Surviving Regret (32 page)

“Don’t apologize.”

I rested my hand on his toned chest and nodded.

“I’ll be here around noon to pack up all your shit, then we will grab Hailey, and get the hell out of here.”

“Okay, see you then.” I turned to head inside as he started his bike and left.

I strolled into the house and went straight to my room. I tossed and turned all night long. Was it just me or did he have a hard time fighting his feelings for me? He told me nothing can happen between us, but he flirted and acted as if he wanted something to happen. Was it because I was with Dominic? Hunter knew he kept pushing me away by trying to keep his distance from me.

The next morning, when I finally got my ass out of bed, I went downstairs to eat breakfast with Mom and Dad.

Mom started in on me first thing. “Are you sure you want to go to the ODU, Kenzie? There are plenty of schools here in New Jersey.”

Rolling my eyes behind her back, I patiently answered, “Yes Mom, I’m more than sure.” She must have asked me this same question at least 100 times this week.

She had tears in her eyes. “It’s not going to be the same without you here. We’re all going to miss you.”

My mom had a lot of time on her hands. With my leaving, she was going to have even more. She became a stay-at-home mom after she had the twins. Dad, being a stockbroker for the New York Stock Exchange, made more than enough money for her to stay home.

Dad came sauntering in with his coffee cup, and added his two cents. “It’s going be different without you around.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she is taken care of.”

My eyebrows shot up when Hailey walked into the kitchen, with Mason right behind her. What in the hell is she doing here?

“That’s what I’m worried about,” my mom said under her breath. Looking at Hailey, I wondered if she had heard mom. If she did, she wasn’t letting on about it. I know my mom and dad love Hailey, but my mom always thought she was a little wild. That is what I loved about Hailey.

“I’ll come home whenever I can. I need to do this, and we’ve talked about this.”

We did talk about this for almost a year, as I was trying to convince my parents to let me go to ODU for school. I think it helped that Hailey and Hunter were going to be there with me...well, mostly that Hunter would be there.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked Hailey, as she stole a piece of bacon off my plate. She shrugged.

Hunter showed up right on time to help load all of my stuff in his truck. My brothers also helped him. My mom was crying, and I promised her I would be home for Thanksgiving. I told her I would call her every chance I got. I think that helped ease her mind, maybe just a little.

My dad pulled me aside, and handed me a check.

“What’s this for? I don’t need your money. I saved up all my money from babysitting and working over the summer.”

“I know, but I’m not going to be there to spoil you like I would if you were here. If you don’t spend the money, at least deposit it in the bank for emergencies.” Dad grabbed me, pulled me into a tight hug and kissed the top of my head. “We’re really going to miss you, baby girl.”

I wiped the tears away that were running down my cheeks. “I’m going to miss you too, Dad. I love you.”

“Alright, go say good-bye to your mom, and then I’ll get her out of here so you can leave.” He said with a chuckle.

I hugged Mom and told her I would call her as soon as I settled into my dorm. Mom was still clinging on to me, crying when Dad wrapped his arm around her, and walked her to the car to go out to lunch.

Jackson hugged and kissed my cheek, told me he would miss me like crazy, and that he and Chloe would call during the week to check up on me.

Cooper was next to say goodbye.

“Don’t let anyone mess with you, Kenzie. If you have any problems, call me. I don’t care what time it is.”

“I will, I promise. Love you; take care of Mom for me.” Cooper was my mom’s favorite; I knew he would look out for her.

Finally, it was Mason’s turn. Even though we fought all the time, I was going to miss him the most.

Hugging me, he whispered, “I really wish you weren’t going away, Kenzie. We need you here.” Then he pulled back and wiped the tears from my cheeks.

“You’re not going to be here in a few weeks. You guys will be ok without me. Y’all are going to come visit us in a few weeks anyway.”

“I know we’ll be gone, but I can’t keep an eye on you, Kenzie. I have to rely on Hunter now.”

“I have Dominic too, you know. No one is going to mess with me with him and Hunter around. Go to school, have fun, and stay out of trouble.” I winked at him, trying to lighten the situation.

“Love ya; call me when you get there. If you don’t, I’ll be there by tomorrow morning.” I knew he was not kidding.

Chuckling, I said, “Yes,
Dad
. Love you too.”

I walked to Hunter’s truck. “Finally, let’s get the hell out of here before they tether me to my room.”

CHAPTER FIVE

After we stopped at Hailey’s and picked up all her stuff, we started on our five-hour drive. We played Hot Seat to kill some of the time. Since Hunter was driving, he was in the Hot Seat first. Hailey and I had to ask five questions each, and he could veto only one question.

I started, “Who was the first person you ever kissed?”

He glanced over at me. “You.”

That surprised me. I’m shocked he even remembered it. He was sixteen and the girls flocked to him. I would have thought he would have kissed someone before me.

Hailey piped up from the back seat, “Who was the first person you had sex with?” Of course, she would jump into that.

Hunter looked in the rear view mirror at Hailey. “Lilly.”

“How old were you?” I asked curiously.

He honestly didn’t want to answer, but did anyway, “16.”

Hailey laughed, “When was the last time you had sex?”

He looked straight out the window, “Two months ago.”

Hold on…what?
“You walked that girl out of your room last weekend.”

“That’s not a question.”

I rolled my eyes, “You didn’t sleep with that girl you spent the night with last weekend?”

“No.”

Hailey was bouncing in her seat, “My turn, would you have sex with Kenzie?”

“Really, Hails?” I groaned. “You don’t have to answer—”

“—Yes.”

I needed to change the subject quickly. “What’s your favorite color?”

He looked over, and winked at me, “Blue, like the color of your eyes.”

Ugh, this is not going the way I wanted it to. It was getting awkward.

Hailey was laughing hysterically. “How big is your dick?”

And now it was officially awkward
.

I glowered at Hailey. She shrugged.

Hunter started laughing, “No one has ever complained.”

Just thinking about his size made me squirm in my seat. “What did you have for breakfast?”

He was still laughing, “Coffee.”

I braced myself for what was about to come next out of Hailey’s mouth. “Would you date Kenzie if you weren’t friends with her brothers?”

He looked at me, smiled, and then checked both ways before entering the intersection. “Hell yeah.”

“Alright, Hailey, you’re next.” Hunter looked in the rearview mirror once we were safely through the intersection.

Hailey started whining. “Let’s play something else; I don’t want to play this anymore.”

I had a pretty good feeling it was because she knew we were going to ask questions about her and Mason. Since Hunter is an easygoing guy, we dropped the game and started playing Name that Song. Hunter had the radio buttons on his steering wheel, so he would hit the seek button, and the three of us would try to guess the song. This kept us entertained for a little bit until Hailey and I busted out dancing and singing
Call Me Maybe
at the top of our lungs, while Hunter laughed at us. After a while, my throat started hurting from yelling so I gave up. I laid down along the seat, stuck my feet out the window and read for a while.

It was late when we finally made it to campus. We pulled up to the dorms, and I texted Dominic to let him know we were here and to ask if he could come help me unload my stuff.

My parents wanted me to experience college life but didn’t want me sharing a room with three strange people or sharing a common bathroom with an entire dorm floor of strangers. They paid extra money for a two-room suite. It was perfect for Hailey and me. We had two oversized single beds, individual desks, chairs and bookshelves. There were also two closets and chests of drawers. We even had our own private bathroom. We would miss having a laundry room right at hand. There was one on the first floor of our building, so at least we would not have to lug our dirty clothes all over campus.

Dominic thought we would be spending as much time together as possible because Housing had assigned us to the same co-ed building. The school would not allow a male and a female together in the same room, and I think my parents and brothers were very happy about that.

Dominic walked over to where we parked and wrapped his arms around me. “Hey, baby, you finally made it. I was starting to get worried Hunter kidnapped you.” Dominic glared over at Hunter.

I kissed his cheek and handed him a bag. “I told you we weren’t leaving until early afternoon.”

He grabbed a few more bags from the back. “Well, let’s get you unpacked. I’m sure Hunter has stuff he needs to do, maybe a party to go to or something.”

Hunter just shrugged and said. “I’m good. Just going to my place and getting settled in.”

Hailey put her hand on Hunter’s arm. “Since Dominic has Kenzie covered, can you help me with my stuff?”

He nodded his head, and started grabbing some of Hailey’s bags. After everything was in our room, Hunter said goodbye to Hailey. Then he walked over to me, hugged me and whispered in my ear that if I needed anything at all to call him. I told him I would, and then he left.

Dominic seemed antsy. “Look, baby, I’m going to head out and let you and Hailey get some sleep.”

“Okay, I’ll text you in the morning.”

He kissed me, said he loved me, and left. Hailey and I frowned.
What just happened here?

“It sure was nice of him to show us around. He said he was so happy about you staying in the same building, but it seemed like he couldn’t wait to get out of here.” Hailey said.

“Maybe he doesn’t want to crowd me since we just got here. Besides, we were in the car for the last five hours.”

“If you say so.” She turned around and started to unpack some of the boxes. I grabbed one and started doing the same thing.

We stayed up until three in the morning and then finally passed out. I had plans of getting up early and finishing up, but I didn’t wake up until I heard my phone ringing.

“Kenzie, what the fuck? I told you to call me when you got there.” Mason yelled into the phone.

I let out a huge groan. “Good God, Mason, calm down. I’m fine. We got in late, started unpacking and then fell asleep.”

“It’s one in the fucking afternoon. Where is Hailey? Is she with you?”

“Yeah, she’s sleeping; we were up till three this morning. Would you relax? If you were so worried, you could have called Hunter. He would have told you we made it.”

“I did talk to him, but I told you to call me. Hunter isn’t living with you. He doesn’t know what you are doing any more than I do.”

“Seriously, if you don’t knock it off, I’m hanging up on you. You are worse than Mom and Dad. Dominic is in the same building, so if anything happens to me, he is right here to help.”

“Fine, whatever.” Then he hung up on me. I dropped my head back on my pillow. A few seconds later, I heard Hailey’s phone beep. I figured it was Mason chewing her ass out for not calling too.

I sent a text to Dominic, and asked if he would take me out to breakfast and show me around campus. He texted back, saying he was busy helping his roommate this afternoon but he would take me out for dinner.

I didn’t know what to do with myself since Dominic had made other plans. I got up and headed to the bathroom to take a long hot shower. I stood, letting the water pour over my head, hoping that my coming here was not going to be a mistake. I was only here one day and Dominic was already blowing me off. I would not have cared as much if I knew my way around campus. I wasn’t expecting Dominic to be by my side twenty-four hours a day. Football practice took up a lot of his time, but it would have been nice if he could have set aside my first day here to spend with me.

A knock on the door interrupted me from my thoughts. “Door is unlocked, Hails.” I pulled back the shower curtain and peeked my head out.

I let out a squeak, surprised to see that it was Hunter, not Hailey, who had come in.

“Hey, what are you doing in here?” I jerked the curtain closed, feeling slightly uncomfortable that the only thing keeping Hunter from seeing me naked was a shower curtain.