The Final Chance by Cait Marie

2

Beth Ann

“No, you can’t put them in there,” Beth Ann said, grabbing the hoodie from where Vince tried shoving it into a drawer of t-shirts. “Seriously? How do you not know where to put clothes?”

As she draped it on a hanger, he said, “Not all of us care about clothes that much.”

She handed it back and pointed to the wardrobe in the corner. He mumbled something under his breath but did as she directed. Needing to see when her roommate, Manny, returned, they had propped open his door. Greetings and conversations drifted in from the hall, and hearing the buzz from the excited students brought a smile to her face. Despite missing home, she really did love Harleson.

“I vote we take a break for pizza,” Vince said, plopping down on the floor beside her.

She shook her head. “Order the pizza, and we’ll take a break once it gets here.”

“Has anyone ever told you how bossy you are?”

She met his grin with her own. “No veggies on the pizza.”

He laughed and reached for his phone, stretching backward over the edge of his bed they sat against. As his shirt raised to reveal the abs that would haunt her dreams, she looked back down and started folding another pair of pants.

By the time the pizza arrived and Vince retrieved it from the lobby, all of his clothes were folded or hanging in the wardrobe. He handed her the box before turning to grab a couple drinks from the mini fridge.

“Coke or Sprite?” He sat back down beside her.

She grabbed the Coke, needing the caffeine. They sat and ate, talking about their home lives. He grew up outside of the city and had two sisters. It was simple and average, but she could hear the love in the way he talked about his family. Beth Ann told him about Summersville and her best friend, Lila. She rambled on about Lila’s bucket list and how her archnemesis, Gavin, helped her check off every item before her surgery.

Vince laughed. “Archnemesis?”

“Oh yeah. They grew up next door to each other and were best friends until their eleventh birthday party. Then, they fought for seven years non-stop.”

“Why?”

“Because boys are idiots.” When he raised a brow, she added, “No offense.”

He just rolled his eyes. “So, they checked everything off and became friends again?”

“Nope,” she said, popping her P. “They checked everything off, he confessed he’s loved her the whole time, and now they’re living happily ever after.”

“Aren’t they like eighteen?” He closed the half-empty box of pizza—mostly eaten by him. She’d picked at her piece, slowly eating it, but talking about Lila’s tumor made her emotional.

“Fine, they’re living happily for now.” She twisted the napkin in her lap. “He was a mess with the surgery.”

“That had to be hard,” Vince whispered, putting a hand over hers. “She’s okay now though, right?”

“Yeah.” Beth Ann nodded and wiped an escaped tear from her cheek with her free hand. The phone call she’d received, telling her everything, played on repeat in her nightmares. She hadn’t even waited to end the call with Dylan before looking for flights home.

Dylan. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back against the bedframe. The past few weeks at home had gone so well. Since that first phone call, she had talked to Dylan nearly every day. When she arrived home for the holidays, the four had spent a lot of time together. She’d gone on a date with him—no matter how much she denied it, that’s what it was—but then she’d pushed him away. That didn’t stop him from going to her aunt’s house for the holidays so she wouldn’t have to spend over five hours in the car alone with her parents. He’d said he was fine being friends and that he just wanted to be there for her.

And then she’d kissed him. Twice.

They’d always gotten along. He flirted with everyone, so she brushed off his attention as his personality. Until that week. She kissed him at her aunt’s house, and then, by the time Lila and Gavin’s New Year’s party came around, she was tired of worrying about the distance of their schools. Dylan had slipped outside after someone made a joke about him causing trouble. She’d seen the hurt flash in his eyes and followed him out. They stood in silence on Gavin’s back deck, listening to the party go on without them. They heard the crowd counting down, and she decided she didn’t want to push him away anymore. She let her guard down. She let him in.

Shaking her head, Beth Ann focused on the present—on the nice, good-looking man sitting next to her. She didn’t want to think about someone hundreds of miles away who wanted nothing to do with her.

“You okay?” Vince asked.

She turned, realizing just how close they sat. With a slight nod, she leaned closer. The corner of his mouth tugged up, and he slowly lifted a hand to cup her cheek. His breath tickled her lips.

“Well, don’t we look cozy?”

Beth Ann drew back and turned to see Manny standing in the doorway. She forgot it was open and scrambled to her feet to hug her roommate. While they’d only known each other since the previous summer, they’d become great friends fast. They’d participated in the same advanced summer program, getting into their coursework early and exploring the campus.

“This is Vince, Alan’s new roommate.” Beth Ann turned back to the man getting to his feet. “Sam isn’t coming back apparently.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Manny.” She shook his hand before looking to Beth Ann. “So, no Dylan?”

Beth Ann hissed, “later,” but she saw Vince stiffen. He met her gaze, a question lingering in his eyes. To Manny, she said, “I got locked out and no one was around to let me in. He let me stay here.”

“I bet he did.” Manny raised her brows twice.

Ignoring the heat climbing to her cheeks, Beth Ann added, “No, he let me sleep on Alan’s bed. It was either that or sleep in the study lounge.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Vince.” She hefted a bag up higher on her shoulder. “I want to get settled, but I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.”

Manny turned to leave, and Beth Ann whispered, “I’ll be there in a minute.”

Her friend nodded then left them alone. Beth Ann closed the door, no longer needing to see who passed by and wanting some privacy for the inevitable conversation she knew was coming.

When she faced Vince again, he stood with arms crossed. “You have a boyfriend?”

“No.” It came out too fast. “No, Dylan is—was just a friend. I thought maybe there’d be more, but he is back in Indiana.”

“I’m sorry,” Vince said, cutting off her rambling as he stepped closer. He stood mere inches away. “You still care about him?”

Refusing to acknowledge her feelings out loud, she peeked down at her feet. When a gentle finger tilted her chin back up, she whispered, “I just want to move on. Forget about home for a while.”

Understanding filled his stare as he seemed to think through his next words. “You want a distraction?”

She bit her bottom lip and nodded. and his smile spread.

“I can do that.”

His lips crashed into hers as he closed the space between them, pushing her back to the door. Fingers trailed along the underside of her chin to her neck and shoulder. They moved down to her sides, gripping and pulling her against him. She twisted her arms up behind his neck to deepen the kiss.

When they finally broke, he chuckled and rested his forehead against hers. He kissed her once more. “This is going to be a fun semester. I might like this school after all.”

She grinned up at him as he stepped back. If that kiss was any gauge, it would be a fun few months indeed. With a wink, she reached for the door handle. “See ya around, neighbor.”

* * *

8 Months Earlier

Beth Ann stared at the wall, unable to process her friend’s words. Her heart pounded, her eyes burned with tears, and her throat constricted.

“Beth Ann, are you still there?” Alarm filled Dylan’s voice.

She took a shaky breath. Gripping the phone tighter, she whispered, “I’m here.”

“She’s going to be okay,” he said. “It’s operable.”

Beth Ann nodded, even though he couldn’t see her. She stood, moving to the window. The strange, new city beyond carried on, unaware that the world was crashing. Her world at least. The rain streaming down the glass pane mirrored the tears she could no longer hold back.

“How long has she known?”

Dylan hesitated. “She found out a couple weeks before Christmas.”

“Christmas?” Seven months. For seven months, her best friend battled a brain tumor without telling anyone outside her family.

“Yeah,” Dylan said. “She had a weird reaction to the chemo, so they had to stop. They decided surgery was the best option, but because it could damage her memory, she begged them to wait until after graduation.”

“And they agreed?”

“It wasn’t growing or causing any real harm yet, so yes.” He sounded as frustrated and confused as she felt.

Tucking the phone against her shoulder, Beth Ann moved to the wardrobe in the corner of her small dorm room. When accepted into Harleson’s advanced summer program, she’d moved to New York nearly three months before her first official college term. She arrived less than two weeks ago, and the homesickness warred with the excitement inside. She’d hated leaving her best friend earlier than anticipated.

Now, she almost wished they hadn’t accepted her. At least then, she’d have been home with Lila before her surgery.

Grabbing a small suitcase, Beth Ann began shoving clothes inside as Dylan continued to talk. He did that when nervous. And if the easy-going Dylan was anxious, things weren’t good.

“So, one of the last items on her bucket list is to go to a party,” he said.

The bucket list sounded morbid, but she knew her best friend. Lila had shied away from everything throughout high school. She focused on school and work so much that she didn’t really have a social life outside of Beth Ann. Beth Ann understood exactly what he meant when he said Lila wanted to create memories. While she hadn’t been quite as closed off, Beth Ann had been content spending most of her time at the Scoop, eating ice cream while Lila worked.

“Gavin has this whole plan to make the party special for her.” Dylan’s words brought her back to the present.

“I still can’t believe she’s doing all this with Gavin,” she said, moving to the bed. She pulled her laptop to the edge of the mattress and began searching for flights to Indiana.

“You can’t?” he said, the amusement clear in his tone. “He’s been in love with her his whole life.”

Beth Ann rolled her eyes. They’d had that discussion many times. “Yeah, but that doesn’t erase the constant fighting for the past seven years.”

“They talked it all out in Chicago.”

She sighed. She hated being so far away and missing out on everything. “I know. You told me…”

Clicking through the available flights, she found one and pulled out her emergency credit card.

“She would have told you,” Dylan said softly. “It’s been a rough week. I don’t think she knows how to tell you about the tumor, which would come out when talking about everything else.”

That made sense, but Beth Ann still hated it.

“I only know because Gavin tells me everything,” he went on.

The corner of her mouth tugged up. They were chattier and gossipier than her and Lila. She’d always admired their friendship, even when she was supposed to hate Gavin. Lila had never told her the full truth about their fall out, but if she didn’t like him, Beth Ann couldn’t. Dylan, on the other hand, was hard to dislike. He was friends with everyone—accepted by all the cliques in their school.

Beth Ann clicked the confirmation button then shut her laptop. She glanced at the clock and cursed.

“What?” Dylan asked.

She’d nearly forgotten she was still on the phone with him. “I am going to be late for my next workshop. It starts in ten minutes, and it’s on the other side of campus.”

As she grabbed her purse and keys, she slid on her shoes and headed toward the door. Her roommate had left earlier that morning, and Beth Ann hadn’t seen her since. She assumed she’d see her at the workshop, but she quickly wrote a note on their dry erase board just in case.

“I will let you go then.” Dylan didn’t hang up right away though. After a moment, he whispered, “I miss you, Bethy.”

Shoving open the door to the stairwell, she clenched her jaw. That was the other part that made it difficult to be so far from home. She didn’t want to miss him so much—she’d tried to keep her distance—but she did. “I will be there late tonight.”

“You’re coming?”

“Of course,” she said as she made her way down the last few steps. “I just booked a flight. I’ll be there around midnight.”

“I’ll pick you up from the airport,” he said.

“Dylan—”

“Nope,” he interrupted. “You’re not going to call your parents so last minute and have them get you that late.”

She sighed. Pausing under the awning just outside her building’s door, she said, “Fine. Thank you.”

“I’ll see you tonight.”

He ended the call before she could respond. As she stuck her phone in her purse, she whispered, “I miss you too,” before running out into the warm summer rain.