One thing I did know, however. Every night I worked, a single headlamp followed me to my dorm. It stayed far back, in the shadows, until I’d made it to Oliver Hall’s entrance and slid my key card. By the time the door closed behind me, the headlamp was gone. I knew it was Brax, and it just added to my puzzlement. No phone calls, no texts. I tried not to dwell on it, but it was hard. Damn hard. Hardest thing I’d ever attempted to do.
The week before Halloween I was sitting in the library, studying. I had texts opened and scattered all around me on the table only I occupied. Then, something dropped onto my book.
“Tell me that’s not utter perfection.”
Tessa’s voice startled me, and I picked up the small plastic card she’d dropped. I turned it over in my hand then scowled at my roommate, who’d plopped into the chair next to me. “Tessa, that’s a fake ID.”
Her full lips, covered in shiny lipgloss, pulled taut over her white teeth. “Wow. You do have a lot of gray matter up there.” She pointed at my head. “Of course it’s a fake ID, doofus. How else can you get into MacElvee’s? Lord, girl,” she snapped her fingers. “Get with the program.”
I stared at the ID, then squinched my brows together. “Tessa, it says I was born in nineteen eighty-nine.”
She rifled through some of my opened books. “So? Mine says eighty-eight.” She smiled broadly and tapped the end of my nose like a child. “They never check. Besides, you’re going out with us tonight.” She laid her head on my shoulder. “Please? I’m tired of you sulking around, staying clammed up in the dorm room, and here in this stuffy old library. Or at the nerdservatory.” She looked at me and batted her long lashes. “You gotta get out, chica. Put that douchebag behind you. Live.” I started to protest, but she pressed her fingers against my lips. “Shut up. I don’t want to hear it. Not one more lame excuse.” Her perfectly arched brows drew into a fake frown. “You promised a long time ago, Beaumont. You don’t work tonight, and you’ve been studying all afternoon. Seriously. I know you’re a geek, but you’re a pretty cool geek whom I’ve grown to kinda love. Time to pay up. We’re going and that’s that. You need a beer.”
My lips pulled into a smile I couldn’t stop. “I do not need a beer. But okay. I’ll go.”
Tessa squeaked, then hastily covered her loud mouth with her hand. “Yay! We’ll leave at eight. And I’m dressing you.” She leaned over, kissed my cheek, and waved. “Later, babe.”
“Wait, Tessa, no,” I said. But she threw a grin over her shoulder and kept on walking.
By the time I got back to the dorm it was nearly six p.m. Tessa was there. Waiting on me. Like a predator. I scanned the room quickly, and sure enough, she had one of her own outfits spread out on the bed.
“Okay, before you say anything, just hear me out,” she began, and she met me at the door, pulled my pack off my shoulder and tugged me to her bed. “Seriously. You’re adorable. I mean that in a,” she glanced to the ceiling, thinking, “holistic, wholesome, Mary Poppins kind of way.” She tweaked my nose. “You and your E.T. shirt are just so darn…cute. But I’m gonna bling you up a bit, chica. Nothing drastic, I swear.”
I searched through the objects of clothing on her bed. “You want me to wear this little gauzy thing?” I asked. “Tessa, I have banged up legs. They’re not pretty and smooth enough for this.” I eyed the other pieces: a white tank top, and a nearly see-through shirt with a laced-up back. The skirt was tissue-paper thin, short and floral. Pretty, but on me?
“You’re ridiculous. Put this on. Your legs are fine.”
“I’m wearing my boots.”
Tessa grinned, and it made me feel she was up to no good. “That’s the idea, my darlin’. Now get ready. I still have your face and hair to work on.”
“Good Lord. Please don’t slut me up.”
“I’m not going to slut you up, weirdo. Just let me have my way. For once?”
It didn’t take long to trade out my jeans and button-down shirt for Tessa’s outfit. I looked in the mirror. The upper half wasn’t too bad. But the skirt. “Tessa, this thing is short!”
“Come out and let me see!” she hollered.
I inched out of the bathroom, and she squealed. “Shit, you’re hot! Turn around.”
I did. “I am not hot. It’s…unnatural looking on me. I look like a hootch. And I’m not trolling for guys, Tessa.” I turned back around and gave her the look. “I’m just going to hang out with you girls for a little while.”