Saving Ever After (Ever After #4) (2 page)

Mia

“Myles
Standish Hall. I think this is it,” Sadie said, looking up at the large
building.

“Yep,” I
replied excitedly. It was finally move in day at Boston University, and I
couldn’t wait to start my college experience. Sure, it wasn’t Harvard, but after
this past year, with my grades and the accident, I was lucky any university was
letting me in. My Dad was the one who’d had his heart set on Harvard anyway,
offering to call people and throw his money around to get them to take me, but
I told him it was okay. I didn’t need Harvard. BU was still a good school, and
until I figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, it made more
sense to go here. I just wanted a chance somewhere, anywhere, that wasn’t back
home.

Anything was
better than being stuck back in Seattle where I couldn’t escape my mistakes and
the gossip. People still talked about that night. My now former classmates,
their parents, the teachers, my parents and their friends and the rest of our
family. Their disappointment and judgment was something I couldn’t get away
from back there. I didn’t need anyone else to remind me how stupid I’d been,
how stupid we’d all been when we climbed into that car on New Year’s Eve. I
didn’t need anyone to remind me that two of my best friends hadn’t walked away
from the wreck. I was the only one who had, which meant that everyone’s anger
and judgment and blame fell on me. I was tired of carrying that night around
with me, never able to let go of it. The guilt, the regret and shame.

This was my
fresh start. My chance to make my dad and Sadie proud. Maybe even my mom, if I
could show her that I really had learned from my mistakes. Here, on the other
side of the country, nobody knew who Mia Pierce was. It was far enough away
that my reputation wouldn’t follow me. I was going to make new friends here,
and I would be close to Sadie. That was the best part about being in Boston,
and the only good thing to come from this past year. I’d missed my sister so
much after my mom kicked her out and cut her off from the rest of us. I was
glad to have her back in my life.

“This place
is huge,” Sadie commented as we made our way toward the door of the building.
Someone exiting held it open for us, and we stepped inside.

“I know,” I
replied. “It used to be a hotel until the school bought it.” I’d done all my
research on the place I would be living and going to school for the next four
years. Sadie’s friends, Sebastian and Violette, had attended here and they gave
me a tour over the summer and told me everything they thought I would need to
know. Hopefully I could remember it all.

“Fourth
floor, right?”

I nodded and
we found the elevator that would take us up to my new room. There were a lot of
students shuffling through the halls, some with boxes in their hands, some just
hanging out and talking outside their rooms. We found my room unlocked and all
of my boxes already stacked inside. Since Daddy couldn’t be here to get me
settled, he’d paid for someone to move all my stuff in. It was a single room
with its own bathroom, which meant I didn’t have to share my space with anyone.
There was a vase of flowers and a key hanging from a BU lanyard, sitting on the
empty desk in the room.

“Wow,” Sadie
blew out as she took in the room. “Not exactly what you think of when you
picture a college dorm.” It was true that it wasn’t the typical tiny space, crammed
with two beds and a tinier closet. This room was spacious and easily
accommodated all the furniture my dad had bought. The bookshelf and entertainment
center were already set up and there was a small, but expensive, modern looking
sofa facing the entertainment center. The rest of my stuff was in boxes stacked
against one wall.

“Yeah, Daddy
insisted I got the best.” I think he was just as hopeful as I was that I
wouldn’t screw up this chance.

“Well then,
should we start unpacking?” Sadie asked.

I nodded and
we got to work. The first big box was full of clothes. Okay, so actually the
first three big boxes were all full of clothes, and another was filled with
shoes, which thankfully all fit in my oversized closet. I moved on to the next
box, hanging posters, pictures and a few pieces of artwork on my walls, while
Sadie started loading shelves with books and DVDs.

I saved the
prime spot on the wall beside my bed for my favorite poster. Pulling it from
the tube that had protected it, I unrolled it.

“Is it weird
that I have a picture of your boyfriend on my wall?” I stepped back to make
sure the Ashes and Embers poster wasn’t crooked. She looked over at me from
where she was still loading my entertainment center, and grinned.

“Not as long
as I don’t catch you drawing hearts all over his face.”

She didn’t
have to worry about that. Ace was not the band member I was most likely to draw
hearts on, or gaze at longingly and indulge in fantasies about.

She went
back to her task, pulling cases from the box and randomly shoving them on
shelves. I noticed that she’d moved on from DVD’s to my video game collection,
and it took everything in me to let her carry on with her haphazard shelving
instead of going over there and taking over. I had a very specific organization
system for my games, but I knew she would look at me like I was a crazy person
if I went over there and tried to explain to her that they had to be arranged
by platform and genre, then year and –

“Hey, be
careful with that,” I called as I watched her pull my custom, special edition,
X-box console from its case to be placed on the shelf that would be its new
home.

She rolled
her eyes, “Relax, I’m not going to break anything.”

Let’s see
her relax if it was me handling the precious guitar Ace had made for her
birthday. I still watched her nervously as next, she revealed my Wii,
Playstation and my mint condition, original Super Nintendo from their cases and
then set all of the cords and controllers in one tangled pile.

“Hey, can we
trade? I can’t figure out how to get these curtains up.” I held them out. It
was a lie, but I couldn’t take it anymore, and I’d rather not have to
reorganize and move everything around to hook it all up correctly after she
left.

“Sure,” she
hopped up and in no time had both sets of curtains up and my bed made, while I
got my consoles and games sorted.

By the time
the last of the
Mia
touches were put on the room, it was almost six, and
I was starved. “Want to get something to eat? We can check out the dining hall
here?” I asked.

For the
first time today, Sadie seemed hesitant and uneasy. “Actually, I need to talk
to you for a minute and then I have to get going. Ky asked me to check on Jax
since the guys are still on tour and she could pop out that baby any day now.”

“Oh, okay,”
I said somewhat disappointed. Even though I was excited for my college
experience to begin, I was also a little nervous about not knowing anyone. As
much as I relished the anonymity here and the chance to be whoever I wanted, at
least I knew what to expect from the people back home and what I had to do to
fit in. Everything and everyone here was an unknown. Time to suck it up though.
I took a deep breath and then plopped down on the couch. “What do you want to
talk about? If you’re going to give me the no drinking, drugs and sex talk, you
don’t need to worry. I want this to be a fresh start for me just as much as you
do. I’m not going to blow it by going wild. At least not on my first night,” I
joked.

Sadie forced
a soft chuckle and dropped down beside me. “No, that’s not what I need to talk
to you about. I know you’ll do great here. It’s about Mom and Dad.”

“What about
them?”

“I talked to
Dad yesterday, and he said they haven’t been able to work things out, that it’s
only gotten worse between them,” she said solemnly. It wasn’t surprising
though. Things between Mom and Dad had been strained for a while. They put on a
good front, but it was just that, a front. The tension and arguing had gotten
progressively worse over the past several months since my accident.

That wreck
hurt a lot of people. The damage was widespread.

“What does
this mean?” I asked her, not sure why she wanted to talk about it now.

“Dad said
they’re officially filing for a divorce. He moved out yesterday.”

“Oh.” I
wasn’t sure what else to say. While it wasn’t news that our parents weren’t
getting along, I never thought they would get a divorce. Even through all the
arguing and disagreements, a lot of them about me, I’d never doubted that my parents
still loved each other above all else, including their children. I figured with
me out of the house now, they’d figure out how to work things out. Not to
mention that divorces could be so humiliating in my mother’s circle. If nothing
else, I thought they’d stay together forever simply to preserve their good
image. Guess I was wrong.

“Dad says
it’s for the best, that it’s what they both want.”

“Mmhmm,” I
mumbled, still trying to process. Obviously things had been worse than I
thought, or maybe I’d just been too naïve to see this coming.

“Dad wanted
me to make sure that you know it’s not your fault, Mia.” I looked up and met
her eyes. Concern reflected in them.

“I know. Of
course it’s not,” I said automatically, but I couldn’t help but think that if I
hadn’t been so difficult, if I hadn’t caused so much trouble the last couple
years, especially this last one, they wouldn’t have fought so much. Mom and
Sadie could have probably made up too, if Mom hadn’t tried to blame Sadie for
being a bad influence on me.

“It’s not,
Mia,” Sadie repeated as if she could read my mind. “It’s nobody’s fault but
their own. It’s their problems and differences that caused this. Not you, not
me, not any of us, okay?”

“Yeah, I
said I know.”

“Okay, good.
Now I have to go, but you can call me if you need anything.”

I promised
her I would, and then she left. I sat there and looked around my room. My room.
My life. This was my chance to make something of it, to not be the
disappointment so many people thought of me as.

Here, I
wasn’t Mia, the youngest Pierce girl and the troubled one. I wasn’t party-girl Mia,
the girl who survived the drunk driving accident that killed two other students.
I wasn’t Mia, the wild child, the rebellious one, or anything else. I was just
Mia, for now, until I figured out who I wanted to be.

This was
going to be good. It didn’t matter that my family was a mess. Nothing mattered
but taking this opportunity for what it was – my chance to prove not only to
everyone else, but to myself, that I wasn’t all of those things. All of the bad
was behind me now. Only good things from now on, I promised myself.

My mood
slightly improved and, feeling more optimistic, I decided to venture out of my
room. I was hungry and needed food soon, and I couldn’t very well get started
on this new life if I stayed cooped up in my room. I grabbed my key from the
desk and wrapped the lanyard around my neck, and then left my room, locking it
behind me. I turned and almost smacked into a group that was walking past my
door.

“Oh, hey,”
one girl said, taking me in.

“Sorry,” I
muttered.

“It’s all
good,” one of the guys with her said. “What’s your name?”

“Uh, Mia.”

“Well Mia,
welcome to the Myles,” he grinned devilishly and right away I knew that he was
trouble. I’d seen smiles like that one before. “I hope you find everything to
your satisfaction, and if there’s anything you need, I’m Derek. I’ll do
whatever I can to ensure that your stay with us is a memorable and pleasant
one,” he winked. He obviously knew what he was working with, which was a very
handsome face and athletic build that, no doubt, made him a hit with the
opposite sex.

“Oh knock it
off, Derek,” one of the other girls, there were three of them, rolled her eyes
at him and then stepped forward. “I’m Jillian. This is Dawn,” she gestured at
the short blonde girl next to her, “and Heidi,” she indicated a darker haired
girl on her other side who had spoken first. “You’ve met Derek, our resident
idiot, and this is Leland, his sidekick.” She pointed at a tall guy standing
behind Derek, but at the word ‘sidekick’ he frowned and stepped forward.

“Hey, I’m nobody’s
sidekick.”

I chuckled.
Leland was cute. He was tall, with sandy blonde hair, light blue eyes and
dimples that appeared when he smiled at me. All of them appeared to be a couple
years ahead of me. I couldn’t be sure, but I guessed that they were at least
sophomores, if not juniors.

“It’s nice
to meet you guys,” I said, still smiling. “Would you mind pointing me in the
direction of the dining hall?” I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have any trouble
finding it, but thought it would be better if I had someone show me. I had this
fear of wandering around lost and then walking into the wrong room and looking
like an idiot.

“No problem.
That’s just where we were headed.” Jillian smiled and took my arm, pulling me
along with their group. “And on the way, you can tell us all about you, Mia.”