Total pages in book: 10
Estimated words: 9567 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 48(@200wpm)___ 38(@250wpm)___ 32(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 9567 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 48(@200wpm)___ 38(@250wpm)___ 32(@300wpm)
While I love my parents dearly, they have provided me with the perfect example of what I don’t want in life. I want to be married and live with and love my husband every fucking day. I want to raise my children and have a house. A real home. A place that, at the end of a long day, is all my own. I don’t have anything but clothes and school books in my room. I don’t even have a real house to go to on breaks. My parents are straight nomads because of their jobs, so I have nowhere to set down roots, and I hate that. I want that with Chris if only he’d get over his obsession with his career. Trust me, I get why he hasn’t done anything yet, but in a few short hours, I’ll be an adult, and no one can say a damn thing about it. Maybe they can, but at least it won’t be a crime. He can’t love me from jail.
Speaking of, I can't believe I threw my panties at him like a stripper, but he frustrates me. Thankfully, my classes are done for the day, so I make my way to my dorm room. My roommate is younger than me, but not by much. She lived a sheltered, highly religious life in Utah before she was accepted here. They pair us this way for who knows what reason, but Tiza Montgomery is a nice girl. We are both boring as hell, so it works for us.
“Hey, Sierra. There’s a bus going to the mall this afternoon. Wanna go?” McCray offers transportation to local establishments for those who are unable to drive. It’s a pretty sweet perk.
“Why don’t I drive us?” I ask. My parents bought me what I like to call a guilt car last year. The BMW SUV assuages their guilt, but it makes me feel like an asshole. But I digress. I have been at McCray for so long. I’ve lived here in the same dorm room all that time, but I never felt like I was living until the day Dr. Tyler started working here. It was like I saw color for the first time, as cliche as that sounds. I saw him and our life together, and it was glorious. I did feel a little guilty for making him think naughty thoughts about a sixteen-year-old, but I got over that shit pretty quickly. I know that it’s me that makes him feel that way, not all sixteen-year-olds. I know it in my soul.
“Even better. I’ll buy dinner then. Taco Heaven is right by the mall,” she says, knowing Tex-Mex is my weakness.
“Sounds good. Let me change and we’ll head out.” I quickly pull on some clean panties because, again, what the fuck was I thinking in his office? I throw on some jean shorts, a tee shirt, and my flip-flops.
Twenty minutes later, I pull into a parking spot outside a major department store. Tiza loves shoes, and her favorite shoe store is right inside the mall. Since she has never lived in such a big city, not that I’d consider Chattanooga huge, I stick close to her side. You can never be too careful, and I am a big believer in the buddy system. This girl can shop. Luckily, she gets hungry pretty quickly. We leave the mall, several hundred dollars poorer, and head over to the restaurant. It’s near the mall but in a different parking lot.
We walk in and are seated in a booth. I sit facing the door. We order our food, tacos for me and a huge quesadilla for her. Just after the food arrives, I notice the revolving door turning. I see Chris enter with a beautiful woman out of the corner of my eye. A really fucking beautiful woman. An age-appropriate woman. I start to panic. I can’t breathe. He’s on a date. What the hell? Hot tears spring to my eyes, and I pray to God that they don’t fall. I can’t let him see me cry. It would be beyond humiliating.
“Are you okay, Sierra?” Tiza asks, looking concerned.
“Yeah, I’m fine, T,” I say. I am still staring at Chris and the woman at the hostess stand. Tiza follows my line of sight and quickly turns back to me.
“Oh God, Sierra. He’s on a date, isn’t he?”
“What? Why should I care if he’s…” Sniff. Don’t you dare fucking cry, Sierra Snow. Sniff. Traitor. “If he’s on date.”
“I know how you feel about Dr. Tyler,” she says matter-of-factly. She says it like everyone knows how I feel… how I look at him… how I crave him.
“What?” I ask, dismayed. I thought I was really good at keeping my feelings from people.
“We share a wall. You call out for him in your sleep. I’ve never said anything because I thought you’d be embarrassed or it was like a big secret, like a movie of the week.” I look at her like she has two heads. “Oh, trust me. I'm not judging. I've got a thing for Mr. Gillman.” I think the whole world knows she has a thing for our chemistry professor, Matt Gillman. Everyone except Mr. G, that is.