"Isla."

"Wake up."

"Isla."

I groaned, rubbing a hand over my eye. The room was too bright. Had I left my blinds open last night?

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

I opened my eyes only to immediately squeeze them shut again.

"Everett?" I murmured, my voice thick with sleep. I had forgotten he was here. It all felt like a dream. Except, he was here. He was really here, with his fingers in my hair and his leg pressed up against mine. I shifted onto my side to find him sitting up beside me. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to get up," he replied. "There's a lot we need to get done today. I owe you breakfast, you know?"

I shoved my face into my pillow. "Five more minutes?"

"That's five less minutes we have together."

I looked up, narrowing my eyes into a glare. "Are you trying to guilt trip me?"

"Is it working?"

I paused. He batted his lashes at me, smiling innocently, and I rolled my eyes. "Yes. Let me go brush my teeth."

He bolted out of bed, a wide grin on his face. "Yes! Great. So, I heard of this café a few minutes away, I was thinking we could—"

"Oh, shit." I paused, my phone gripped in my hand.

Everett's mouth snapped shut as he turned to me. I sat at the edge of the bed, my legs swinging off, feet brushing the floor as I unlocked my phone. I stared at the time, the date glinting at me beneath it, along with a reminder I'd set weeks ago. 3 days to midterms.

"I completely forgot," I continued, pressing a hand to my face. "I have, like, three days left until my midterms start. I'm sorry, Ev. I really need to study today."

"Oh." I didn't have to look at him to know his smile had fallen, but I did anyway. A whisper of a frown grazed his lips before they were tugging into a small smile again. "It's okay. We can postpone it, yeah?"

I nodded, shooting to my feet, and rounding the bed to face him. "We can get breakfast every day. And—And I mean, summer's not far away, right? Or—I mean, your summer. We can spend every day of every week together. I've still got some savings. Maybe I could go visit you in New York?"

His smile grew, but it was still a shadow of the grin he'd had earlier. I hadn't visited him in New York yet.

While I was in school and he was starting college, our holidays never seemed to line up—not until Christmas, and Christmas in Shellside Bay seemed to outrank Christmas in New York. At least, that was the case for Everett.

Christmas in New York meant family bonding with his dad and new stepmother. It meant cold weather and slippery roads. Shellside Bay was hot sand, surfing, and a few weeks with his grandmother.

So, I hadn't visited New York yet. Sometimes I wondered if he even wanted me to visit. It wasn't like he ever brought it up.

"Alright," Everett said eventually. He leaned closer, pulling me into his arms and squeezing me in a brief hug. "You start studying. Maybe you'll finish early, and we can watch a movie or something."

I smiled, leaning up to press a quick kiss to his lips. "Did I ever mention you're the best?"

"Not as often as you should," he teased.

By the time I got out of the bathroom, Everett had vanished. Frowning, I grabbed my laptop and stalked out of my room. As expected, he was sitting in the kitchen, River standing behind the counter.

"Look at you two bonding," I teased, taking a seat beside Everett.

"Yeah, we've had a lot to catch up on," he said, throwing a look at River.

River snorted. "By that he means he just realised I'm gay." He spun suddenly, glancing between us with a growing smirk. "Hold up. I know you said you were jealous of Isla moving in with me, but does that mean you were jealous that whole summer?"

Everett's eyes grew wide, his ears tingeing pink. "No."

"Oh, shit, you were!" River's smile stretched across his lips, and he pushed away from the counter, throwing an arm around me, and tugging me towards his chest. His eyes flashed at Everett. "Jealous?"

I rolled my eyes, throwing River's arm off of me and taking my place beside Everett. I set up my laptop and books, deliberately letting my arm brush his with each movement, a small reminder that he was there—That this was real.

"So, I've only got two more subjects to revise," I started. "I could probably get it done by dinner?"

"Don't push yourself," Everett replied. His fingers grazed my elbow and I leaned towards him, turning to throw him a reassuring grin.

"It's fine, this is a first-year subject. How bad can the exam be?"

Everett's smile wavered and he glanced away, pushing off from the counter. "Well, either way, just don't push yourself too much. I know how overboard you can go with things sometimes."

He rubbed his jaw knowingly and I rolled my eyes, shoving him. He staggered to the side with a laugh.

"I don't go overboard. I give the appropriate response to the appropriate annoyances."

Everett waved a hand.

"Whatever you say," he replied, though the smirk on his face clearly didn't agree. "I'm going to shower and try dig out some fresh clothes from my bag."

He was behind me now, leaning forward to press a soft kiss to my head. His hand smoothed my hair down before squeezing my shoulder reassuringly.

"You've got this," he said.

I nodded, turning back to my laptop.

I had this.

I had this.

I had spent hours studying and writing notes. I hadn't missed any lectures. This should be easy to review. I pulled up my syllabus, silently reading the first learning outcome.

My smile fell.

I didn't have this.

The first learning outcome—a week one concept, the easiest of them all—and I already couldn't remember learning it. I mean, I could remember learning it. I remembered sitting in the lecture hall, excited to be attending my first lecture, nervously sitting alone while the other first-years seemed to be chatting in groups already. I remembered my professor and sending a sneaky photo to Everett—but I didn't remember what was on the slides that week. What had we done in the lab?

I exhaled, scrolling further down. It was fine. That was weeks ago. Surely something more recent... My eyes landed on the next outcome. Then the next.

Oh God, I really didn't have this.

My head fell into my hands. In the distance, I could hear the shower turn on, Everett preparing for a day that was supposed to be spent with me, pretending through the streets of Sydney.

"Bet you wish you did business now, huh?"

I spun to find River standing behind me, his phone in one hand and a half-eaten muesli bar in the other. He took another bite, smiling at me teasingly with a mouth covered in oats.

I groaned, rolling my eyes, and turning back to my laptop.

"I've got this, River," I said. My voice sounded so confident, I started to believe myself.

It would be fine. I had already finished my biology revision last week, so I only had this subject and statistics to revise before my exams. That was plenty of time.

I sucked in a sharp breath, straightening my back, and beginning to open my old notes and practice quizzes.

It'd be fine.

Behind me, River took another loud bite from his muesli bar. I squeezed my eyes shut, grimacing at his loud chewing, chewing, chewing, then another bite. River was never a loud eater. In fact, he'd definitely elbowed Connor before for chewing with his mouth open.

He was intentionally trying to annoy me.

Huffing, I grabbed the nearest object—a banana—and whirled, tossing it directly at him.

I was slow enough that he had time to lift his hand, the banana knocking his elbow rather than his face and falling to the floor.

"Take your muesli bar elsewhere, River," I seethed.

He smiled, slowly reaching the bar up to his open mouth and my hand reached for another banana. He stopped, laughing, and holding his hands up in defence.

"Alright, alright," he said. He leaned down, swiping the banana and holding it up at me. "Thanks for the banana then, roomie."

I narrowed my eyes into a glare, watching as he made his arrogant way back to his room. Turning back to my laptop, I sighed.

Now I could focus.

I had this.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

Clink.

I blinked. A coffee cup had appeared beside my laptop. Spinning, I found Everett smiling back at me. He lifted his hand to show a brown paper bag. "Hungry?"

As soon as he asked, I realised just how hungry I was.

I nodded eagerly as he took his seat before frowning. He'd changed out of his pyjamas. When had he finished his shower? When had he left?

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Two-ish," he replied, and my heart sunk.

"Oh, God," I muttered. My eyes shot up to Everett's. "I'm so sorry. I just wasted the whole day, didn't I? I didn't realise how quickly time went, and there was just so much I didn't know, and I haven't even started on statistics yet—"

"Isla," he interrupted, setting the paper bag beside the coffee cup. "It's fine. I want you to do well in college. Besides, we'll have plenty of time to hang out later. Weather's pretty shit anyway."

I laughed lightly, deciding not to correct him on "college". Instead, I leaned forward to peek into the bag, finding a toasted sandwich and a cookie. As if on cue, my stomach growled loudly.

I warmed, turning to grin at Everett. "You have no idea how hungry I am."

"Well, my plan was to grab you lunch, but you know that café I mentioned? Turns out it's an hour away. And I got lost. It wasn't even that good. I bought this at some stall down the road."

My hand flew to my mouth, stifling a laugh and he rolled his eyes, slumping into a seat beside me.

"Go ahead and laugh. Your city is more confusing than mine," he muttered.

I chuckled, pulling the sandwich out and taking a large bite. God, that tasted good. Everett smiled at my reaction, raising a brow.

"Good?"

I nodded eagerly, shoving another bite into my mouth before I could even swallow the first.

His smile grew. "I'm glad it was worth the two-hour train ride."

"So worth it," I agreed through a mouthful of food. Behind him, I noticed River kicking his shoes off, a coffee cup in his hand too. My eyes widened. "Did River go with you?"

Everett nodded.

River craned his neck from afar, quickly tuning into the conversation. "We had a boys' bonding trip."

"He slept the whole train ride, and he's the reason we got lost," Everett dead panned.

"Great bonding, though," River added.

"I'm sure." I grinned.

Before I could move onto my cookie, there was knocking at the door. I paused, meeting Everett's eye, then River's.

"Are you expecting someone?" I asked, expecting Alistair to appear before us. He seemed to have become our third roommate recently.

When he shook his head, I frowned, dropping the paper bag onto the counter, and moving to open the door. Instead of Alistair as I expected, Lachlan stood at the threshold.

"Lachie!" I exclaimed, blinking.

"Hey, Isla." He grinned, lifting his arm which clutched a laptop and booklet to his chest. "You up for a study date?"

I lifted my brows. I was always ready to study together rather than stressing out by myself, but today—

"Study date?"

I spun, finding Everett standing behind me, arms folded as he watched Lachie. Lachie didn't even hesitate.

"Everett!" he exclaimed, as if they were reunited best friends. "You're Isla's boyfriend, right? I'm Lachie."

Everett didn't respond. His eyes stuck onto Lachie, unwavering as he stared him down in silence. I cleared my throat, stepping back and gesturing towards the kitchen.

"I'm already set up on the counter, Lachie," I said.

He nodded, grinning, and waltzed right past me to set his own things down. As I closed the door behind him, I turned, nudging Everett in the stomach.

"What are you doing?" I whispered, frowning at him.

"Me?" he echoed quietly. His eyes darted towards Lachie, then back to me. "What are you doing?"

"Aren't you the one who told me to make friends?"

"Well, yeah, but..." He caught my pointed look and sighed. "I don't like that he gets to stay here when I leave."

Smiling, I stepped closer to him, throwing my arms around his neck.

"Yeah, well, I chose you, didn't I?" I asked, before standing onto my toes and pressing a quick kiss to his lips. He leaned closer but I stepped back, trailing a finger along his chest and turning towards the kitchen. "Let's go study, lover boy."

"Great," Everett muttered. "Exactly what I wanted to be doing during my spring break."

"Maybe if we get this done quickly," I began, throwing him a grin over my shoulder and lowering my voice to a whisper, "We can do some other fun things later?"

Everett glowered, but his mouth snapped shut as he followed me back to the kitchen.

It seemed River had retreated to his room, leaving Lachie sitting at the counter with his study material laid out in front of him. He turned to me as I retook my seat beside him, pushing my paper bag away. The cookie would have to wait for later.

"The library was so full today. The only seat I could find was next to this girl eating hard shell tacos, literally crunching it all over her textbooks," Lachie explained with a grimace. "I guess everyone's cramming for mid-terms."

"Glad I'm not the only one," I said. "I've been working on this all day. I didn't realise how little I knew, and we're only half-way through the term."

"At least these mid-terms are worth a lot."

"How is that a good thing?" I sputtered.

"If you do well in these, it's easy-going for the rest of the term." He shrugged, leaning towards my laptop. "You're up to week five?"

I nodded, subconsciously leaning further away. I could practically feel Everett right behind me, glaring daggers into Lachie's head.

"I'm pretty much done with this. I just have statistics left now, and then all those practice exams to go through," I said.

"Lucky for you, I'm a master of statistics," Lachie said.

"I did statistics too," Everett chimed in. We both turned to him, and he pursed his lips. "I mean, I took a course on it. Last year."

The silence turned heavy, and I cleared my throat, attempting a cheerful voice to break the tension. "Great! I've got two statistics tutors all to myself. I'm basically set to ace it at this point, right?"

"Well, where are you up to?" Lachie asked, sliding my statistics book closer.

"Can we just start from the beginning?" I chuckled, tugging on the hem of my sweater. "I'm kind of a dunce with this subject."

"Of course," Lachie said, smiling. "It's a tough subject. Let's begin with standard deviation and z-scores. The basics of the basics."

I nodded, leaning over the book to flip to the page where I'd scribbled definitions—definitions that were no help, considering how I didn't even understand those.

"Right, the basics," I echoed, frowning at the page. It felt like gibberish to me. "Standard deviation, that was..."

"This formula," Lachie said, leaning towards me. He pointed at a spot on the page filled with scribbled numbers and Greek letters that I hadn't labelled. I blinked, vaguely recognising it.

"Right, and the N stands for number?" I asked.

He hummed in confirmation, leaning closer to add a label to the page. "Number. Size of population. Whatever you want to call it."

"Oh, right!" I exclaimed, the formula starting to come back to me. "And this letter, that's for the mean of the population, isn't it?"

"Yep!" He added another label before turning to grin at me. "Good work, Isla."

Suddenly realising how close we'd moved towards each other, my smile wavered.

"Thanks," I muttered.

"You know, you're much smarter than you give yourself credit for," he continued, smiling. "You shouldn't doubt yourself so much."

"Thanks," I repeated. Why did I feel so embarrassed? My face warmed and I inched away.

Lachie's smile didn't falter. His lips parted to speak again—

"Luke," Everett's voice cut in. He leaned closer, his hand slamming onto the counter between us, causing us to jump further apart. "Did you say you have a girlfriend?"

Lachie blinked, though his smile still refused to slip. "I didn't say, but no. No girlfriend here, mate."

"Interesting," Everett replied. His smile seemed more like a snarl to me, but Lachie didn't seem to notice.

"It's Lachie, by the way," he added.

Everett's smile turned innocent. "Sorry?"

"My name. It's Lachie. Short for Lachlan."

"Isn't that what I said?"

"You said Luke." He shrugged, waving a hand. "It's fine. Guessing you Americans don't meet many 'Lachie's, hey?"

Everett blinked, his expression morphing into a grimace, and he turned away, pushing off the counter. "Guess not."

"Maybe Isla will rub off on you if you guys date long enough," Lachie added.

Frowning, Everett turned back. "We've been dating for over a year, you know."

"Over a year?" His brows shot up. "Isla never mentioned it."

Everett glanced at me, and I warmed. It had never really come up in conversation. Everett turned back to Lachie, his back straightening.

"Well, it's true. I visit pretty often too, you know. I've known Isla since we were both in high school," Everett continued. "She used to live in Shellside Bay, and we spent two summers there together."

I rolled my eyes. He was really starting to layer it on thick now.

"That's good," Lachie said, smiling. "I've heard long distance can be hard."

"Not for us," Everett said quickly. "We're doing great. Really great, actually. I mean, I'm here for another week and a bit, and then my summer break's coming up soon."

"You really visit every break you get? Isn't that expensive?"

Only then did Everett waver. It was only a second, a glimpse of a frown, but it was quickly replaced with indignation. "No. We're doing great, Luke. You just don't know Isla like I do—"

"Everett," I cut in. He looked at me and I sent him a stern frown, hoping he'd get the message.

He clearly didn't.

"Isla—"

"No. This is—" I let out a long breath before turning to Lachie with a weary look. "Lachie, can you excuse us for a second?"

"Nah, yeah, go for it," he said, waving a hand. He gestured vaguely to his books. "I'll just look for my stats notes and get started."

I smiled a thanks before narrowing my eyes at Everett and leading the way to my room. Once we were safely behind a closed door, I spun to face him.

"What was that whole dick measuring contest about?" I asked, frowning.

"What do you mean?"

I scoffed.

"Bragging about how long we've known each other? How long we've been dating? Calling Lachie the wrong name?" I listed. "It's like you're trying to make it clear I'm your—your possession or something."

"No!" Everett breathed. He stepped closer, his hands flying to my waist. "No, Isla, that's not how it was at all. I didn't mean—"

"What did you mean then?" I asked. "Do you not trust me or something? I told Lachie that I had a boyfriend the day we met, Everett. I'm not stupid, and I'm not unfaithful either."

"No, God." He sighed running a hand over his face before frowning at me. He lifted a hand to hold my face, keeping his eyes on mine. "I didn't mean it that way. I trust you. It's just—I don't know. Seeing him close to you, seeing him compliment you and talk about stuff that I just don't get, and don't get to do while I'm in America."

He sighed again, his eyes finally dropping.

"I got jealous," he admitted. "I got jealous that he gets to see you whenever he wants. He can text you without calculating time zones, he can help you with college classes and go to lectures with you. I just—I wish that was me."

My heart shattered, the pieces sinking into my stomach and stabbing the flesh there. It was my turn to take his face into my hands.

"Oh, Everett," I mumbled. "I don't care about the distance. I'd choose you every time. You know that."

"I know, I know," he said. "I just wish we could be like a regular couple. I wish I could give you that life you deserve."

"You're making it sound like it's a chore to date you," I said pointedly.

He chuckled, lifting a brow. "Isn't it?"

"Oh, it is. Especially when I have to lecture my boyfriend for fighting with my literal only friend at university," I teased. He smiled and I leaned closer, pressing a quick peck to his lips. "But I love every second of it. Of course, I wish I could have you here all the time, but I'd rather have you long distance than not at all."

He frowned at me, unsure. "Really?"

"Of course," I replied.

"Good," he said, leaning in until his lips brushed mine and his breath fanned over my face with each word. "Because you're stuck with me, you know?"

I smiled back. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

I lifted onto my toes and connected our lips. He smiled into the kiss, his arms wrapping tightly around my waist as he pulled me forward until his back hit the wall. In one swift move, we were flipped, and his hands were on my hips, my thighs, lifting me until I was sliding up the walls with my legs wrapped around him.

His tongue slid over my lips and into my mouth and I sighed at the taste of him, at the feeling of him. I grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer, closer, as if possible.

He was here, and this was real—at least for another week or so.

I had my Everett back.

His lips moved from mine, tracing a path over my jaw to the skin of my neck. His teeth scraped against a spot beneath my ear, and I released a breath, squeezing his shirt in my fist.

"Everett," I whispered, my head craning back, my chest moving up towards his.

Outside, a door slammed, and we both froze, our minds ripping back to the present. Quiet footsteps echoed, and then River's voice, to who I could only imagine was Lachie.

"You're still here?" River asked.

Everett met my eyes, our grins matching each other's.

"We'd better get back out there before River scares off my only friend."

And we went back out, together.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey guys! Thank you for reading as always! Let me know what you thought of this chapter! I know Isla and Everett aren't spending much time together, but I want to show their struggles throughout the story, and the distance is a big part of it!

Next time: Isla goes on a road trip