Read Online The Test by Ava Claire - Free Book Online

and believe
that people don’t change, but when I look at him—” My voice cracked
and the tears blurring my view streamed down my face. “He’s the
love of my life. I exist for him, Sophia. And he exists for me.
Please don’t take that away.”
    I could have fallen into a heap, physically
and emotionally spent. She was still silent and I was sure she’d
already decided to burn us to the ground and I just gave her the
satisfaction of knowing it affected me. Affected us.
    She licked her lips and let out something
that sounded like a sob. I peered at her, thinking I must have
misheard. I was delirious, my mind turning a sound of victory into
one of pain. Of surrender. I glanced over my shoulder and Alicia
was right behind me, a similar surprise on her face.
    Sophia pursed her lips and glanced at the
door before focusing on me, her midnight eyes glossy. I couldn’t
believe it. She was about to cry.
    “Sophia are you about to-”
    She didn’t say a word, turning the door knob
and the waning sunshine filled the foyer. She crushed my hope that
I’d reached her. I was certain she’d give both of us the finger as
she stepped onto the porch, but she paused before the first
step.
    “I get it, you know,” she said softly.
“Loving someone so much that common sense goes out the window.”
Sophia gave me the only genuine smile I’d ever seen on her face.
“She was right. I was jealous. At least your guy loves you back.”
She continued down the steps, her hair flapping like a mahogany
cape. “I’ll talk to the Dean.”
    I stood in the doorway, numb from the shock.
I watched her climb in her station wagon and putter around the
circular driveway, disappearing in the line of cars on the dusky
road.
    Somehow, some way, I got through to her. “Oh
my god,” I said hoarsely. “OH MY GOD!” I started doing the victory
dance, butt shaking and all. I turned around to hug Alicia but
stopped short, my face hardening to stone. “What happened to you in
there? I thought we had a plan!”
    “You were about to pass out in fear at the
thought of facing her,” Alicia explained. “If I told you that the
best way to get her to understand was to piss her off and get you
to freak out and speak to her without filter or spin, I’m pretty
sure you never would have left my bedroom.” She smirked. “I lied to
you so you could move her the way you moved me in the library.”
    I brought her in for a bone-crushing hug
feeling like I could breathe with the weight off of me, squeezing
my heart.
    I really did have the best friend ever.
     
     
     

 
     
    ****
     
    I took a breath and readied my argument. All
day Chance had sent texts more conciliatory than the last,
consigned to losing his job and adamant about his choice to come
clean about our relationship. I had one small victory—he talked to
the dean and successfully moved the meeting to Monday so I still
had two days to make my case.
    We belonged together. He already made it
clear that he wouldn’t dismiss the idea of out of state positions.
Where would that leave us? We were still in such a tenuous stage
where distance would just complicate things.
    He loved teaching. He said himself that
nothing compared to the high of being in front of a class. He could
have been the wind, living abroad, writing a pretentious book about
his travels and the meaning of life, but he gave it up because he
missed being a teacher. He was meant to inspire. To push. To
challenge.
    He just couldn’t go. I wouldn’t let him.
    I stood a little taller before knocking, the
hollow sound rippling through me. Chance opened the door just wide
enough to push out into the hall, and then pulled it closed behind
him.
    His face was bright and slightly flushed like
he’d just hopped off a treadmill, but unless he did laps in a black
and white checkered shirt and dark blue jeans that fit him snug as
sin, that wasn’t the reason he was acting so strange. My eyes
worked their way back up to his face, noticing he’d