Seasons Change

18.

It was official: the end of the semester couldn't come soon enough for my liking. As I left the room after taking the first of my finals, I was more than a little worried about the grade. Despite attending all of the classes and doing the homework, I was not at all confident that I had scored well on my math final. Hopefully, I had managed a high enough grade that I wouldn't need to repeat the class.

Since math had been my only final for the day, I planned to head to the library to get some studying done before meeting Dylan for dinner tonight. I was kind of zoning out, so when someone came up behind me and put their hands over my face, I nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise.

"Guess who?" a familiar voice asked.

I whirled around and came face to face with none other than Luke Carters. He was dressed in a University of Ohio sweatshirt, and a confident smirk danced across his face.

"Luke!" I cried, pulling him into a hug. "What are you doing here? I didn't expect to see you until tomorrow."

Luke shrugged. "I finished my exams a little earlier than I thought I would, so I drove here early to see you. I hope that's okay. Dylan told me where you'd be."

I smiled. "It's more than okay. It's so good to see you."

And it was. In fact, right now, my life seemed just about perfect. I had my best friend back. I had a second chance at getting to know Luke. I had received confirmation from the university that starting next semester, I would no longer be sharing a room with Avery. Honesetly, I couldn't imagine how life could get much better.

Luke grinned. "I was kind of hoping you'd say that."

I fiddled with a strand of my hair, wondering what to do or say next. I had been imagining all of the things I might do with Luke while he was here, the things we might talk about, but now that he was standing in front of me, my brain shut down and refused to work.

"So...umm...what do you want to do?"  I asked, then cringed. Gosh. Could I be any more awkward? Gulping, I added, "Do you want to go back to my dorm room? I'm sure you probably have stuff you need to bring in."

"Sure, we can do that," Luke agreed easily. "And then I thought you might like to show me around campus, so I can see what you like to do and where you like to hang out, maybe meet some of your friends."

Great. The last thing I wanted was to admit to Luke that I was kind of a loser who had spent most of my semester hiding out in my dorm room or the library to avoid running into Dylan or Avery. Talk about pathetic.

"Okay," I agreed reluctantly, because surely I would be able to point out at least a few noteworthy spots on campus. I had been living here, after all. I wasn't completely oblivious, after all.

I followed Luke out to his car, where he grabbed a small bag out of the trunk. Then, I led him to my dorm room, still unable to believe that I was going to have my very attractive ex-boyfriend staying with me from now until the end of the semester. It was completely surreal.

Much to my disappointment, Avery was in the room when we got there. Ever since the Thanksgiving debacle, I had taken great pains to avoid her. I only had to get through the next week, and then I wouldn't have to share a room with her any more.

"Well, hi there," Avery greeted, a huge grin splitting her face as she eyed Luke up and down like a predator sizing up her prey. Apparently, she liked what she saw, because she turned up the charm, battering her eyes flirtatiously and pulling her shoulders back to display her breasts to their best advantage.

I fought the urge to gag. The girl was seriously transparent.

"Hi," Luke said, waving in greeting. "I'm Lilly's boyfriend, Luke. You must be her roommate, Avery. I think I met you briefly at Thanksgiving dinner, but we never really got a chance to talk."