Page 21 of Breakaway Goal

“Might even start wearing a mustache. What else is hipstery?”

“Well, you’ve already got the tattoos …”

As Rhys and I walk to the party, talking and joking around like this, nerves don’t even have an opportunity to gather in my belly at the prospect of going to an unfamiliar environment like they usually would.

When we walkedinto the party, more than a couple surprised glances shot our way. I guess star hockey players don’t often grace parties like these. But Rhys was utterly unfazed, a cool confidence rolling off him as he deftly inserted us into conversations.

It’s been two hours now, and it’s by far the most I’ve ever enjoyed being at a party.

I must have somehow picked up the confidence radiating from Rhys by osmosis, because it’s never been so easy for me to talk to new people. I’ve met tons of art students and talked with them about art, classes, traveling, life, and just random stuff.

For the past hour, Rhys has been on the other side of the room, talking to another group. I think he’s giving me space to try and be comfortable interacting at a party like this without him next to me as a security blanket, though he still glances at me with a supportive look in his eyes every so often.

I really hit it off with one girl, Yun-hee. I haven’t seen her in any of my classes, but we share a lot of favorite artists, and our senses of humor immediately click.

Yun-hee spots a friend of hers, Ayanna, and she joins our conversation. The time flies by, and eventually I realize I haven’t noticed Rhys here for a while.

My phone vibrates in my pocket with a message from him.

Rhys

I’m heading out. You got this.

A sense of support curls around me like a hug.

Yun-hee, Ayanna, and I are laughing like we’re already good friends when the party ends past two in the morning, and wewalk to Pucelli’s, a pizza spot in Cedar Shade open super-late on Fridays and Saturdays. We contend with hordes of drunken students and buy our slices, sitting on the edge of the sidewalk outside to eat them.

Instead of a disappointing night feeling cramped in my dorm room, I’ve already made some new friends, all because Rhys was thinking of me.

10

MADDIE

After a long day of classes, Jasmine and I are relaxing in our room. I have the album that Rhys snuck in spinning on my record player. I’ve quickly grown obsessed with it, listening to the trackUnder Controlin particular over and over again. Jasmine’s lying on her bed, reading something on her Kindle.

It’s just what both of us need as we’re nearing the end of the third week of the semester. The easy, exciting first week of classes where you’re just reviewing the syllabi is firmly in the rearview mirror. The weight of assignments, upcoming quizzes, and the need to actually study is just starting to bend our backs.

But the calm of the moment shatters like a vase clattering from its shelf when we hear an ear-splitting scream from another room on our floor.

Jasmine and I leap off our beds and step into the hallway. We peek down the hall in the direction of the scream, just in time to watch a girl emerge from her room a few doors down, soaked head to toe in water.

I’m too stunned to react at first, and judging by her silence, so is Jasmine. The door across from the mysteriously wet girl opens, and another girl pokes her head out.

“Oh my gosh,” she reacts. “Are you ok—what the!?” She turns around and jumps backward with a yelp as a puddle of water quickly expands through her doorway and into the hall.

“What’s going on?” I exclaim.

The explanation clicks—a split-second before I hear a crash and the sound of plunging water from behind us in our room.

Jasmine and I turn around to see a cascade of water falling through the drop ceiling.

Water splashes everywhere, but the worst of it is plummeting right onto Jasmine’s bed.

“My Kindle!” She surges forward before I can hold her back for her own good, fearlessly braving the watery assault to retrieve the device.

She breathes a sigh of relief after a brief inspection of it. I guess that waterproof case I got her for her birthday ended up being a pretty good present.

A spark in my brain kicks me into gear. I run around, gathering up my notebooks, my textbooks, and anything else easily damaged by water. I try to move them out into the hallway, but judging from the water that’s seeping through multiple doorways up and down the hall, they won’t be safe there for long.

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