The past will always find you
Jos Archer was the girl with the perfect lifeâuntil the night it all came crashing down around her. Now, nine months later, she still hasnât begun to pick up the pieces. Even transferring to a new college and living under the watchful eye of her older sister, Renee, isnât enough to help her feel normal again.
And then she meets Dusty Sharp. For reasons Jos canât begin to fathom, the newly reformed campus bad boy seems determined to draw her out of her shell. And if sheâs not careful, his knowing green eyes and wicked smile will make her feel things sheâs no longer sure she deserves.
But even as Dusty coaxes Jos to open up about the past, heâs hiding secrets of his own. Secrets about the night her old life fell apart. When the truth is finally revealed, will it bring them closer togetherâor tear them apart for good?
Chapter 1
âI canât believe your parents are forcing you to leave. It should be, like, illegal. Youâre over eighteen. Why donât you just bail?â Kelly sat on top of one of the boxes of my almost-packed dorm room and snapped her gum. When weâd first met, the little habit had irritated me to no end, but Iâd gotten used to it.
âI wish I could, but theyâre footing the bill for school, so right now Iâm screwed,â I said. Not to mention the fact that no one said no to my mother. No one.
âWhy donât you drop out?â Oh, Iâd considered that more than once. Actually, more than a thousand times. It was impossible to explain the complicated dynamic of my family to someone like Kelly, who had moved out of her parentsâ house and gotten her own place when she was still in high school.
âI donât know,â I said, shrugging and taping up another box. Kelly flipped her dirty blond dreadlocked ponytail and cracked her gum again. Sheâd asked me if I needed help packing, but so far all sheâd done was bother me.
âYouâll come back and visit, right?â she asked.
âYeah, sure,â I told her with a little smile. We both knew it was unlikely that Iâd ever get back here. I folded my University of New Hampshire blanket and shoved it into another box. My mom had bought it for me two summers ago as a going-away-to-college present.
I was one of only two of my siblings or steps whoâd actually managed to graduate high school, let alone get accepted somewhere. Neither Mom nor Dad nor any of my stepparents had finished high school, so it was a big deal for any of us to make it that far. The only other one who had was Renee, and that was the reason they were shipping me back to Maine to live with her after...everything.
Kellyâs phone buzzed and she typed a quick response to the text message and grinned at me.
âMac wants to meet up for coffee.â I always wished sheâd put coffee in air quotes, because we both knew that it meant getting stoned and hooking up in the backseat of his rusty Pontiac. Kelly and her boyfriend were notorious; theyâd even been caught by campus security in the middle of the day. It was a miracle they were still students at all. I think they were holding on by the thinnest of academic threads.
âHave fun.â I knew sheâd bail on me for Mac. She always did. Kelly wasnât much of a friend, but she was the only one I had. The others had ditched me months ago.
âCall me before you leave. I wanna say goodbye.â She got up and gave me a loose hug. It was more of a lean involving arms that was over as quickly as it had begun.
âSee you later,â she said, slamming the door. Kelly could never leave a room quietly.
I stared at my deconstructed dorm room. My roommate was avoiding me, had been avoiding me since the beginning of this year. Weâd had all of two conversationsâone of those happened on the day we moved in, and the other happened when she found me passed out in front of the door one night after a crazy time with Kelly and Mac and a bunch of people I hadnât seen again. As if Iâd remember them anyway.
I took Kellyâs place on one of the boxes, pulling my knees up and resting my chin on them.
The fight Iâd had with my mother when sheâd told me that I was being forced to move back kept running through my mind. Actually, the entire Christmas break had been one long fight that didnât seem to end.
What is wrong with you, Joscelyn? Youâd better straighten up and fly right. You are coming back to Maine, or else I am coming there and dragging your ass back, understand?
Straighten up and fly right. Yeah, Iâd get right on that, Mom. She was one to talk. My parents had a half-dozen marriages between them and kids and stepkids all over the place. It was a full-time job just keeping track of them.
Iâd screamed myself hoarse, but hadnât gotten anywhere. Sheâd even put a moratorium on hating Dad long enough to call him, fill him in and then get him to yell at me, too.