The Goodbye Year by Kaira Rouda

Author:Kaira Rouda
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SparkPress
Published: 2016-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

ASHLEY

Ashley was about to pull all of her hair out.

Ironically, then she’d be just like her mom, whose hair was so thin it was like a hint, a whisper of long blonde hair without her extensions. Pretty soon, Ashley thought, her mom would be bald, the extensions would have no hair to hold onto, the stress of whatever was eating her from the inside out overpowering the woman. She’d tried to help her, to get her to open up, but she wouldn’t. So Ashley had given up, tuned her out as much as possible and was laser-light focused on her future. Except for all these stupid moms coming up and asking her questions during her senior college fair night. Sure, she’d planned the whole college fair but now it was time for her to visit all of the booths, and these stupid moms were getting in her way.

Mrs. Smith: “Ashley, where’s the Stanford booth?”

Mrs. Lightfoot: “Honey, do you know where Georgetown is?”

Mrs. Chavitz: “How many should we visit, Ashley?”

What did she look like? The college counselor? No, she was just a kid trying to make a good impression on everybody, trying to be helpful to all of these college reps even though she already had an offer from the best school in the country and Stanford wasn’t here. So really, there wasn’t even a reason for her to be here tonight except for résumé building, and, honestly, she knew she couldn’t squeeze anything else on there. She was over this night and just wanted to go home.

“Hey, babe,” Blake said, coming up behind her and pulling her into his body, like he owned her or something.

Oh, great, that looked professional, she thought, feeling like screaming, pitching a fit right here in the gym. “Blake, not now,” she hissed, pulling away from him.

“Geez, what’s wrong with you?” Blake asked, his face a crumbled version of itself.

“This is no place for PDA, got it? We are trying to make a professional impression. You and I spoke to all of the seniors about this, remember?” She was starting to believe he was stupid. Not drooling, idiot stupid, but just not bright and definitely not savvy. That was beginning to bother her, but not as much as the fact of him bothering her dad. And for that reason alone, she needed to keep him around for a while. He was leverage.

“Hey, Dane!” she said, calling to her buddy who was following his dad in what looked like a forced-march college fair visit.

Dane smiled and waved at her. She loved his dimple. Actually, there was a lot to love about Dane. He was funny and kind, and musically talented beyond belief. They all knew he’d be famous someday. Ashley wondered why he’d never asked her out, why they’d never kissed when she had kissed almost everyone worthwhile in their grade. They could have fun together, she thought, giving him a big smile, her flirtiest. She watched his face flush red and then he disappeared into the crowd.

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