*Note: Click the Youtube link above to listen to the Audiobook Version of this chapter voiced by Kristen Maglonzo featuring music by Switchfoot, Secondhand Serenade, Mika, and Travis Garland.

Elias

So, being semi-famous kind of has its perks.

Not only did the meter maid let me off with a warning and a hug, she got a group of Segway cops to escort me back to my dorm once I got pulled over.

Win-win situation--right?

Wrong.

'Cause she waltzed straight up to my bare bones room and gave Tanner the run down of my buggy stealing ways.

Mistake number one: Telling my brother anything.

The second she left, he chewed me out in front of his teammates and then asked my Beach Barbie RA to keep an eye on me so I don't leave my room for the rest of the evening.

He's just pissed he's not getting laid .

Whatever.

He can punish me all he wants, I don't mind being on lockdown right now, 'cause everything I need's right on this floor.

I've been creeping on the room across the hall for the last half hour, trying to figure out if anyone's moved in yet.

Problem is, if I go over and knock on the door, the Stepford Wife wannabe next door will try to jump me.

No joke.

I tried taking a couple moving boxes out to the trash earlier, and she flirted with me the whole way there and back.

Do I remember the conversation?

No.

Do I remember her name?

No.

Do I remember how many sleep with me smiles she flashed in my direction?

Absolutely.

32.

I counted.

So basically, physically stalking my soon-to-be neighbor's out of the question...for now.

I step away from my post for a couple seconds and stare out at my new room. It's pretty lame compared to Caleigh's place, but hey, at least it's mine. Desk, chair, mini-fridge, bed, and a crap ton of boxes.

Tanner and his friends did most of the unpacking for me, but thanks to his OCD, I don't know where the hell anything is.

All my clothes are folded and organized in a dresser I'm pretty sure I'll never use. My nicer shirts and pants are on hangers and my casual stuff's actually put away in the right place for once.

Yeah, this isn't gonna work.

I open a couple drawers and mess up everything inside just to make something about this place feel like home. Once I figure out where Tanner put my Foo-Fighters posters, my Playboy magazines, and my piece of crap acoustic guitar I'll be good.

It's no penthouse, but at least the room's big enough for me to move around in. Tanner lived in a hamster cage his first year with three other dudes. You can imagine how that place smelled. But, like I said, being semi-famous has its perks. Living solo is one of them.

I'm not even half way through screwing up Tanner's neat little piles of my socks when somebody knocks on my front door.

I freeze up.

I don't know if pretending I'm not home is a better idea than trying to find out who's outside, so I wait a couple seconds to see if it happens again.

"Hello?"

Great. Another girl.

Not what I need right now.

"Anybody home?" She asks again. Her voice is low and raspy like a smoker's. I'm half curious to see what she looks like, but not enough to open the door.

I tip-toe across the room to get a good look at her through the peep hole.

Yikes.

This chick's got enough piercings in her ears to max out a metal detector. The amount of charcoal she's got around her eyes makes it look like she fell down a chimney, and her lipstick's bright purple.

Absolutely not my type.

But I'm pretty sure plenty of goth guys wanna bone her.

She turns around and calls across the hallway to somebody I can't see.

"He's not here. Do you want me to leave the cookies we bought outside his door or what?" She asks.

Cookies? Yes, please. I fucking love cookies.

My hands are on the handle before she has a chance to change her mind. I crack the door open just enough for her to hand me the goods without making enough noise for Barbie Doll to come out into the hall.

"Hi, there," I say.

Her eyes double in size which is a little unsettling considering the fact that she's got Batman make up on.

"Hi. I'm Indigo Rose. Call me Indigo for short."

Indigo? Okay...

"Elias. Nice to meet you. Did you say something about cookies?"

I stare straight down at the Diddy Reese doggy bag in her hands. Smells like heaven.

"Yeah, me and my roommate were coerced into being the Quad 3 welcoming committee by our nutcase RA, Roxy or Rosie or whatever. Chocolate chip or white macadamia?" She asks.

Both please.

"Um..."

My eyes bounce back and forth between both bags at least fifty times before I make a decision.

"Chocolate--wait, no, I'll have the Macadamia. Shit, wait maybe--"

"Just take both. The guy next door to us is vegan so there's extra. Welcome to Quad 3, good luck in classes, blah blah blah have a goodnight, bye. "

She shoves both bags into my hands, and I'm so jazzed I could hug her.

"Thanks, Idaho."

"It's Indigo, and for the record, I'm not big on the whole freshmen buddy-buddy bonding thing, so I probably won't talk to you after today. Cool?"

"Totally. Either way, I appreciate the cookies."

"I just handed out the bags, my roommate's the one spent the money. Thank her if you want. Alex, come say hi, our neighbor's here and Roxy will bitch at us if we don't--"

I slam the door in Indiana Jones's face and bolt back into my room. My heart's beating so hard my whole ribcage is rattling. I whip around, stare out the peep hole back into the hallway, and I see her.

I see her.

My eyes wander over the face I've been missing since last summer.

Damn.

Those lips.

Those eyes.

She's--

--still so fucking beautiful.

Her hair's long, a little bit wavy, and spilling over her bare sun-kissed shoulders.

Wow.

I liked the short messy look, but this--

--this might kill me.

Not only that but her body's like...way curvier than I remember.

My eyes wander along her collar bones and across the best part of her chest.

Holy shit--did her boobs get bigger?

Yep. Definitely.

I swallow hard, but there's barely any spit left in my mouth.

She waltzes over to my door, lifts herself up on her tip-toes, and stares inside the peep-hole.

I should say something or open the door and throw my arms around her the way I've been aching to for the last year.

But, I can't fucking move.

Even if I wanted to, the little king's too jazzed over the fact that there's nothing but a slab of wood standing between me and Jersey. No pun intended.

Get it together, Elias.

"Hello? Earth to door slammer? I want my cookies back! Stealing from the welcoming committee is not cool! We know where you live!"

She slams her fist against the door another three times before walking back towards her room.

Man up, Elias.

You got this.

Just talk to her and see how she takes it.

You didn't come this far to choke.

I jet over to my bed and grab a pillow to cover the problem in my pants, before heading outside.

I crack open the door, but the sound of her voice stops me dead.

"Indigo, we're heading out to dinner. Wanna come?"

We?

Jersey's standing in her doorway with her purse on her shoulder, smiling at someone in her room. She waves and then pauses for a couple seconds--just long enough for me to inch a little further into the hallway.

"Okay then, I'll bring you back something! Later!" She says.

She slips into a killer smile, and my whole body stops moving. Sweat slides down the sides of my face like I just ran a marathon, and I haven't even said anything to her yet. Hell, she hasn't even seen me yet, and I--

"Ready to go, babe?" She says.

Before I can even get my head around the question, she's got her arms wrapped around another guy.

"Yeah, you sure you didn't forget anything?" He asks.

She shakes her head and stares up at him the way she looked at me on the beach at Belmar last summer.

"Nope. Just this."

She leans in and kisses him.

She kisses him.

And just like that, my plans fall apart.

I fall apart.

I'm standing in my doorway like an idiot watching her kiss--

--someone else.

Someone who's not me.

Someone I wish I didn't recognize.

But I do.

I'd know him anywhere.

I just didn't think he'd be here.

With her.

Like this.

Not after everything I did to get back to the one place I knew she'd be.

I step backwards, and my heel hits the bottom of my door frame a little too hard.

Kai grabs Jersey's hand and starts heading towards the stairs, but her attention's not on him.

It's on me.

Her eyes cut straight across the hallway and land on mine.

Neither of us move.

Neither of us breathe.

The moment rips the world out from under our feet and turns everything upside down, but the two of us are too good at hiding to let the truth slip.

And then, once that sliver of a second passes, everything ends.

She turns away from me, paints on a see-through smile, and goes running right back to Kai.

Right back in the wrong direction.

Again.

Not again.