5

2

KAYLA

Withmyphonepressed against my ear, I prance under the stone arches of the university. The cobblestones are poorly lit, and I glance at my own reflection in the shadow every few yards to make sure I’m still alone. God knows what weirdos sneak around the campus in the middle of the night. The sound of my suitcase echoes through the hollow of the arch as I tug it behind me, completely drowning out the sounds of my footsteps.

“Keeks?” A surprised voice reaches my ear. “Isn’t it like five in the morning in California?”

A jolt of relief warms my chest at hearing Rae’s voice as I walk off the campus toward the cab that’s waiting for me.

“It is. It means I have to hurry. I have less than two hours before the sun comes up and I melt.” I hand my suitcase to the driver, offering him a tight smile and a mumbling hello before I turn around with my hand on the open door. Glancing over my shoulder, I take one last mental memory of the campus’s main entrance while looking up at the ivy creeping up the beige bricks. A lump forms in the back of my throat, a heavy feeling settling on my chest.

This is definitely not how I thought my time at Stanford would go.

“You’re a vampire now?” my cousin asks dryly.

“Yeah, or a werewolf. I’m not sure.” I get into the car, snapping myself out of my melancholic mood, and close the door, my gaze now peering to the passenger seat in front of me as the driver gets in. He glances at me in the rearview mirror, silently asking me if I’m ready, I assume, and I offer him a small nod before the car moves forward and I’m on my way. Walking away from the dream I once had, having no clue what the future now holds for me.

“I’m pretty sure they live in the night.”

“Oh, yeah. Shit. So, no werewolf?” I muse.

“What’s going on? Are you drunk? Why aren’t you in your bed?”

I sigh, pressing my fingers into my eye sockets, trying to prevent the tears stinging in my blue retina’s from falling down my cheek. “I got kicked out.”

Silence.

I bring my head up, waiting for her response as I look out of the window when the campus is no longer in sight. The lack of words feels like it’s slowly suffocating me, making it that much harder to keep a straight face and not let my emotions get the best of me.

“Got kicked out of where? Exactly?” She sounds shocked.

I can’t blame her. Stanford was my dream, and it all came crashing down before I had the chance to graduate.

“School. Campus. University.” I pause, sucking in a deep breath to build the courage to say the last word out loud. “Stanford.”

“What the fuck, Kayla? Are you fucking shitting me?” The tone of her voice is filled with disbelief and laced with a little suspicion. As if she’s expecting me to tell her “April fools!” in the next few sentences. Which, fair, is totally something I would do in January.

“It would get real messy if I’d be shitting on you right now.”

“I’m serious, Keeks!” she yells.

“I know, Rae! So am I.” The words leave my lips reluctantly, because it all feels like a scam. Like I’m looking at someone else’s life. This is not my life. Kayla Lockheart doesn’t get kicked out of Stanford University when she got a full scholarship.

You’re right.

She doesn’t.

“What happened?” Rae’s voice is small and cautious this time, like she doesn’t want to upset me any further. I don’t get upset easily, though. Or at least I’m a star at hiding it.

“My grades have degraded. I failed.”

A loud exhale moves through the phone, sounding like a gust of wind on the other end of the line. Here it goes. I know she isn’t going to let me get away with this explanation, so I rehearsed this part in my head like ten times. “You don’t fail, Kayla.”

“Maybe not in high school. But Stanford is not Red Wood Creek High. I thought I could do this. But I went to a few parties too many, and it seems like getting good grades while drunk doesn’t really mix. On the bright side, I know San Francisco like the back of my hand right now?”

“Keeks,” she grunts in a reprimanding tone.

“What!? It’s true! Great city. Oh, and they have this really nice place on Fisherman’s Wharf. They have teriyaki tuna that is to die for.”

“This is not funny!” Rae yelps. “You got kicked out of college, Kayla! What are you going to do?”

“Work at Wendy’s?” I joke.

“Kayla Lockheart!”

“Okay,” I concede. “I don’t know, okay? I have no clue. All I know is that I’m on my way to the airport right now, ready to take a flight home. Or anywhere but here.” I mutter the last words, but I mean them.

When I arrived here eighteen months ago, I was ecstatic about the future. I meant what I said about San Francisco, but now the memories I have are all tainted by the memory of me leaving. Now I feel like a naive little girl, silly for believing dreams come true. I don’t think I ever wanna go back, simply because it’s too painful.

“You’re coming home?”

“I’m on my way to the airport as we speak.”

“What?!” she clips, clearly having a hard time keeping up. “Right now?”

“Yup. So, I hope you’re ready for some you and me bonding. We can go to the spa. Have some drinks. We can nag your nana together while we force her to make fried chicken. We’re gonna have so much fun!”

“You know I have to work, right?”

“Yeah, but we’ll work around that.” I brush her words away while bright ideas to keep myself busy are flooding into my head. “We can host dinner parties together like Thanksgiving! That was fun. Oh, wait! I can come stay with you and Jensen! That would be so much better than staying with my parents. Oh, please, Rae, can I stay with you guys?” I plead. My lashes flutter like I’m about to take off even though she can’t even freaking see me, suddenly feeling a sting of hope. Staying with Rae and Jensen would at least be a ray of sunshine in my now very clouded life.

“Err, I don’t know, Keeks. I love you. But I’m not sure Jensen loves you enough to have you in his personal space the entire time.”

“What?” I exclaim incredulously. “Jensen loves me!”