Aftershocks (41 page)

“That’s more like it,” he said, as he puled me to him, his head resting in the crook of my neck. “I could get used to sleeping here.”

Yes, please
.

“Oh yeah? What happened to the man cave you were setting up this morning? I thought you were in love with your dorm room.”

“My man cave doesn’t come equipped with a pretty girl like you,” he said, and I melted just a little. “Besides, I’m going to need your body heat when the temperature starts to drop. You know I hate winter.”

I turned around to face him, so close our noses were almost touching. “Do you wish you would have gone to UT?” I asked, knowing what he’d say but stil feeling the need to ask.

He’d debated for months about where to do go to school, narrowing it down to UT and Michigan. When he’d announced to me in the spring that he’d decided to go to Michigan, I’d been speechless. I was fuly prepared to do the long distance thing with him if I had to because I knew he had his heart set on going to Texas. For a ful month I’d tried to convince him that he needed to folow his own dreams and go where he wanted to go to school which might not have been the best plan because we ended up in several fights. I hadn’t wanted him to go to Texas, but I also didn’t want to be responsible for kiling his dreams. I would not be that girl.

“I told you,” he said, leaning down to kiss me. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily. The school I go to doesn’t matter. I just want to be with you.”

I felt a sweling in my heart just like I had every other time he’d told me that. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. And to think, a year earlier, al I knew of Connor Richmond was what I’d witnessed from afar. Now he was curled up with me on my bed in Ann Arbor teling me he loved me. It was almost too good to be true.

I couldn’t believe September had arrived and colege was starting. After the accident, it seemed the time had flown. One minute I was driving Connor to school because he had a cast on his leg and the next we were walking across the stage at graduation. Then before I knew it, we were on a plane to London, giddy about our pre-colege trip.

It turned out that the accident had forced a lot of change in the people it had affected. Connor’s mom, having been separated from her boys for two months, had been scared sober after she learned that the driver who hit Connor and Alexis had been drinking. She hadn’t had a drink since the day Connor ended up in the hospital. She’d gone into rehab for a month and returned a truly different person. Even Connor thought her sobriety would stick.

Slowly, he started to let her back in. They started by having lunch together during which she asked Connor if he would consider seeing her therapist. He’d hedged at first, but in the end had agreed. For the next few months, he’d gone with her to therapy twice a month as they worked out their problems.

Knowing that Connor was going away to school, his father had put in for a job that alowed him to travel much less which was great for Jordan who had made the freshman footbal team. He’d definitely want his dad at his games. When his dad traveled, Jordan stayed with their mother which had proven positive thus far.

After teling him he was the father of her child, Cameron started dating Alexis. They’d lasted exactly three months before he got irritated with her and hooked up with someone else at a party. I pretended not to care, but it was hard to do when their break-up had occurred during lunch and had been extremely loud. Up until that point, Alexis had relished in her situation, wearing fitted t-shirts to show off her bump and fawning al over Cameron between classes.

When I saw her face crumble when he walked away from her, leaving her standing alone in the cafeteria, the girl who’d been her friend for so long wanted to go to her, embrace her and tel her everything would be okay. Then Connor had squeezed my hand, and I remembered al the selfish, hateful things she’d done to me and those I loved. I decided then that she deserved whatever she got – which turned out to be a baby boy named Aiden who had arrived in mid-August and looked like a miniature version of his father with sandy brown hair and blue eyes – ensuring any doubters that Cameron was in fact the father.

Nicky and Luke were stil together, which was a miracle. She’d never been happier, and he was fuly over Sophia. I would miss seeing them every day but knew we would get together when I was home from school. They were both going to Northeastern, and Luke was going to continue working for Larry at the shop. I promised him he could count on me during the three weeks I would be home at Christmas.

“Abby, can you get the door,” Wyatt yeled, his voice sounding strained. It seemed he was tackling the instalation of the ceiling fan in his room and it wasn’t going to so wel. I’d told him to wait for my dad, but he didn’t listen.

I kissed Connor on the nose before getting up to answer the door. I assumed it would be my parents, back from their hotel. They’d flown to Ann Arbor to help Wyatt and me get settled in our new amazing, off-campus apartment.

I flung the door open to reveal not my parents, but Jack, standing on the porch with a twenty-four pack of beer in his hand and a shit-eating grin on his face. “Hey good girl.”

“Jack West, Quarterback Extraordinaire. To what do we owe this incredible honor?” I stepped aside to let him in.

Jack had gotten a scholarship to play footbal for Michigan, his dream realized.

“Red Shirt Freshman, Back-up Quarterback Extraordinaire,” he corrected me. “Is my roommate here?”

“What do you think?” I asked, smiling at him.

“I’m thinking I’m going to have a room al to myself this year since my bet is Connor spends every night here.”

He grinned at me, and I couldn’t help smirking back at him. Connor would sleep in my bed every night if I had my way.

“She’s just better looking than you,” Connor said, emerging from my bedroom.

“You got that right,” Jack replied.

Jack’s phone beeped at that moment, and he whipped it out to check the text I was sure was from Kerry. They were doing the long distance thing since she was at BC, but Jack was committed to not letting her go again, so he was optimistic about the distance.

“That is why I came to school here,” Connor said pointedly. “I don’t think I could stand being more than a few miles away from you.”

“That and the footbal,” I said, grinning at him.

He smirked back at me before kissing me lightly on the lips. “Yeah, that too, but if I had to chose, you’d win out over footbal any day.”

I smiled, as I wrapped my arms around his waist, gazing up into his hazel eyes that I never got tired of looking at. It had been one hel of a year. At any point, the ground could have opened up and swalowed us both whole, but it hadn’t. We’d made it out relatively unscathed and in a much better place. I was in colege, surrounded by people I loved, and the best part was, the past was a distant memory. No one knew our stories in Ann Arbor. We could truly leave it al behind.

“And that’s why I love you,” I said, before planting a kiss on his lips.

About the Author

Thanks so much for reading
Aftershocks.
I realy hope you enjoyed it as much as I loved writing it and developing the characters that helped bring the story to life. It is my second novel, and my first foray into the world of YA Fiction. My first novel,
Just Watch the
Fireworks,
is also available in e-book format online.

Books have always played an important part in my life, and I probably spend much more time that I should, engrossed in the stories that keep me captivated. In addition to books, I have a serious love for the Florida Gators and the Boston Red Sox. I m addicted to my iPod, my Kindle and reading the four fashion magazines I get each month. Give me a grande non-fat vanila latte from Starbucks and chips and queso from Tijuana Flats, and I am a happy girl.

I am a total sucker for romantic comedies in al forms, because at the end of the day I just want to laugh and see some realy great people fal in love. When those stories are mixed with an awesome soundtrack, it just doesn’t get much better.

You can read more about me online at: http://www.goodreads.com/monicaalexander

Playlist

Whenever I write, I listen to music, so songs have a way of working themselves into my stories. I incorporated a lot of music into
Aftershocks,
so I thought it was only right to include the songs I hear when I read the book. Some I referenced in the book itself and others are just ones that resonated with me when I thought about what was happening to the characters and what they were dealing with at a particular moment. Enjoy!

Those Nights – Skilet

The Outsiders – Needtobreathe

Start a War – The National

Jejune Stars – Bright Eyes

On My Way Back Home – Band of Horses

We Are Nowhere and It’s Now – Bright Eyes

Mine is Yours – Cold War Kids

The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance – Vampire Weekend

Fake Empire – Vampire Weekend

The Last Night – Skilet

Percussion Gun – White Rabbits

We Could Run Away – Needtobreathe

July, July! – The Decembrists

Breathing – Lifehouse

Fed Up – Am Taxi

I Can Barely Breathe (Acoustic) – Just Surrender

Make-up Smeared Eyes – Automatic Loveletter

Keep Your Eyes Open – Neetobreathe

We Are Young – Fun

Ships in the Night – Mat Kearney

My Life Would Suck Without You – Kely Clarkson

There for You – Flyleaf

Dancing with a Gun – Jack’s Mannequin

Turning Tables – Adele

Better Than Revenge – Taylor Swift

Say You’re Mine – Kate Voegele

Drifting Further Away – Powderfinger

Here I Stand – Madina Lake

Sweet and Low – Augustana

Al We Are – Matt Nathanson

The Life – Hinder

Airplanes – B.o.B. (feat. Hayley Wiliams)

Aftershocks (Acoustic) – Marga Lane

Heartbeat – The Fray

Sweet Sour – Band of Skuls

Count on Me – Mat Kearney