Page 82 of My Dark Prince
It seemed excessive and unsustainable. Especially the fact that Dallas had made a pitstop in New Orleans for some fried chicken at Dooky Chase. (She assured me that picking up beignets at Café Du Monde, too, made the detour eco-friendly. Practically carpool.)
Dallas whirled around, her fancy dress fanning at her ankles. “If there’s one thing I miss about college, it’s the all-you-can-eat buffets.”
Food trucks. Tailgates. Lady and Joy.
Fae snorted. “You went to college for, like, a week before you dropped out.”
The Quadrangle. The zoo. The Baylor Line.
“For the best.” Dallas sighed. “My professors wanted me out of there more than I did.”
Dr. Pepper Hour. Naps in The Sub basement.
I tried to pay attention to them, but the pain stabbing my skull catapulted me face-first into a trash can. I threw up the beignets and café au lait from earlier.
The pesky A- on my Strategic Management midterm. The sheer anxiety that accompanied it, followed by the bittersweet knowledge that my parents were no longer in my life to care.
Farrow gathered my hair together and tucked it into the back of my shirt. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
“We should leave.” Dallas hopped from foot to foot, rubbing my back. “I’m so sorry, Briar. I get too excited sometimes and do things without thinking them through.”
I accepted a wet napkin from Hettie, shaking my head as I swiped it across my lips. “No. I want to stay. I need to.”
Dallas and Fae shared a loaded look, but they didn’t fight me. The five of us waded past hordes of picnic blankets, stretched across a field of grass that ended with a colossal fountain. Jets of water shot thirty feet into the air as we trekked by.
I wandered to a flat, red-bricked building, brushing my fingertips against a sign etched into cement. “I used to study here. Moody Library. There’s a boxed-up garden out back. I would cram for midterms, sprawled on my belly beside the bear statue.”
The girls followed me as I all but sprinted toward Penland, where I’d dormed freshman year.
“Oh, god.” I slapped a hand over my mouth, torn between laughing and crying. “I remember all of it.”
At least, I remembered everything about college. Which meant I also remembered I was definitelynotwith Ollie during college. We hadn’t even stayed in touch.
A barrage of questions assaulted my brain.Why did we break up? How long did the breakup last? Is that why I chose Baylor over Harvard?
I could’ve asked the girls. Surely, as my best friends, they knew. But my pride – and that gnawing heat on my cheeks that I refused to call embarrassment – didn’t let me broach the topic. Plus, Doctor Cohen had warned me, flat-out, that any lick of shocking news could trigger a severe reaction. We’d flown halfway across the country. Better safe than sorry.
Farrow laced her fingers with mine and Hettie’s, tugging us down the grass-lined path with brisk steps. “The dorms are this way, I think. I downloaded a map on the plane.”
“No need.” I almost squealed. “I remember this, too.”
For the first time since waking up at the hospital, things looked familiar. The building. The gardens. Theair.It all felt real.
Well, maybe noteverything. Certainly not the stranger that called out my name, chasing after us.
“Briar? Briar Auer?” He pushed his glasses up his nose as he jogged over to us. His sun-kissed hair bounced in the wind in all its white-blond glory. “Is that you?”
“Do I know you?” I nudged Fae with my elbow. “Do I know him?”
She shrugged. “I’m the newest member of Dark Prince Road. I wouldn’t know.”
I cocked my head, trying to place the guy and coming up short. He seemed about my age, maybe young enough to be a very hot professor or perhaps a TA. In the time it took me to conjure an answer, he’d eaten the distance between us, planting a fist on each knee to catch his breath.
I smiled politely at him.
He jabbed a finger in my face. “You’re that bitch.”
My smiled dropped.
