Read Online Full Count by C.A. Williams - Free Book Online Page A

know. I can’t wait till you come
up, it’s weird not being with you like almost 24/7, I think I’m having withdrawals.”
I jogged down the stairs and found Maddie in the lobby in similar attire. She
gave me a silent wave when she saw I was on the phone and we walked out through
the doors, heading to our usual spot at Grand Market Place.
    I heard a voice in the background
and Jake’s muffled voice reply something back. “Jake Niles, is that a girl I
hear?” I asked in a singsong voice. “No,” he laughed out in a husky voice. “My
roommate’s girlfriend is leaving; they have a lot of sleepovers. I invested in
a nice set of ear plugs after awhile, they come in handy.”
    “Hmm, well, have there been any?”
Jake had dated sporadically in high school, but he always ended up breaking
things off before they got too serious. All of his girlfriends hated me and I
tried to stay out of the way as much as possible, but Jake wasn’t having it. To
this day, he had never picked another girl over me. I thought that maybe now
that we had some space between us things would change.
    “Naw, there is this one girl I’m
interested in, but she seems to have no clue. Got any of your girly advice on
what I should do about that?”
    “Well, I’m no expert in the dating
thing really, but I guess if you really like her you should just tell her and
get it out there. You never know what’ll happen.”
    I heard a deep sigh through the
phone, like he was contemplating my advice. Really, any girl would be lucky to
have Jake. “I have to let you go, me and Maddie are grabbing something to eat.
I’ll talk to you later this week.”
    “Alright, sounds good. Oh hey Paige,
before I forget, do you think you can sneak me into your dorm after the game?
The team’s getting put up in a hotel for the night, but I wanted to spend some
extra time with you.”
    I chewed on my fingernail thinking
it over. Jake and Ben knew about each other, but I could tell that Ben had some
major animosity towards Jake, even though they had never met. I had explained
time and time again that we were just friends, but Ben still seemed to get
upset whenever he saw me texting him. But Jake had never picked another girl
over me and I wasn’t about to pick my boyfriend over him, especially when we
hadn’t even been together that long.
    “Sure, that sounds like a plan. I
would never be able to pass up some extra time with you. I’m sure Kitty can
help me sneak you in after the game. I’ll talk to you later.”
    “Bye, baby girl.”
    Maddie and I moved along in the
line to get stir- fry and once we both had our trays we found an empty table. “So
how have all of your classes been going?” I asked in between bites of my
lo-mein.
     My first impression of Maddie had
been correct when I thought she looked like a bit of a bookworm, she was pre-med
and an intense student. I rarely saw her out, besides our lunch dates and I
knew Kylie was always trying to drag her off somewhere.
    “Pretty well, I’ve had to learn how
to juggle everything around lately since I got a new job last week.”
“Oh really,” I answered back. “Where’d you end up getting a job at?”
    “The library,” she replied, playing
with the straw on her coke. “I really didn’t want to work during school, but I
needed a way to make some extra money, so I picked up a few morning shifts. I’m
already there half the time anyway, why not just live there, right?”
    “Do you know if they’re still
hiring?” I’d been slacking on looking for a job since I got to campus. Dad told
me not to worry about it and just get settled in before I started looking, but
it would be nice to earn my own money.
    “Yeah actually I think they are.
Since it’s open twenty-four hours, they’re always hiring students and the place
is so freakin’ huge, they basically have to employ a whole army to run the
place. I work again on Tuesday, maybe you could stop by and talk to my boss.”
    After lunch, we headed back