Part I
Chapter 1
This was supposed to be a magical time.
First year of university. First week. Sophie, my best friend, stopped what she was doing, applying mascara in our new shared bathroom, in our new student accommodation, and then grinned at me.
“This party’s going to be amazing.”
“You’re building it up to be more than it is,” I said, trying to be the voice of reason, but failing.
We’d moved in here just a day ago, spent the entire day customising the shared two bedroom flat to suit ourselves, then did our first shopping trip together as adults. But despite the fact that the fridge was full of food and the couch and Netflix beckoned from the lounge room, we were going out.
There was an O’ Week party in the quad, we’d been informed by a very good looking guy who’d given Soph the kind of lingering smile that had her steps slowing and then mine, too, as a result. He’d pressed a flyer between her fingers, and then he’d pulled away, with some effort it seemed, turning to the next group of new students walking through the university grounds.
“No, I’m not,” Sophie shot back, applying one last swipe of mascara before replacing the wand in its tube. “It could be that no one will turn up, or it’ll only be sleazy old dudes looking to score with hot chicks, and still…” Her smile widened, shining in the mirror, before she turned to face me. “This is it, Lils. What we’ve been planning for so long. We’re away from home, out from under our parents’ thumbs. No curfews, no restrictions, no rules…”
She flicked a finger up for each benefit, then grinned.
“If this party sucks, we’ll find another one and if that sucks, we’ll come home. To our home.” I could hear the deep satisfaction in her voice and, like always, I found myself being caught up in it. Sophie led where I followed. That was how our relationship worked. “We could sit and watchFriendsfor the rest of the night—”
“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” I said hurriedly.
“We will, Lils, I promise. If you hate it…”
But we had to try, that was the implication. I needed to give this a shot first. Students we’d talked to from orientation told us to get out and socialise while we still could, because once lectures began in earnest… I sucked a breath in, then nodded. I’d give this a go and if I hated things, Sophie would follow me home. I took her hand and gave it a squeeze and she grinned as a result, using the grip to haul me out of the bathroom.
“This will be amazing, just you wait,” she assured me as we walked out our brand-new front door.
And it was,for her.
I’d often thought that Soph should’ve been snapped up by Tourism Australia because she was the female equivalent of a Hemsworth, the kind of beauty people assumed roamed freely in our fair country. Tall, slim, but with banging curves and long blonde hair that fell in loose waves I knew took forever to achieve, she’d have brought people over in droves. I knew this, because she that’s what she did when we got to the party.
We’d walked into the quad fashionably late and saw that a huge cluster of people was already here. Music was pumping from the speakers and the Student Union had set up an impromptu bar, selling cheap drinks in plastic cups to everyone assembled. But as we entered the fray, we got the kind of entrance people dream about.
Well, Soph did.
People turned around, like flowers following the sun, and plenty of guys didn’t bother looking away when they saw my best friend. I saw conversations flounder, and girls look at their male partners in irritation, but that didn’t stop the staring. Sophie flushed, because despite looking like a goddess, she wasn’t super comfortable with this kind of attention. She grabbed my hand, and that’s when I realised I was as much here for her support as she was for me. We walked up to the bar, Sophie smiling nervously when the crowds parted for us, letting her go to the front of the line. She ordered us two drinks and then paid for them, handing me mine before we took up position on the outskirts of the party.
“Hey…”
A good-looking guy appeared before us, his eyes locked on Sophie, his friends hot on his heels.
“Hey.” Sophie blinked at the sight of him, and I could see why.
Tall, muscular, his t-shirt stretching over a broad set of shoulders the like of which we never saw at our high school, because right here was a man. A man whose eyes bore into my friend’s. He seemed to collect himself, particularly when one of his mates cleared his throat, blinking, and then smiling at Sophie.
“I’m Taylor, these are my friends, Max and Ben. Can I get you a drink?”
Max was the kind of dark-haired, good-looking guy I was beginning to think was the standard on this campus. He grunted, then looked conspicuously down at Sophie’s full plastic cup, drawing his friend’s attention to it.
“Um… once you’ve finished that one, of course.”
“Ahh…”
Sophie seemed to see the dude for the first time and, I admit, there was a lot to look at. He had light brown hair that seemed to be falling in his eyes the whole time, but the smattering of freckles across his cheeks and the sharp slice of his cheekbones made that look freaking hot rather than just unkempt. But it was his intense focus that seemed to capture hers. He stared at Sophie with a kind of rapt attention that would either flatter or scare the shit out of her. Taylor seemed to realise that, blinking and drawing back, but the gleam in his eye remained.
“Sure,” she said brightly, dissipating a tension I hadn’t even realised was building until I let out a breath, everyone else in the group seeming to do the same.