Before I Let You Go by Kelly Rimmer

Author:Kelly Rimmer [RIMMER, KELLY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472247308
Publisher: Headline Eternal
Published: 2018-04-08T04:00:00+00:00

24

ANNIE

Luke,

Sometimes, I wonder if everything would have been fine if I’d just gone to Chicago State and kept to myself. That was my plan at first—studying was going to be my priority. Who needs friends anyway? My roommate was a cheerleader and she was completely obsessed with sports, so she seemed to fall immediately into a vast social network and was hardly ever in our room. There were dorm parties, but I found the crowds and the noise to be overwhelming. I found a job waitressing at a diner near the campus, and so I started taking night shifts on the weekends just to avoid the partying.

That’s how I met Todd. He was a customer at the diner, and for months he visited regularly, but it never occurred to me that he might be coming in to see me. Since my disastrous attempt at high school, I hadn’t really spent much time around boys my own age. So when Todd asked me out on a date, I was actually annoyed with him.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to ask a woman out when she’s trying to work,” I snapped at him, and he shrugged and went back to his pancakes. But he was there again the next night, and the next, and then every night for several weeks. He’d come in very late when it was quiet, and we started to talk a little bit, and then we talked a lot.

The next time he asked me out, I agreed to have dinner with him, and before I knew it I was falling into something like love. Todd was an IT student in his sophomore year, and in the first few weeks we were together, we spent a ridiculous amount of time walking hand in hand and sharing increasingly intense make-out sessions in my dorm room while my roommate was out.

I was scared of intimacy with Todd, but not so scared that I wanted to avoid it. I told him only that it would be my first time, and he was sensitive and patient. When I finally decided I was ready, I downed a few bottles of beer and the whole thing went pretty well, considering. I called Lexie to tell her about Todd, since my relationship with him suddenly seemed more serious and adult, and ironically Lexie and I sat up late on the phone giggling about it like we were thirteen-year-olds.

Todd introduced me to his friends, and my world began to expand, little by little. No one in Chicago knew about my history with the sect, not even Todd, and so to everyone I knew there, I was just a normal—if somewhat antisocial—freshman adjusting to my new life at the university.

But soon I was thrust into uncomfortable social situations with Todd. He’d encourage me to go to parties, although I hated them with a passion. Sometimes, I’d be standing talking to people and for no reason at all, I’d feel panic bubbling up—a wheel racing in my chest, a wave

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.