The Story of Us Read online

  I wait for a couple minutes, looking around and taking everything in. Then I start to get frustrated. Is anyone even working here? I wait another minute and then I go over to the door, open it and close it again so that the bell chimes once more. Then I continue to wait.

  Finally, the door behind the counter opens and I hear laughing. Giggling, actually. And then I see a couple entangled in each other’s arms, fully dressed, but intimate nonetheless.

  “Ahem,” I blatantly declare, making my presence known.

  “Oh!” the girl exclaims, suddenly noticing me. She actually looks a little embarrassed, although she knew full well that she was coming out into the public area of the coffee shop engaged in the arms of some guy. And just when I start to think about what kind of a guy this must be, who’s unashamedly groping this girl in public, he turns around.

  “What the hell?” I shriek, half in disbelief, half in confusion, and maybe a little in anger.

  “Princess?” He asks, with a sideways smirk on his face.

  Suddenly, the little bit of anger I had turns into full blown rage. I want to slap the smirk off of his face. I want to slap him for calling me princess. I want to slap him for whatever he was doing with this girl. I want to slap him for being here, at WSC, altogether. “What the hell are you doing here?” I manage to ask through gritted teeth.

  He laughs before answering, and I swear it pisses me off even more. “I work here.”

  “Why?”

  “Why, what?”

  “Why do you work here?” I shout.

  “Because I need the money,” he nonchalantly answers.

  I glance over at the girl, who is now standing a few feet away from him and looking extremely confused, and then I turn my gaze back to him. I try to control my anger, but it still comes through. “I mean, why are you here at WSC?”

  “Because I go here.” He shrugs.

  My eyes go wide. “You’re enrolled here? You live here?” I ask in disbelief.

  “Yepp. Luckily for you, this could be an everyday occurrence,” he replies, with that same smirk on his face.

  I want to say a million things in return, but instead I just walk out.

  Chapter 2

  “What. The. Hell.” I demand, when I walk back into my dorm room. Drew and Hailey just stare blankly at me in confusion. I march right over to Drew, “You must have known Craig was here. Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

  His expression goes from surprised to understanding in a matter of seconds before he responds, “He asked me not to.”

  Hailey looks over at him in surprise. I can tell she didn’t know either.

  “Why? Why would he ask you not to? And why would you listen?”

  “He’s my friend, Val. He didn’t want you to know. I respected that.”

  “You helped him blindside me!”

  “Okay, okay.” Hailey intervenes, calmly. She turns to me, “So he’s going to school here. So what? It’s not a big deal. You shouldn’t care, Val.”

  She knows she has me, because if it was anyone else, it wouldn’t matter. Why would I need to know that one of Drew’s friends is going to be at the same college as us? I wouldn’t. Except it’s Craig. And he gets under my skin.

  Ever since Hailey and Drew started dating, Craig has been a major pain in my ass. Actually, it started before that. But since Drew and Hailey are dating, I have to put up with him because he’s Drew’s friend. He’s from the same small town as Hailey, Drew, and I. But Hailey and I went to private school, while Drew and Craig went to public. But even still, I knew of Craig’s reputation. I’d never have anything to do with him if it wren’t for our best friends dating. I still don’t understand how sweet, innocent Drew could ever be friends with a guy like Craig Morgan. But because he is, and he’s dating my best friend, I’ve had to deal with Craig on more than one occasion. He taunts me religiously, calling me ‘princess’ because he thinks I’m a snob, but more so because he knows I hate it. He flirts with me endlessly, again because he knows I hate it. He’s never serious about it. He hooks up with every girl he comes across. And now I can add stalking to the list of reasons Craig annoys the crap out of me, since he followed me all the way to WSC. He’s like an irritating fly. He infuriatingly buzzes around as I dodge him. Then, just when I start to think we can coexist, he comes back just as aggravating as ever. I can never seem to get rid of him.

  “I’m sorry, Val. In hindsight, I probably should have just told you,” Drew admits sincerely.

  I take a deep breath. I know it’s not really Drew’s fault. I’m not really mad at him. “No. He’s your friend. I guess I can understand. If Hailey asked me not to tell my boyfriend’s friend something… if I had a boyfriend… I wouldn’t betray that either.”

  We all stand for a moment in awkward silence.

  I decide to break the ice. “Well, he works at the coffee shop. So, Drew, I think you owe it to me to go down and get me a coffee now, since there’s no way in hell I’m going back there today.”

  Drew chuckles, “Okay, fair enough. You want anything Hail?”

  “No, thanks. I’m not as obsessed with coffee as Val. I don’t need, like, six cups a day,” she teases, making fun of me. She gives Drew a small kiss and then he heads out the door.

  I turn to Hailey, “I just don’t understand why he’s even here. All summer me, you, and Drew have been talking about WSC and Craig’s never mentioned even applying here, never mind attending.”

  “I know. I didn’t know he was coming here either. Do you think…” she trails off.

  “Do I think, what?”

  “Well, it’s just that… you guys have a history. Do you think he came here for you?”

  This makes me literally laugh out loud. “No. For one, we don’t even have a history. We have mutual friends. That’s it. And two, he was tangled up with some slutty girl before he noticed I was even in the coffee shop. No way he came here for me. Not even a possibility.”

  “See, the way you said ‘slutty’ girl, makes me think there may have been some jealously behind that statement,” Hailey accuses, smiling like she knows a secret. “And besides, you do have a history. I’ve seen you curled up with him on a couch all night, dance with him to a slow song, and even hang out with him alone on occasion.”

  “You’ve also seen me slap him across the face,” I point out. Sure, I’ve found myself having a soft spot for Craig once or twice, thinking there’s more to him than the bad boy everyone else sees, but in the end his true colors always come out. “I’m not doing this again, Hailey. I’m not going to sit here and try to convince you that I don’t have feelings for Craig. We’ve had this conversation so many times before. Why can’t you just accept that I don’t?”

  “Because I think that you do, but you don’t think that he’s serious about you. You think he jokes around about being into you. But I see the way he looks at you, Val. He’s serious. He just plays it off as a joke because he’s constantly rejected by you.”

  “You’re right. He’s so serious about me, he has to mend his broken heart with a variety of willing women,” I bite back sarcastically.

  “Okay, he’s a bit of a player. But still-”

  “As my best friend, you’re supposed to keep me away from guys like Craig, not push me towards them.”

  Hailey’s taken back, her face stricken with seriousness as if I just slapped her. I didn’t mean to make it sound like she’s not a good friend. She is a good friend. But sometimes I think she pushes me towards Craig simply because it would be cool for two best friends to date two best friends, regardless of the fact that he’s a player and I will surely end up brokenhearted.

  “You’re right,” she whispers. “Truce?”

  “Truce,” I agree, not wanting to make her feel any worse. “Now, let’s spruce up this place. This is supposed to be fun and exciting. I need a serious pick-me-up after seeing the overly irritating Craig Morgan.”

  The first thing I unpack is my IPod speaker. I search through my purse for my IPod,
having a hard time feeling for it with the millions of things cluttering it up. I finally feel it and pull it out, at the same time making a mental note to clean out my purse when we’re all settled. I set it to my ‘party songs’ playlist and Hailey and I get to work. That’s the thing about music – you can always count on it to change your mood. If you want a good cry, listen to a sad song. When you want to cheer up, blast the fun ones. We dance around each other, unpacking our clothes and putting them away first. Then, we start to set up our room. Before we know it, Drew’s back with my coffee. I want to ask him about Craig, if he said anything about me or not. But I refrain. I don’t want to get the ‘why would I be asking if I didn’t care?’ speech. Drew only stays for about twenty minutes and then takes off back to his own dorm to finish unpacking himself.

  “Val, what should we do about the common room?” Hailey asks.

  “I guess we just wait.” The common room divides two dorm rooms, forming a small living room for us to hang out in. Neither of the girls from the other dorm room have shown up yet. “They’ll probably be here tomorrow,” I add.

  “Knock, knock,” Hailey’s mom, Jane, says through the open door. Hailey runs over to give her mom a hug and I follow suit. Jane has been like a second mother to me for most of my adolescent years. It’s nice that she’s here, since my own parents aren’t.

  “I brought pizza for my college girls,” she announces with a bright smile.

  The three of us sit around eating pizza and talking for a while until it’s time for Jane to take off. Since Hailey’s parents divorced, Jane has been more like one of the girls than a parent. I’m sure it’s weird for Hailey, but I think it’s great that we can talk to her about anything. I speak more openly in front of Jane than I ever would my own mother. We don’t have a long, drawn-out goodbye because we know that she’ll be back to visit, and Hailey’s promised to spend every other weekend at home. And if I’m being honest with myself, this means I’ll be there every other weekend as well.

  “So, this is it,” I say to Hailey, after her mom leaves.

  “Yepp. Our first night at WSC,” she responds.

  I can’t stop the smile that begins to spread across my face. “Let’s go explore!” I exclaim, not giving Hailey a choice in the matter, but rather pulling her along with me as I exit our dorm room. She protests at first, but I keep pulling until I hear her laughing behind me.

  We find our way to Drew’s dorm and his face lights up when he sees Hailey. He gives her a hug like he hasn’t seen her in years and then introduces us to his roommate, Tyler. From the looks of him, Drew lucked out. I always thought when you didn’t request your roommate like Hailey and I did, that you’d end up with some gothic, heavy metal punk. But Tyler looks normal. He looks a lot like Drew actually, but with darker features and slightly more refined. He looks like he comes from money, like he could be a snob, except I don’t get that snobby vibe from him.

  “It’s nice to meet you both,” he politely says. “I don’t know anyone here, so it’s definitely nice to meet a few people before classes start.”

  “Where are you from?” I ask him.

  “Connecticut.”

  Well, I was right about his family being wealthy. I’ve never met anyone from Connecticut who wasn’t pretty well off. I guess it’s a ritzy state. “So why WSC? If you’re all the way from Connecticut?”

  “I guess I just didn’t want to follow in my brothers footprints. He graduated from Yale last year. I wanted something different.” He shrugs.

  I nod in understanding. Although I don’t have any siblings, I can definitely sympathize with wanting something different from what your family expects. “What’s that?” I ask, pointing to the blue and gold helmet on his side of the room.

  “Oh, my football helmet.”

  “I wouldn’t have guessed,” I tell him, without thinking of how offensive that sounds until I see the look on Hailey’s face. “I mean… most football players are big, scary guys. And you don’t look scary at all,” I add, trying to salvage myself from completely offending the guy. It’s not that he’s small and scrawny, but he’s not entirely jacked either.

  He laughs, not minding the comment at all. “Well,” he counters, “I can tell right off the bat that you two are cheerleaders.”

  “I am. But my bestie here has decided to abandon me this year and take a break from cheerleading just when it starts to matter.”

  Hailey gives me a pointed look. “I just don’t want to cheer this year. Drop it, Val.”

  “Fine,” I sigh. I know it’ll turn into an argument if I don’t.

  “Tyler’s a great running back, from what I hear,” Drew says, probably just to break the ice between Hailey and me.

  “Well, time will tell,” I tease.

  He smirks back at me, “At least I know you’ll be there to watch all of my games, whether you want to or not.”

  “Yeah, but I’ll be cheering more than watching.”

  “Still, knowing you’re right there will give me a reason to try harder.”

  I pause for a moment, not expecting the obvious flirtation.

  “So when’s the first game?” Hailey asks, saving me.

  “Two weeks from Friday. You guys gonna come watch it?” He asks Drew and Hailey.

  “I’ll be there. I wouldn’t miss Val cheering. I might not be on the squad, but I’ll still support my girl.”

  “And if my girl is there, then I’ll be there too,” Drew says with a smirk, holding Hailey tighter.

  “Awesome,” Tyler exclaims, genuinely happy.

  After a few more minutes of small talk, I see Hailey whisper something to Drew and then she turns to me. “It’s getting late Val, wanna head back?”

  “Yeah, I guess so. I thought there’d be so much more nightlife than this in college.”

  “A lot of the students aren’t here yet. More will be moving in tomorrow,” Tyler informs us.

  “Want me to walk you back?” Drew asks.

  “No. We’ll be fine,” Hailey insists. She reaches up on her tiptoes to give him a small kiss as Tyler and I stand awkwardly pretending not to witness it.

  “So, Tyler seems nice,” Hailey says, as we’re walking back to our dorm.

  “Yeah, he does.”

  “So…”

  “So, what?”

  “So, what do you think?” she presses.

  “Seriously, Hail? Why does every guy you meet need to be a ‘let’s-fix-Val-up-with-him’ kind of guy? Can’t I just be happy to be single?”

  “Are you happy single? Because I think you’d be happier not single.”

  “Right now, I’m happy to be in college and to be free to explore my options. Let’s just leave it at that.”

  Chapter 3

  The next morning, I wake up to the sound of people talking. Two girls, I decipher. And then banging. And then laughing. And then more banging and some rummaging.

  “Hailey!” I half whisper, half yell. I can see her stir, slowing waking up. “Pssst, Hail!”

  “What?” she asks, groggily.

  “Someone’s moving in!”

  She pauses to listen. Just outside our door, we can hear girls talking. I can only make out part of what they’re saying. Something about a T.V. and couch. And mermaids?

  “Let’s go meet our neighbors,” I whisper to her.

  When we walk out into the common room, the girls look surprised to see us. “Hey.” I yawn, still sleepy myself.

  They scrunch their eyebrows as they look at one another. “Hi. You guys stayed here last night?”

  “Yeah. I’m Valerie and this is Hailey.”

  “Oh! I didn’t think you guys would be here so soon. I’m Julie and this is Ashley.”

  My first impression is: Shit. Two blondes. We’re practically living with two blondes. Not just blondes, but bleach blondes. I don’t think they could get any blonder. My worst nightmare. They look like they could be twins, except Julie has a long, pointed nose and Ashely’s is more button-like. Also, Julie’
s hair looks natural; almost white. And Ashley’s has the faint hint of brunette at the tips. They’re both size double, maybe even triple, zeroes. And the contrast of Julie’s eyeliner with her white-ish hair and fair skin is unnerving. They’re like mini, modern-day Barbie dolls.

  “You guys already know each other?” Hailey asks them.

  “Yepp. Best friends from the womb. Our moms were best friends,” Ashley tells us.

  “Were?” I ask, catching the past tense she used.

  “Were,” Julie simply states. “Now, what are we doing about the common room?” She slyly changes the subject.

  “We brought an extra T.V., a small stand for it, and a couple of chairs,” I tell them.

  “Perfect,” Julie says, “We brought a couple side tables, and a rug. That should be all we need. We don’t want to clutter it up or anything.”

  “Do you guys need help taking stuff in? Hailey asks. This is why she’s a better person than I am. Because my first thought is – why should we help them? They weren’t here to help us.

  “No. We actually have to get ready for cheering practice and then Julie’s boyfriend and his friend are coming to unpack us,” Ashley explains.

  “Oh, Valerie’s on the cheerleading squad too!” Hailey boasts.