Letters of Love (Lessons in Love) (6 page)

Spending the summer in L.A. now with Ashley, so won’t see you. Will write, though, and maybe be in Woodsdale for Thanksgiving. Xoxo

She realized a little guiltily that she didn’t feel bad about not getting to see him all summer.

“Come on, let’s go!” Ashley ordered as she came back to see what was the hold up.

“Okay, I’m ready!” Alex took one last look at her dorm room and closed the door on her freshman year at Princeton.

Alex helped Ashley’s father unload the last of their suitcases from the trunk of his Mercedes. As she stood beside the mountain of luggage
, she looked up admiringly at the sorority house of Kappa Pi, which would be her new home for the next three years. The house was just as beautiful as she remembered it before leaving for the summer.

Suddenly the cell phone in her jeans pocket began vibrating. Rummaging to retrieve it
, Alex saw that she had an incoming call from her mother.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Alex, honey, I’m so glad I caught you. Are you back at college now?”

“Yeah, I just got back.”

“Already? The summer goes by so fast,” her mom noted sadly.

Alex hadn’t made it home to Woodsdale at all over the holidays
, which filled her with guilt. She’d been so caught up with partying in L.A. with Ashley that she’d forgotten all about heading back to her hometown. Or maybe she hadn’t completely forgotten. A part of her just didn’t want to return to the trailer, not yet. Alex enjoyed living in the dorms and was excited to now be living in a grand sorority house. It felt like she was living the life she was meant to lead, as if the past four years since her father’s death had been erased and she’d never known poverty or the shame of living in a trailer. Alex felt that if she returned to her hometown, she’d burst the bubble of her college life and be reminded of what awaited her if she failed to succeed.

The burden to succeed already weighed so heavily on her slender shoulders. So many people had done so much to haul her out of the pit she’d pushed herself into following the tragic shooting when she’d seen her father die. Mark had helped more than anyone. He’d seen past Alex’s façade down to the real her, and she’d fallen in love with him. But now she was pushing him away because Mark was yet another connection to a past she’d rather forget. He’d been calling her all summer
, but Alex had ignored his calls, feeling wretched each time she did so.

“He’s not worth it,” Ashley had said knowingly back in Los Angeles as they sat lounging by her pool, the California sun bronzing their skin and warming their exposed skin.

She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at her friend, recognizing all too well the shame face of a broken relationship.

“Whoever he is, wherever he is, trust me, forget about him. You are in L.A
., little grasshopper, it’s time for you to spread your wings and fly solo! No guy is ever worth it,” Ashley concluded wisely before turning to take a sip of her iced tea.

“That’s just the problem
.” Alex had sighed sadly. “He totally is worth it.”

But worth it or not, Alex was back at Princeton, outside her new sorority house, and Mark, her mother and the trailer were nothing but a distant memory.

“I am so excited to see our room!” Ashley buzzed ecstatically beside her best friend.

“Me too
.” Alex smiled.

“Just you girls take care now,” Ashley’s
dad said fondly, embracing first Alex and then his daughter.

“Thank you so much for having me this summer,” Alex told him politely.

“It was our pleasure.” Ashley’s dad beamed broadly. It was easy to see where Ashley got her friendly and open nature. Alex had never known such kind, giving people. Ashley’s family had welcomed her into their home with open arms. Alex liked to think that if her father had still been alive, it was the sort of reception Ashley could have expected if she’d ever gone to Woodsdale. Not that Alex would ever know.

There wasn’t a day
that passed when Alex didn’t think of her father. It might be just a fleeting thought, like perhaps she smelt or saw something that reminded her of him, but he was always present in her mind, never far from her current thoughts. She regularly mused that in thinking about him she was somehow keeping him alive, well, his memory at least.

“Time to go pick beds!” Ashley giggled before sprinting towards the house, leaving both Alex and all their luggage behind her.

However, her mad dash was cut short by Taylor standing in the grand hallway of the house, ready to greet them.

“Welcome
, girls.” Taylor smiled through perfect teeth, waiting momentarily for Alex to catch up with her roommate before proceeding. “Welcome, sisters, we hope you had an amazing summer vacation and are refreshed and ready to tackle the school year anew.”

“Yep
.” Ashley shrugged unenthusiastically.

“You’ve been assigned bedroom six
, which is up the stairs, to the left, and then second door on the right.”

“Got it
.” Alex nodded.

“Orientation is in two hours
, so you’ve got some time to unpack and relax.”

“Okay, great
.” Alex nodded again, eager to get past Taylor, up the stairs, and check out her new room.

“Okay, okay, let’s go!” Ashley insisted, equally desperate to view the room. The girls began to ascend the stairs
, but Taylor called them back, her voice cool and level.

“Not so fast
, girls,” she began, producing a crisp, white envelope from her pocket and holding it up between her perfectly manicured nails.

“One of you has mail.”

“Oh,” Ashley noted, bemused.

“Miss Alexandra Heron,” Taylor read the name from the envelope before handing it across to Alex.

“It’s never a good sign to get mail from the school so early in the year,” she warned the new member of the sorority.

“Whatever it is, fix it.” Taylor’s tone was stern
; she meant business.

Alex nodded numbly as she held the letter in her hand, unsure what it would say.

Entering the room was a pleasant distraction from the letter. Ashley burst in first, swinging her arms around madly in a grand gesture.

“It’s amazing!” she declared joyously.

The room was equally twice as big as their previous dorm room, with two large dormer windows on the far wall, which were allowing sunlight to flood the room, basking it in an ethereal golden light.

There were two twin beds located on adjacent walls, beside which were two tables and desks. On the interior wall there were two large double closets. All of the furniture was white distressed wood, very shabby chic. The curtains were bright pink
, but the carpet was a more subtle beige. It was a beautiful room, and when Alex glanced out of the window, she saw the large lawn garden belonging to the house and beyond that a row of trees swaying slightly in the gentle breeze. The room reminded her of her old bedroom, the one she so yearned for.

“I love it!” Ashley squealed.

Alex did wonder how her friend could be so effusive about the room. It was much less grand than the bedroom she had back in her family’s home in Los Angeles. Yet Ashley was genuinely overjoyed by their new accommodation, and Alex appreciated her enthusiasm. It made the whole experience that much more enjoyable.

“Which bed do you want?” Ashley queried.

Alex glanced at both beds. They were identical, so it didn’t matter either way. She pointed to the bed on the right side of the room just to make a choice.

“Okay, great!” Ashley immediately threw herself onto the other bed. “It’s so comfortable!” she confirmed.

Just over an hour later, Alex had long finished unpacking her few possessions, but Ashley was still stringing fairy lights and chucking scatter cushions around the room.

“Do you want some more scented candles on your side of the room?” Ashley asked as she encircled her own space with six of them.

“I’m good, thanks.” Alex was now sitting cross-legged on her bed, an open book on her lap and, beside her, the ominous white envelope.

“Are you done unpacking already?” Ashley gasped. “Jee
z, I haven’t even started on the closet yet.”

“Want me to help?” Alex offered.

“Shouldn’t you open that letter first?” Ashley eyed the letter from across the room, noticing how Alex had yet to read it.

“Urgh, I don’t want to
,” Alex admitted.

“Best get it out of the way, fast and clean like ripping off a Band-Aid.”

“Nice.”

“It might not even be that bad,” Ashley said hopefully.

“And it might be awful,” Alex countered.

“You won’t know unless you open it.”

“Fine.” Alex sighed and picked up the letter before gently ripping into it. She retrieved a crisp piece of white paper from inside, unfolded it and began to read.

Across the room Ashley waited patiently for the outcome, noticing the frown of annoyance
that distorted Alex’s beautiful features as she read.

“Everything okay?” Ashley asked anxiously after a long pause.

“Not really,” Alex scoffed angrily, throwing the letter to the floor. “I’m on academic probation.”

“Ouch.”

“It’s a joke!” Alex shook her head. She was angry. Not at the letter but at herself. She knew she should have been working harder. The letter was confirmation that she was failing, which meant that she was letting people down. She was disappointing Mark, her family and, most importantly, the memory of her father. Alex just wanted to crawl into her bed and hide beneath the duvet and avoid her problems. She felt overcome with regret.

“What do you have to do?” Ashley asked gently.

“First I need to go and see Miss Dunne. Then I need to maintain a certain grade point average throughout the next year or else I risk expulsion. Oh, and I get to have weekly check-ups with teachers too. Fun!”

“I guess we need to ease up on the partying a bit this year,” Ashley said quietly, shouldering her own guilt over their excessive social activities the previous year.

“Yeah,” Alex agreed sadly.

“Junior year means the end of freshman fun,” Ashley mused.

“Urgh!” Alex protested.

A sharp knock on the door caused both girls to glance towards the corridor. A tall girl with porcelain skin and short, jet
-black hair cautiously entered the room. Her name was Sophia, and she was another new initiate into the sorority.

“You guys coming to orientation?” she asked, her voice soft.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Ashley answered sarcastically.

****

The following day Alex awoke earlier than her roommate to prepare for her early morning meeting with Miss Dunne. The previous night had been anything but quiet with Kappa Pi throwing a welcome party for all the new sisters. Alex had tried to excuse herself early but without much luck. It had been two in the morning when she eventually crawled into bed. Now it was eight a.m., and she was standing beneath one of the communal showers, desperately trying to wake up. But the cool stream of water did little to wash away her fatigue.

The campus was eerily quiet as Alex made her way towards the building that housed the faculty offices. There was still another week of induction to go before classes commenced
, so most students weren’t yet up and about so early. Alex saw maybe two other people as she wandered in the early morning sunlight, shivering beneath her hooded top at the cool fall breeze, which had arrived early that year.

Finally, she entered the building and began walking up the mahogany staircase towards the second floor and Miss Dunne’s office. Her footsteps echoed all around
, as there was no other sound to muffle them. Alex wished she was still in her bed, sleeping blissfully. As she rounded the corridor to the office, Alex stopped short, surprised to see a figure sitting hunched outside the office she was headed for, a mess of dark hair obscuring their face from her.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious
, Alex tried to make her footsteps softer so that she didn’t sound like an elephant in boots as she approached the mystery figure.

As Alex drew closer, the person sitting in the corridor looked up at her from beneath their mane of wild dark hair to reveal intense brown eyes
, which regarded her with subdued interest. The faint shadow of stubble framed chiseled cheeks, and Alex felt herself blush as she sat down on the vacant seat opposite.

The intriguing guy grunted slightly to himself and then resumed looking down at the floor, having seemingly lost interest.

“Are you waiting to see Miss Dunne?” Alex asked nervously, both out of genuine interest and also as an opportunity to strike up a conversation with him.

He looked up at Alex and smirked as though humored by some private joke.

“Yeah, sure.” He shrugged, his voice resonantly deep and laced with the hint of a Bostonian accent.