Chapter 1

Sen

September 2024

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

None of these were right. I knew I should have picked my outfit last night, but my dumbass had gone out with friends. It wasn't every day someone graduated from community college, after all. It warranted some drinks and, to put it delicately, the female touch.

It wasn't that great of an accomplishment, in and of itself. It was a stepping stone and saved me money. My parents weren't loaded, but they did have money put away for my future, so they made me a deal that if I finished my two-year degree at the local college, they'd set me up at a university and I'd only have to work a part-time job. It sounded great to me.

The problem now was that I didn't have anything impressive to wear. Who did I have to impress, you may ask? I didn't know. That was what made me nervous about the whole thing. I had a two-hour plane ride to get to Seattle, then I would Uber to the university. Once I was there, it was all about first impressions.

Dad always said that a visual brings a first impression. Good ones weren't made by looking like an idiot. I needed to be professional but laid back. I didn't want to look like a twenty-year-old with a stick up his ass and millions in the bank. Being authentic felt like the right move, whatever that meant.

"What's taking so long?" Dad called from downstairs.

I groaned. "Just give me a minute."

"Leaving in five, with or without you."

"Give me a goddamn minute!"

Leaving without me, my ass. Was he going to drive to the airport with nobody to drop off?

He probably would do that just to prove a point, so I grabbed a burgundy henley. I rolled up the sleeves to ward off the heat and hoped it would be cool on the plane, otherwise the person beside me would hate me. I didn't do well in the heat, so summer was my least favorite season. As soon as the weather breached seventy, I would sweat like a pig.

Did pigs sweat? A horn blared outside and I decided it was a question for Google on another day.

I grabbed my suitcase and backpack, then sprinted down the stairs. Once I jumped into the backseat, Dad took off.

"Ben, he isn't even buckled yet," Mom scolded.

Dad glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "He's twenty, Sara. Not a kid."

"You can still die in a crash at twenty," I muttered.

Mom made a disgruntled sound at my statement. Me and Dad both smiled. I didn't know how she'd put up with the two of us all this time. We sure didn't make it easy for her, but that was part of being a parent, I assumed. If your teen didn't make you question your sanity and your decision to have kids at least once a month, they weren't doing it right.

In my opinion, they had it easy with me. I didn't go out and party during high school- not often, at least. My grades always stayed where they needed to be and I excelled in sports. From sophomore to senior year, I had a steady girlfriend. I was the ideal that other parents would use to scold their kids for being fuck ups.

Look at Sen. He's not failing math.

Sen didn't knock his girlfriend up, Markus.

Can't you be more like Sen?

It was funny to me. My friend, Josh, always told me that his parents liked me more than him. His dad even told me he was proud of me at graduation. It had struck something deep within me that made me hurry to the bathroom before anyone could see my eyes water, especially my dad. He'd get that weird look on his face, the same one he used to have all the time before I started high school. Before the summer when I turned fourteen. Before Camp Dumont.

I shook my head and focused on the city passing by outside. I didn't like the way my stomach felt when I thought about it. I hated that there was anything but gratitude inside of me. That place saved me. It changed my life.

"You'll behave yourself, right?" Mom asked, angling herself so that she could see me. "Don't party too much. In bed early on weekdays."

"Always use a condom," Dad joked, making her glare at him.

I laughed and leaned my head back. "Yeah, I know. I'm an adult and I've been in college for two years already. This isn't gonna be that different."

It was just a bigger college in a bigger city. A few years there wouldn't completely alter my life.

*****

I thought the whole formal tour thing was just something they put in movies, but they were really doing it. A blonde girl who looked like she played the trombone had been talking incessantly while she led a group of us through each area of the campus. I'd seen pictures, but I'd severely underestimated how massive the place was. If I had classes in completely different sections, I'd never make it to them on time.

This felt real. I should've expected that, but you didn't really understand until you were standing in the midst of this madness. While the town I came from wasn't small, it had nothing on a place of this magnitude. According to Leilani, the tour guide, there were over thirty thousand students enrolled here.

Well, at least it should be easy to find a few that I liked. A couple guys in the group seemed cool and we'd said some things to each other along the way.

West was here from Maine on a football scholarship. He looked the part at well over six feet tall with broad shoulders and a square jaw. The guy had ice-blue eyes that reminded me of the night king in Game of Thrones. His hair was shockingly black in comparison to his light skin and bright eyes. He was what people might call a ‘chick magnet.' Since he was part of the football team, he'd been on campus for almost a month already, so he didn't have much patience for the tour.

Brooks was coming in as a pre-law student. His parents were lawyers in New York, which must have been a recipe for expectations and pressure to succeed. He seemed down to earth, though. He had incredibly curly, chocolate-brown hair that came down to his shoulders. According to him, it was the only thing he had that was strictly his. His parents tolerated it, at least until he got to a certain point in school. Then, the beautiful curls would be chopped off. The sadness in his brown eyes betrayed how attached he was to his long hair.

The three of us made a decent trio. The jock, the law student, and the business major. It wasn't something I was passionate about, but I'd never really latched onto anything specific. I always thought that it would click at some point while I was at community college, that I'd take one of my general education classes and think, "This is the one! I want to do this for the rest of my life."

It just never happened.

My dad worked in marketing and unlike a lot of people, he didn't seem to loathe his job. It paid for a decent life and once he was established with his company, it didn't keep him away from home too much due to crushing responsibilities. That was good enough for me.

"Have you met your roommate yet?" West asked, keeping his voice low enough not to get scolded by Leilani again.

I shook my head. "I got a single dorm."

Brooks whistled. "Shit. Living it up."

"You have your own apartment," West pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I'm special."

"Special little rich boy."

"Excuse me," Leilani shouted, putting her hands on her hips.

We all looked at her and West snickered beside me. She did look sort of comical, but I didn't want to make fun of the girl. She was… nice. A bit of a hard ass for a junior, but there were worse things to be.

"Sorry," I called, discreetly swatting West when he started to say something that I knew wouldn't help the situation. "We're just exhausted after our flights and everything. Think we can get to the dorm portion of this tour soon?"

Her eyes narrowed at me, then moved to West and Brooks. "The tour isn't required. If you'd like to go-"

I swore when West grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from the group. Brooks followed with a glint in his eyes. I looked back at Leilani and found her frowning in our direction. Well, she did say it wasn't required. I was sure I'd be able to find my way around when I needed to.

"Where's your room?" West asked.

"Mine?"

"Yeah, Sen. You're the one with a single."

"Brooks has an apartment," I pointed out.

"Off campus," Brooks replied. "And I'm not showing you bastards where I live until I know you're not murderers."

Shaking my head, I laughed. "Fine. It's in Marshall Hall, but I'm warning you right now, my room is not going to become a hangout spot. I'd like a modicum of privacy."

West's grin was wide and mischievous. "We get it, man. We all need privacy."

"Glad you get it, asshole."

We entered Marshall Hall and were met with chaos. Students and parents were milling around like ants surrounded by cookie crumbs. There was shouting from every direction and I was pretty sure I heard someone crying. Was this a university or everyone's first day at preschool? Suddenly, I was grateful that my parents hadn't come along.

"Third floor," I said, ducking to the side.

We took the stairs two at a time while we tried to avoid suitcases and frantic bodies. It was like an obstacle course. When we finally reached the third floor, it was a little quieter, but not by much. I went down the first hall but didn't see my room number. After turning the corner, I saw it near the middle of the line of doors, on the right side. I picked up my pace, ready to be out of this hellish hallway.

The door before mine opened and someone came out just as I was about to pass. I collided with him, knocking us both to the ground. He landed on his back with a loud grunt punctuated by a shout when my knee was propelled into his groin. I barely caught myself with my hand on the floor to avoid adding a headbutt to the mix.

"Personal foul!" West shouted.

The guy below me looked annoyed and I realized I should've stood up already. My wrist hurt from the fall, but I was sure he felt even worse. When I got off of him, I held out a hand. He was already getting to his feet, though, so I dropped it to my side awkwardly.

"Sorry," I rushed out with a tentative laugh as I rubbed the back of my neck. "Guess I was too excited to get the hell out of this hallway."

He eyed me, unabashedly running his gaze down to my shoes, then back up to my face. If he was going to be weird about it, I guess I would too. I gave him a quick once over, only pausing when I reached his face again.

His eyes were such a dark green that if we hadn't been standing below a light, I would have thought they were brown. Hair that was nearly black covered his ears in soft waves and drew my attention to his strong features. High cheekbones, a sharp jaw, and tanned, olive skin made him look a bit like a Greek god. Apollo was allegedly the most attractive.

I wasn't supposed to recognize if a man was attractive, so I tightened my grip on the handle of my suitcase and averted my gaze.

"It's a crazy day," he replied lightly.

His voice was deep and matched the image I'd set up in my head, but his tone was light and friendly. I'd expected him to be more intense, maybe throw a punch for kneeing him in the dick. My cheeks heated and I hoped he wouldn't notice.

When I looked at him again, the corner of his mouth was slightly raised.

"It was nice to meet you," I said quickly before brushing by him. Warm fingers circled my wrist, bringing me to a stop.

"We didn't meet, really. You just assaulted me, then checked me out."

My eyes widened. "I didn't-"

"I'm kidding," he laughed. "Damn, West, your new friend is skittish."

"He's from Colorado," West replied as if that somehow explained something.

"You two know each other?" I asked. Looking back and forth between the two, I couldn't decide who to be more intimidated by.

West shoved the other guy's shoulder, earning a scowl. "We go way back. Went to high school together, played on the same team, and got ogled by the same scout. You could say Kai is both my oldest friend and greatest rival."

"So dramatic," Kai muttered, shaking his head. "What's your name?"

I blinked, trying to remember if I knew the answer to that question. "Sen."

"Sen. Interesting. Are you a sinner?"

His teasing tone made me relax slightly. "By day and by night. Can never give my parents hope, you know."

He laughed, which brightened his eyes. "Well, good to meet you. When we see each other again, maybe don't bust my balls so much, yeah?"

He put a hand over his crotch for emphasis. I smiled and gave him a nod.

"Definitely won't do that."

West and Kai gave each other a handshake that looked personal, then he headed down the hall. I watched until he turned the corner, only coming back to myself when West clapped me on the shoulder.

Pulling my key from my pocket, I stopped in front of my door. I paused when I realized it was the one directly next to Kai's room. Maybe he could become another friend in this place. He seemed pretty interesting.