my dad walks into the entrance of the hallway. “Oh, good, you’ve brought your friends to help!” he greets, trying to sound cheerful.

My father is a somewhat big man who works in construction. He is tough and kind of rough around the edges. However, the years of struggling to work a full-time job and the stress of raising a daughter as a single parent has made him grow very tired, especially for his age. Because of his work schedule, I hardly ever get a chance to see him. Normally when I get home from school, I begin fixing dinner for the two of us, placing his meal in the fridge for him to eat when he gets home. I try my best to take care of him. He is a man who works from sunrise to sunset, so being home right now can only mean something bad has happened.

“Dad, what’s going on?” My voice quivers as I try to not imagine the worse possible outcome.

“Hey, Chad, how have you been?” my dad greets my friends, ignoring me.

“Dad?”

“Hey, Mr. Adams,” Chad replies, shaking his hand.

“Dad!” My father looks at me with sadness in his eyes. “What’s going on?”

He lets out a long sigh. “Well…I didn’t really want to discuss it in front of your friends, but you all are going to find out anyway…” my dad starts, scratching anxiously at the back of his neck. “You know, money has been kind of tight here lately, so I haven’t been able to pay the rent for the past few months.”

“How much do we owe?” I immediately question. “I could—”

“No, Bree,” my dad starts. “You don’t have any money, and you don’t need to go out looking for a job. You need to focus on your studies.”

“Mr. Adams, I’m sure all of our parents would have chipped in to help,” Dawn states.

“I appreciate it, Dawn, but the truth is I don’t like taking handouts. Besides, it’s too late now. I’m packing everything up and sticking it in storage.”

“But where will you go?” Ellen questions sadly.

“Bree will have to stay with either you or Dawn for a few days until I can figure something out,” he replies, rubbing his forehead. “Would that be all right with your families?”

“Yes, sir.”

The conversation they’re having doesn’t seem real to me. I become disheartened. My father never said anything about or gave off an impression of our current financial situation.

“Now, Bree, why don’t you and your friends go start packing the things up in your room? Pack a bag or two of things you need for the next few days to a couple of weeks. Everything else will need to go in storage.”

“Okay…”

My friends and I walk up the stairs to my room. As Dawn and Ellen begin helping me to pack my things, Chad looks like he has something on his mind that he wants to say but is struggling with it internally. However, he finally decides to share what is on his mind.

“So, does this mean you won’t be making dinner for us?”

As I stare at him incredulously, Dawn smacks him in the back of the head.

“Ah! A simple ‘no’ would’ve answered my question!” he retorts, rubbing the back of his head.

“Stop worrying about food that you are not going to get and start helping!” Dawn yells.

“Why would you be worried about food when Bree is being kicked out of her home?” Ellen scolds.