Fighting a New World

33

Liam's POV

"You know, I can get all of your textbooks for you," Jem sighed as he carried the bit of books that we couldn't afford. "You don't have to pay for any of it."

"I know but this was the only way Carter allowed it. He doesn't want us relying on you and Jax has already been putting back money for most of them anyway. How are you going to pay for them though? I don't see Dev here to help punch in the pin number," I teased as I began walking to the check out of the college store.

Jem only glared as he held up his right hand, revealing four numbers written there in pen.

"I made Devon write it down before I left," he grumbled. "You sure you don't want anything else? They have some cool stuff here."

I don't bother hiding my lack of interest as I look around the small store.

Other than the college's name on every shirt, backpack, and binder, there wasn't much here and none of it really seemed worth having.

"I'm good with just the textbooks. You know I don't care much for clothes and I already have everything else I need," I said as I continued to ease over to the register but Jem was still picking up and staring at everything that caught his eye for longer than three seconds.

"How did you even convince admin to let you live off campus? Most places make first years live in dorms."

"I don't really know. Andrew set up pretty much everything. I haven't even talked to anyone. The only thing I did was pick out the classes."

Jem hummed as he put back a shirt and picked up a pair of sweat pants instead.

"I forgot how much you like to shop," I groaned as I continued to watch. "You and Ryder need to have a shopping weekend one of these days. You'd both be in heaven."

"You make it sound like that's a bad thing," he said as he straightened up again. "Speaking of shopping, you have everything you need right?"

"Yea, I'm using my backpack and binder from camp, Jax already got me pencils and paper and pretty much every other school supply thing you could think off. That just leaves textbooks."

"What about a laptop?"

"None of my classes required one so I'm just going to use the one's they have in the library if I need to."

I actually really wanted one and while I know Jax can make a lot of stuff happen if we give him enough heads up, this was just too expensive. Even the newer ones that have been used would take us months to save up for. And by then I will be used to school computers so by then there wouldn't be a point in it.

"You're going to want one after you get started," he pointed out with a small frown as he finally began walking to the counter.

"Speaking from experience? If I remember correctly you were only in college for a month."

"It was a very informative month," he defended as he put the books down and let the lady begin scanning everything.

Soon enough we were all checked out and heading back to the apartment.

"As long as you leave by 4 you can come up," I said as he passed me the bag full of books.

"I still think it's a bit too early for that. I know you said everyone seems to not mind it as much but we both know they do. Let's not make it worse before it has a chance to get better."

I frown at that but I know he has a point.

I know Callum was mostly pissed that I lied but he still didn't like Jem. Jax and Carter both tried to seem like they didn't care but we could all tell they, especially Carter, didn't like the idea of Jem getting too close. Ryder seemed to be the only one who didn't seem to outwardly object to it.

"Well they're never going to get used to you if you never see them again," I point out but Jem was already shaking his head.

"I thought you used to be a betting man," he teased as he took out a cigarette. "Ever heard of the term 'quit while you're ahead'?"

"Just because I've heard of it doesn't mean I like to listen to it."

"Trust me, I've noticed," he said with an eye roll. "We'll give it another week or two. If you think you've calmed them down by then I'll see about coming to visit."

"Fine," I huffed out as I readjusted the books. "I guess I'll go ahead and head up. I want to start reading a few of these before the first lessons start."

"Some times I can't believe I raised you," he sighed. "I'll see you tomorrow at Target then. Stay out of trouble."

"When have I ever made trouble?" I asked innocently but Jem only huffed as he began walking away.

Callum's POV

"Have you seen the remote," I asked Ryder as I looked around the living room. Carter wasn't home yet which meant if I found the remote soon, I could watch something other than animals for the next 20 minutes without Carter demanding we change it.

"I don't know where it is," he called out from the bathroom. "Carter might have honestly hidden it somewhere."

This had sadly become a new habit of his. He's found out that none of us will ask to change it while he's here but if he's gone we change it the first chance we get. On the other hand, Carter doesn't ask to change it either. But is he conveniently looses the remote and we can't find it before he gets home then it doesn't matter.

So this has been what he's been doing for the past week and we still can't find this stupid thing. None of us had the heart to make him stop though. The only time he really unwinds is with stupid animals so the rest of us just put up with it.

But all I'm asking for is 20 minutes of something other than animals to be on the TV.

The only place in this whole apartment I haven't checked was the closet, the dishwasher, and under the couch cushions.

I doubted it was there but out of pure curiosity, I let me hand slide under the cushion.

I can't help but let out a small sigh when I don't feel what I'm looking for but then my hand runs across what feels like several pieces of paper.

I already had a bad feeling about this as I let my hand wrap around the papers before pulling all of them out.

When I first saw that they were letters from a hospital I thought it must have been left behind from the last people who owned the place. I almost threw them away all together when I saw Ryder's name on the envelope.

My heart stopped for a second when I saw how much he owed.

$1,000 in medical bills and we haven't even been out of camp for a whole two months yet?

"Did you find it," Ryder asked as he came back into the living room.

"No but I found something a bit more important," I sighed out.

I guess I found what he was hiding these past few weeks. I was really hoping he was going to come clean himself but this was too serious. Usually I would have pretended to not see it to see if he still came clean but 1,000 bucks wasn't anything to sneeze at, especially since it was supposed to be due in a few days.

"What's this about you owning a hospital 1,000 dollars in medical bills?" I say as I turn around while forcing myself to stay calm.

Last updated August 1, 2021