Jayden laughs. “Lord help us all.”

“Oh, shut up. She’s hot though, right?”

He nods. “Really hot. Too hot for you, to be honest.”

I laugh at his smirk. “Please, she’s just right for me.”

“No girl is ever right for you, apparently.”

“Maybe that was true, but I’m starting to reconsider it.”

Jayden sits up, shaking his head. “I don’t believe that for a second. I bet ya a hundred bucks that you won’t get her and date her for more than a week. If she does give you the time of day, you’ll get bored, like you always do.”

Sitting up, I hold my hand out to him. He takes it earnestly, and I can see in his eyes that he thinks this is an easy bet. He couldn’t be more wrong.

“You got yourself a deal.”

I throw open my dorm door, and Skylar looks up at me from her bed and then looks back down at her books that she has around her. “Hey, you.”

“Hey, yourself,” I say, throwing my bag on my bed. “What are you doing Tuesday around six?”

Before she can answer, I crawl into the bed with her, fitting myself in the little bitty space that doesn’t have books and other crap on it. She sends me an impressive look, since it wasn’t an easy feat fitting my long legs in the space she allowed, before saying, “Nothing.” She thinks for a minute. “Yeah, nothing.”

“Good, we’re trying out for the Bullies’ dance team.”

She looks up and gives me a wary look. “Why on earth would we do that? We already have classes we do for Reese, and then we work all the time, and we have school.”

Skylar works at Ms. Prissy’s too, but instead of a dancer, she’s a cocktail waitress. She did work onstage in the past, but her brother came in while she was dancing. Thankfully, he didn’t notice her, but it ruined it for her, and she refuses to go onstage anymore. She’s right that we work a lot, but we can talk to Ms. Prissy and fix our hours if needed. When I say that, she shrugs.

“Yeah, I guess, but I hate those dance chicks. They are such bitches.”

I smile. “’Cause they are jealous of how beautifully gorgeous you are.”

Skylar scoffs as she rolls her hazel eyes. She really is gorgeous, and I’ve always thought so. Wide hazel eyes with freckles along her nose and cheeks. Her brown hair cascades down her shoulders in a wavy, beachy look, and her smile is always unstoppable. She’s beautiful and everyone thinks so. That’s the main reason I have to go find places to study when she has guys over. She isn’t a slut at all, but she doesn’t hold back from the guys. She loves them. I wish I were like that again. Sometimes I feel weird for not being the least bit attracted to anyone… Well, no, I take that back. Allen was okay, and I would have slept with him eventually, but Jude, he has me feeling all kinds of feels that I’m totally not used to. My clothes basically evaporated under his intense green eyes.

Jesus, he was gorgeous. Shaking my head, I meet Skylar’s eyes as she says, “Whatever. I really don’t want to, and probably won’t make it ’cause they’re bitches, but yeah, I’ll do it with ya.”

“Of course you’ll make it. We are amazing dancers.”

She shrugs and I lean against her. I know she’s stressing over her homework, and I want to help, but I have no clue about chemistry. She wants to be a vet, and while I support her and want her to succeed, I know it’s going to be hard. Her classes are freaking challenging as hell.

“It will be fun,” I promise, and she looks back at me.

“Yeah, I know. I’m just freaking out over this crap,” she admits, giving me a sad smile as she points to her books and endless notes.

“I know. If you don’t want to do it, I understand. You have a lot going on.”

“Yeah, but I need a distraction when I’m not working on this shit. It will be good for me.”

I smile, wrapping my arms around her. She has always been my friend, a real friend. Everyone hated me when Phillip started me at the school in his district. I was the new “rich” girl with a hotshot, hockey player uncle. I was kind of a standoffish bitch too, so that had a lot to do with why people didn’t like me. Plus my hair was bright red, and people assumed I was an easy, emo chick. I wasn’t emo for one, and maybe I might have been easy in the past, but once Phillip gave me stability, I was a completely different girl. I wanted things. I wanted to make him proud, I wanted him to love me, but he did no matter what I did, and I’m so thankful for that.

“You know that the hockey team is at the tryouts, right? And they judge the girls.”

“Huh?” I ask, leaning up to look at her.

“Oh yeah, they have little paddles with numbers, and the captains take their opinions into consideration. It’s kinda stupid ’cause the guys only judge you on your looks.”

I smile. “We’re in then. We’re fucking hot.”

She laughs like I wanted as I crawl out of my spot and go to my side of the room. Pictures of Phillip, Reese, and me are everywhere, along with pictures of Skylar and me. While I love my pictures, my favorite ones are the ones of the kids. I love my Dimitri and then Reese’s sister Harper’s kids, Ally and Journey. I spend so much time with them that they are almost like my sister and brothers. I even have pictures of my extended family, which is all of Phillip’s teammates and their families. As I glance at all of them, like I always do, I can’t help but think how I went from having no one to love me to now having so many that I am sometimes overwhelmed with love.

With a smile on my face, I reach for the pink flyers that Ellen was posting everywhere and chuck them in the trash as my smile grows.

Jude Sinclair.

Hmm. He was something, that’s for sure, and I can’t help but think of him. I told him that I’d probably never see him again, but I wish I could see him right now. I should have given him my number; I should have let him pursue me, instead of running the other way. I usually don’t regret blowing guys off, but I am regretting it like crazy right now.

Glancing over at Skylar, I say, “Hey, do you know Jude Sinclair?”

Her head shoots up, and she gives me a Cheshire-cat smile, all her straight, white teeth showing as she slowly nods her head. “Everyone knows Jude Sinclair, Claire.”

I give her a deadpan look. “Well, I didn’t, until today.”