Awakening (Covenant College #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

each other,” Paris admitted.
    I tried to peer around Aric . It was a monumental task, though. He was big. For a second I couldn’t help but wonder what he looked like without his sweatshirt on. I’d run into him so I knew that wasn’t flab under there. He was hard as a rock – and built like a truck, I was almost certain.
    “There she is,” I finally caught sight of her red hair.
    Tara was outside. I could just get a glimpse of her through the window. She was gesturing wildly – and she didn’t look happy. I couldn’t see who she was talking to. She stopped long enough to point – and her finger was aimed directly at me. She seemed to notice that we were all looking at her because she quickly tried to disguise her motions.
    Whoever she was talking with walked away from her quickly. All I could make out is that it was a boy and he had close-cut blonde hair. He was gone too quickly to see anything else.
    Tara made her way back into the store and smiled brightly at us. I couldn’t help but think it was a little fake , though. She walked over to us laughing. “I went to high school with him,” she explained.
    “Really? You should have come in and introduced him to us,” Paris seemed genuinely interested.
    “Oh, I went to high school with him but I didn’t like him,” she explained. “He wanted to invite us to a party.”
    “I don’t think Brittany is up for another party,” I answered. Paris nodded her silent assent. For his part, Aric didn’t seem to be listening. He was still watching the spot where Tara had been arguing with her high school classmate. He looked thoughtful.
    “Yeah, I don’t know what I’m up for tonight either,” Tara said with a laugh.
    Paris had obviously dismissed the argument. I was suspicious by nature, but even I didn’t blame her for wanting to get away from high school “friends.” That was why I had come here in the first place.
    Aric finally seemed to snap to attention. He smiled down at all of us – letting his eyes linger on me a little longer than everyone else. “It was nice meeting you all.”
    “You, too,” Paris and Tara said. They both looked a little dreamy.
    Aric turned to me expectantly. “Bye,” I said with false bravado.
    Aric smiled a small half smile to himself as he regarded me. I could tell he wanted to call me on my attitude but he wisely refrained from any such action.
    “I’ll see you around.”
    “Doubtful.”
    I thought I’d said it under my breath but apparently he’d heard me. He turned around briefly before exiting. “You can count on it.”
    Despite myself, I felt a little thrill of anticipation. Seriously, what is wrong with me?
     
     
    Five
    Sunday morning I woke up with a mixed sense of dread and excitement.
    This was the last day off before classes started. While I was excited to be in college – academia had never really been my thing. Still, I only had five classes – and none of them were gym so I was already better off than high school.
    As a group, we’d all decided to stay in and just play cards and gab the night before. Brittany was still recovering. I could only hope she’d work up a tolerance. I didn’t want to think of her being such a lightweight the entire year. That was going to make babysitting her a real task.
    We all went down to breakfast together as a group – where Brittany proceeded to explain to all of us the benefits of a gluten-free diet. I was only half listening – but I realized quickly on that was going to eliminate every cereal I liked – so that obviously wasn’t going to happen.
    After breakfast, we returned to our room but left the door open. I figured it was time to get to know some of our floor mates better.
    The guys across the hall came to introduce themselves pretty quickly. There were two Ricks, a Greg and a Milton. Yeah, his parents obviously sucked.
    They seemed like nice guys – but none of them exactly screamed brainiac to me. I think they were mostly here for the parties and