Seasons Change

5.

5.
Somehow, I didn't anticipate that college classes would feel like a continuation of high school. I'd always thought that college was when you got to break away from the same old drivel and study subjects that actually interested you, but thanks to the mandatory general education classes, I was still stuck in English, Science, Math, and History, just like high school. Blah.

It didn't help that because I hadn't decided on a major yet, I didn't get to take an "fun" classes. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life. Graduating high school hadn't given me any sort of clarity, and I sort of envied the people who knew exactly what they wanted to be when they grew up. Dylan and Luke both knew that they wanted to play football professionally. Dylan was going to school for kinesiology, and last I'd heard, Luke was majoring in physical education and wanted to be a teacher and a coach once his football days were over.

Kelsey was majoring in psychology, which didn't surprise me in the least. She was fascinated by how people thought, and with her tendency to play matchmaker, I could easily see her being a couples therapist. Ben was planning on playing football in college, but didn't think that he would make a career out of it. He'd settled on being a business major. And me? I had no idea what I was doing. I was just the same old high school Lilly, pretending to be a grownup.

At least now that classes had started, I had an excuse to avoid Avery. Things were worse than ever between us, since she had made it perfectly clear she thought Dylan was too good for me. It didn't matter that we weren't actually dating. I was still ticked off at her, and I wasn't about to try to make peace with her.
My first week of college flew by easily, and I fell into a pattern that minimized contact with my she-devil roommate. I had an 8:00 am class, and Avery was always asleep when I left in the morning, which made it easy to avoid her. If I hung out in the library and common area between classes, I had very little chance of seeing her during the day. Then, Avery went out most evenings, and I could hang out in my room with little chance of being bothered by her.
I should have known that our fragile peace would be short-lived, though. Nothing with Avery was ever that easy.

The first clue that something was off was that Dylan stopped texting me. Not that that was unusual, necessarily. He was busy juggling football practices and a full course load, so he didn't always have a lot of time to hang out during the week. Last year, when he'd first started college, I'd grown used to talking to him mostly on the weekends. But then, my worst nightmare came true: Avery came back to our dorm room with Dylan in tow.

I looked up as she barged into the room, and felt a little queasy as I saw her hand clutching Dylan's possessively. She glared at me defiantly, seeming to dare me to say something. I looked at Dylan, sure he must see the hurt and devastation written across my face. We weren't dating. I didn't care if he had a girlfriend. But seriously, out of every girl on this campus, he had to show up with Avery? And worse, he hadn't even warned me he was hanging out with her. How could he blindside me like this?

Don't jump to conclusions, Lilly, I chided myself, although it was pretty apparent to anyone with eyes that Avery was hanging over Dylan possessively.
My throat constricted, and I found it difficult to draw a full breath.

"Hey, Dylan," I said, trying to force the quaver out of my voice. "I didn't know you were coming over."

"He's not here to see you," Avery snapped, her voice dripping with disdain. "He's here with me. Now be a good little mouse and run along so we can have some privacy."

My face heated, and I met her glare defiantly.
"Excuse me?" I snapped. "This is my room too. I have every right to be here. If you want some 'alone time,'" I said, making air quotes with my fingers, "then why don't you skedaddle off to Dylan's apartment instead of trying to evict me?"