Forever With You (Silver State Series) Read Online Free PDF

she’s comforting me after the death of a family member.
    I shrug while subtly angling my body away from her, afraid to give her any ideas.  “You win some, you lose some,” I say in as unaffected a tone as I can muster given how defeated I feel.  “Later, Grace.”  I turn and head toward the door before she can say anything more.
    My phone vibrates in my pocket just as I step outside, and I whip it out to check the display.  Les .  I press Answer and hold the phone up to my ear.  “What’s up?”
    “You have plans for this evening?”
    “Depends... You have a proposition for me?”
    He sighs.  “Leila’s roommates want her to go to this mixer on the quad for the incoming freshmen, but she won’t go unless I tag along…”
    “Tell her not to go then,” I reply.  “Those things are lame.”
    “Yeah, but I want her to make friends with her roommates so she doesn’t feel like she has to hang around me all the time, you know?  I mean, not to sound like an asshole, I love her and everything, but I want her to have her own life, too.”
    I nod in understanding as I sidestep a group of guys clamoring down the sidewalk.  Campus is noticeably more crowded now that all the students are back.  “Okay… So how do I figure into this?” I ask.
    “Just come with me, man.  I don’t want it to just be me and a bunch of freshman girls.”
    “Really?  Because that kinda sounds like Heaven to me,” I joke.
    He laughs.  “All the more reason for you to come then.  Come to my place beforehand, okay?  We can ride over together.  Come at like six-thirty.”
    “Yeah all right.  See ya then.”  I tap End and slip my phone back in my pocket.  Honestly I probably wouldn’t have given in that easily if I wasn’t already thinking about a certain other freshman who might be in attendance…
     
    Tawny – 7:00 PM
    “ O h I love that dress,” says Beatrix as she slides around me at the bathroom sink.  “Pink is a great color on you.”  I look down at the simple strapless maxi-dress I’m wearing and brush at a piece of lint on my boob.
    “Thanks,” I reply with a smile.    I watch as she brushes her shoulder-length hair and pulls part of it back into a clip.  Meanwhile, my practiced hands work quickly to arrange my hair into a loose French braid, which I secure with a white elastic from around my wrist.
    “Are you two about ready to head down there?” calls Harumi from the other room.  I smooth the loose wisps of hair away from my face and walk over to my closet to grab my pair of silver sandals.  Harumi sits Indian style on her bed, a large pair of headphones circling her neck.
    “I’m ready,” I say as I step into my sandals.  A moment later Beatrix joins us, and Harumi hops down from her bunk and shuffles into a pair of beaded moccasins.  The three of us head to the stairwell and take the five flights of steps down to the lobby before exiting the building.  We cross Virginia Street and weave between the buildings toward the quad.
    It took me a few days, but I’m beginning to feel settled here.  I get along really well with both roommates.  Beatrix, who wants to study speech pathology, isn’t terribly profound, but what she lacks in depth she makes up for in sweetness.  Harumi will be an art history major, and everything about her is refreshingly unique, from her spiky black hair to her taste for nineties grunge music.  I breathe out in contentment, savoring the heat that lingers in the evening air while thinking maybe this college thing won’t be so bad after all.
    We can hear music drifting from the quad well before we reach it.  Massive speakers broadcast the music and all announcements across the expanse of green that extends from Mackay Mines to the alumni building.  A big blue banner on the south edge of the lawn is printed with the word “Welcome,” while on the east end a number of booths are set up with representatives from each of the student organizations.