Pulling away from him slowly, I looked up at him through my hooded lashes, my look as serious as I could force on my face. I walked away backwards at first and turned to join my friends. And once we were safely in the car, I let out a heavy sigh.

“If he doesn’t know how you feel after that, Noles, he never will,” Sienna said, turning the music up as we pulled out on the desert road and headed home.

26. Lost and Found

When I didn’t hear from Reed the next morning, I convinced myself it was because he had hooked up with Stephanie and I was just an indiscretion he had snuck in without her noticing. When I didn’t hear from him during the first week of summer break, I started to feel cheap and questioned how buzzed I really was.

I had seen Sean a few times at MicNic’s during my shifts over the summer, but Reed didn’t make a single appearance. I knew he would be leaving for school early, so when July rolled around, I gave up hope.

Becky was back in town for the summer and she and Sean spent most nights going out together. Sean was going to San Diego for college, putting the two of them a short commute away from one another. Sarah and Calley moved into their apartment early and Sienna and I spent a few nights at their place before the dorms opened so we could scope out the campus before the crowds of new students showed up.

When moving day came, my dad was in full parent-mode, questioning me about every safety feature of my car, wanting to know how many desk people worked at the dorm and how often the front was guarded. He lectured me on keeping our doors locked at all times and on not letting strangers follow me home. My mom rolled her eyes a few times when he talked and would try to undo his damage when he left the room, assuring me that she knows I’m a responsible girl. I knew he was just having a hard time letting go, so I took him out to MicNic’s for one more daddy/daughter milkshake the night before I left for good.

Sienna and I spent the entire first day on campus loading our clothing, stereo, shoes, computers and other crap we were suddenly wishing we’d left at home from the parking lot to our dorm room five stories up. The elevator was slow to come, so we opted for more trips up and down the stairs.

I was hanging pictures on my cork board when two guys knocked on our door and called out from the hallway. “Ladies?” Sienna and I looked at each other in a panic, not used to attention from college boys yet. We started to giggle a little and both hopped down from the chairs we’d been standing on and walked over to the hallway leading to the door.

“Hey, we’re your neighbors,” the tall one with short blonde hair said, reaching out to shake our hands. He was at least a foot taller than I was and had a tattoo that covered one arm. I laughed a little inwardly, wondering how my dad was going to react to this when he came up to visit next week.

“Hi, I’m Nolan. This is Sienna,” I said, shaking his hand and looking toward his friend, who was equally as tall but seemingly not covered in ink and with longer, dark hair.

“Hey, I’m Nick and this is Travis,” the blonde said, smiling and making his way into our room a little.

Sienna and I just backed up and kept our guard up until he turned around in a circle and spoke. “Trav? Come check this shit out. They have, like, twice the space,” he was comparing our room sizes like a kid would and it was funny and setting me at ease. “And their window is bigger!”

I started to laugh a little and then Travis spoke up. “Yeah, but we have a microwave. I see they didn’t bring one of those,” he smiled superiorly. “Maybe, just maybe, we can broker a deal.” He was rubbing his hand on his chin scruff.

Sienna looked around and then jumped back up on her bed, grabbing the toolbox from the top shelf of her book case. “We have tools!” she bragged. We all started laughing at her attempt to one up them.

Nick and Travis had quickly become good friends. The next few mornings, Sienna and I knocked on their door to heat up our oatmeal. And, ironically, they had to borrow our hammer a few times as well. We made plans to attend a few of the orientation events together, and the boys introduced us to a few more of their friends. Of course, when I introduced them to Sarah, they started to show their peacock feathers a little, battling for her attention as most guys did when they first met her.

I could tell she liked Nick a lot, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, she might find herself in a relationship that lasted more than a week. I caught them making out in the stairwell once, but kept it to myself not wanting to jinx things for her.

School was starting soon; we had the rest of the weekend and the Monday after before classes officially began. I was sitting on my bed early Sunday morning, plotting out the location of my classes on the map and munching on an apple I’d cut up for breakfast. Sienna had gone out for coffee with Micah, the both of them had joined the marching band together and spent most of their afternoons at practice. Tonight, though, was all about me and my girls. There was a dance party for freshman in the atrium of the arts school and we had been counting down the days.