His Forever Girl

“All right.” He lets out a breath as he stands, pulling a card out and giving it to me. “If you need anything or something comes up, you call me.” I put the card in my back pocket. “See you in a few months.” He shakes my hand again before he’s out the door.

I take a deep breath, realizing that even though these past few years have been tough that everything is finally falling into place. I exit the office and head to the lunchroom to meet up with my girl. She’s the reason that my life is so good. She’s the one thing that has always kept me grounded.17Zoey“Look at this.” Willow hands me her phone.

“What am I looking at here?” I start swiping through the pictures of a nice-looking condo.

“Where we’re going to live.”

I look up from the phone to her. “Aren’t we going to live on campus?” That’s what I thought the plan was.

“Nope. This is only a five-minute walk to the school. It’s got a gated entrance and even a doorman. Plus there is a gym, pool, and game room. It has everything we could want, and the best part is my parents are footing the bill.”

“You’re nuts.” I hand her back her phone.

“No, I’m brilliant. It’s the least my parents could do. Plus, you won’t have to worry about your man coming over.” She wiggles her eyebrows at me.

“He’s going to live in a frat house.” I scrunch my face, still not loving that idea, but it is what it is.

“He just has to have a room there. I’m sure he’ll crash with us most of the time.”

“Is this really what you want to do?”

“Yep. I already emailed my father’s assistant about it. She said she’d handle it.”

“Did you even ask?” I let out a small laugh.

“No.” I stop laughing. I’m not sure if that’s funny or terrible. “It is what it is. At least we’re going to have a nice place to crash. It’s fair. I’ve practically lived at your house over the years.” She did, but Mom and I love having her there. I think Willow enjoys that my mom treats her the same as she does me, giving Willow something she doesn't get at home.

“Okay,” I agree as class finally lets out. All the teachers and students are on autopilot. The seniors are ready to get out of here at this point. I check my phone to see if there are any texts from Reid when I don’t see him outside my classroom. He’s usually there waiting to walk with me to lunch.

“You want to wait or go to the lunchroom?” Willow asks, looking around for Reid too. He’s hard to miss since he’s taller than everyone else, but I don’t see him anywhere.

“Looking for Reid?” I glance over to see Missy, who has a smug look on her face.

“Fuck off,” Willow says, rolling her eyes.

“You two always walk around here like you’re so much better than all of us. When the truth is Zoey here fucked her way into Kingston University.”

“What?” I give her a dirty look. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

“A dick to suck?” Willow chimes in.

“Don’t be jealous that no one will let you touch their dick, Will.”

“Let’s go.” I grab Willow’s arm. She’s worked up more than usual, or maybe she’s just over their shit too. Missy steps in front of us.

“Reid is the only reason you got into Kingston, you know. So you should get that nose of yours out of the air. I know for a fact that he told them if you weren't there that he wasn't going to be there either.” I want to smack that evil smile off of her face. Instead, I stand there in shock for a moment, knowing that what she said is not out of the realm of something Reid would do. “I don’t get why he’s so stuck on you.”

“Maybe because she’s not a bitch.” Willow pulls me along with her as she body checks Missy, making her fall on her ass.

“Zoey.” Willow says my name. I pull out my phone and call Reid. He answers after one ring.

“Sorry, babe. I got stuck at—” I cut him off.

“Did you request that I be accepted into Kingston? Did you tell them that you wouldn’t commit if I weren’t accepted?”

“Zoey.” He says my name softly, and in that moment I know what Missy said was true. I end the call, powering my phone off. I’m not sure what hurts me more, that once again he made a decision without even consulting me or that he didn’t believe I had what it took to get in on my own.

“Let’s go.” Willow is again pulling me down the hallway toward the doors that lead outside.

“Go as in skip school?”

“Why not?” Yeah. Why not? I always do everything by the rules.