Read Online Always & Forever Vive (The Undergrad Years #4) by Avery Aster - Free Book Online
Authors: Avery Aster
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his handsome smile, the one I was indeed falling for, widened. “Thank you.”
“I mean it. You’re thoughtful and smart. You care about your friends, and always do right by people. Luyu, you’re a good person. I don’t know why you don’t see what I see in you.” He reached up and wiped my face. His words suggested to me that I need to start loving myself.
It hadn’t really occurred to me before. Sure, ‘love yourself’ sounds a bit cliché. But when you don’t even like yourself, it’s hard to one day truly love yourself. Honestly, I’d be okay with just liking me a little bit more, and hating me a little bit less.
“It’s getting late. We better get to sleep.” I climbed off him. Lying beside him, I put a goose-down pillow between us. The feathers prickled through the cotton casing.
Removing it, he pulled me against him. My body tingled all over again from his contact. His intensity scared the shit out of me. He saw me for me. Not for what the tabloids wrote. Not for what the students in school said behind my back.
The last thing I remembered before falling asleep was him whispering in my ear, “I like it when it’s just the two of us.”
Seneca left early the next morning to study.
With Hedda Hopper on my lap, we sat at Joe’s Coffee Shop near campus in Morningside Heights.
Blake was to my left, Taddy and Lex to my right. Up at the espresso machine, flirting with the new barista, was Thor in all his pride and glory.
“ Must you have that gun pointed at me?” I asked Taddy.
Her handgun, concealed in her Fendi handbag, sat dead-center in the middle of the café table, pointing in my direction.
“Darling, it’s for our protection,” she smiled. “Lex and I had fun yesterday at the rifle range learning how to shoot. You two should’ve gone with us.”
“No fucking way.” I glanced over at Blake for confirmation my besties had lost their minds. Shaking his head, he sighed.
Overnight, the rumors had started circulating, stating I had something to do with Poppy’s disappearance. It felt as if we were at Avon Porter all over again.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have left the apartment today.” Wearing her Chanel sunglasses and an Yves Saint Laurent sequined baseball cap, Lex sipped her double Dutch chocolate chip latte, with a generous dollop of whipped cream.
“ Gurl , you can say that again.” Blake uncrossed his legs, pulling himself closer to the table. He motioned for all of us to lean in. “I have an idea…”
“We leave New York City and finally go to college in Malibu?” Taddy asked.
She’d been begging for California long before we’d arrived at Columbia University.
He shook his head. “Let’s hire a private investigator to find Poppy White.”
“Mmm.” I finished the sip of my coffee and replied, “I love that idea.”
The NYPD had filed the missing persons paperwork, but was a search party (other than the one we’d done) out looking for her? No. Not exactly. Although, Poppy’s headshot was plastered all over the news.
“Why is everyone staring at us?” Taddy’s face, usually a shade of porcelain with a splatter of freckles across the bridge of her model-perfect nose, turned a deep shade of red.
I hated this feeling of being under some microscopic lens.
“Because they think we did something to her,” Blake muttered without making eye contact with me. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Just as we were getting our things together, two people approached with judgment in their narrow eyes: Brez Duncan, a fellow student who’d interned at Poppy’s TV show, and her boyfriend, Marshall. Great. So close to escaping. “Morning, Brez,” I greeted, acting as if it was just another day.
“You four have a lot of nerve showing your guilty faces this morning.”
Her words caused us all to tense up as Thor quirked his brow, glancing over at us from the espresso bar.
“And just what is that supposed to mean?” Lex rolled up her sleeves, ready for a
“I mean it. You’re thoughtful and smart. You care about your friends, and always do right by people. Luyu, you’re a good person. I don’t know why you don’t see what I see in you.” He reached up and wiped my face. His words suggested to me that I need to start loving myself.
It hadn’t really occurred to me before. Sure, ‘love yourself’ sounds a bit cliché. But when you don’t even like yourself, it’s hard to one day truly love yourself. Honestly, I’d be okay with just liking me a little bit more, and hating me a little bit less.
“It’s getting late. We better get to sleep.” I climbed off him. Lying beside him, I put a goose-down pillow between us. The feathers prickled through the cotton casing.
Removing it, he pulled me against him. My body tingled all over again from his contact. His intensity scared the shit out of me. He saw me for me. Not for what the tabloids wrote. Not for what the students in school said behind my back.
The last thing I remembered before falling asleep was him whispering in my ear, “I like it when it’s just the two of us.”
Seneca left early the next morning to study.
With Hedda Hopper on my lap, we sat at Joe’s Coffee Shop near campus in Morningside Heights.
Blake was to my left, Taddy and Lex to my right. Up at the espresso machine, flirting with the new barista, was Thor in all his pride and glory.
“ Must you have that gun pointed at me?” I asked Taddy.
Her handgun, concealed in her Fendi handbag, sat dead-center in the middle of the café table, pointing in my direction.
“Darling, it’s for our protection,” she smiled. “Lex and I had fun yesterday at the rifle range learning how to shoot. You two should’ve gone with us.”
“No fucking way.” I glanced over at Blake for confirmation my besties had lost their minds. Shaking his head, he sighed.
Overnight, the rumors had started circulating, stating I had something to do with Poppy’s disappearance. It felt as if we were at Avon Porter all over again.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have left the apartment today.” Wearing her Chanel sunglasses and an Yves Saint Laurent sequined baseball cap, Lex sipped her double Dutch chocolate chip latte, with a generous dollop of whipped cream.
“ Gurl , you can say that again.” Blake uncrossed his legs, pulling himself closer to the table. He motioned for all of us to lean in. “I have an idea…”
“We leave New York City and finally go to college in Malibu?” Taddy asked.
She’d been begging for California long before we’d arrived at Columbia University.
He shook his head. “Let’s hire a private investigator to find Poppy White.”
“Mmm.” I finished the sip of my coffee and replied, “I love that idea.”
The NYPD had filed the missing persons paperwork, but was a search party (other than the one we’d done) out looking for her? No. Not exactly. Although, Poppy’s headshot was plastered all over the news.
“Why is everyone staring at us?” Taddy’s face, usually a shade of porcelain with a splatter of freckles across the bridge of her model-perfect nose, turned a deep shade of red.
I hated this feeling of being under some microscopic lens.
“Because they think we did something to her,” Blake muttered without making eye contact with me. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Just as we were getting our things together, two people approached with judgment in their narrow eyes: Brez Duncan, a fellow student who’d interned at Poppy’s TV show, and her boyfriend, Marshall. Great. So close to escaping. “Morning, Brez,” I greeted, acting as if it was just another day.
“You four have a lot of nerve showing your guilty faces this morning.”
Her words caused us all to tense up as Thor quirked his brow, glancing over at us from the espresso bar.
“And just what is that supposed to mean?” Lex rolled up her sleeves, ready for a
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