[ G R A C E ]

"Yo Emerson, wake up!" A loud pounding on the door caused me wake with a jolt.

What the hell...?

Oh. Right.

I was in Griffin's room.

I looked over at my brother, who was still passed out on his bed, and snuggled into my blanket hoping whoever was at the door would give up and leave.

"Emerson, if you don't open this damn door in the next ten seconds, I will come in there and personally beat your ass."

Geez.

Griffin still made no movement. It amazed me how he was able to keep sleeping through this racket.

Sighing, I slowly got up and walked to the door. My muscles were still sore from last night's events and I had a slight headache due to the lack sleep.

Trying my best to keep from scowling, I opened the door.

Obviously my brother was living with male models because the boy standing before me had such striking features that I almost had to take a step back.

He had bright blue eyes and hair so blond it almost looked white. He looked to be literally emitting a glow. He was also probably well over 6'.

His looks didn't rid me of the irritation I felt at the moment though. "Can I help you?" I asked as nicely as I could.

All he could do was stare at me, his wide eyes taking in my form.

"I'm Griffin's sister." I said, wanting the awkward silence to be over. I also wasn't in the mood for more misunderstandings.

This seemed to snap the boy out of his trance and he finally spoke. "Emerson has a sister?"

"It would appear so."

A shit-eating grin broke out on his face. "I'm Bryce. Bryce Miller. Resident bad boy and renowned athlete." He extended his hand.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Seriously? Who talked like that. But since I really didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with another one of Griffin's roommates, I took his hand mine. "Grace Emerson."

"Well Grace, I sure wasn't expecting to see you this morning."

Well, I wasn't planning on being here this morning, I wanted to say.

"I'll be attending Carson in two weeks. My dorm won't be ready till then, so I'm crashing here for a few days."

"You're welcome here as long as you need."

His statement was so genuine that it made me uncomfortable. No one was nice unless they wanted something. And I could only imagine what he'd want from me.

"Yeah, thanks." I was ready for this conversation to end. "Did you need something?"

"Oh yeah!" Bryce exclaimed, remembering why he had knocked in the first place. He stepped into the room and walked over to Griffin's bed where my brother was still in dreamland.

He picked up a stray pillow on the way and whacked him on the chest with it.

Griffin jumped up, screaming. "What the hell, man? Let me fucking sleep!"

Roaring with laughter, Bryce looked over at me and winked, then turned back to Griffin.

"Hit the showers, Emerson, coach called us in for an early practice today."

"Ah shit, I can't." Griffin responded, his eyes flicking over at me.

"Go to your practice, dickbag. I'll be fine on my own for a few hours." I regretted it as soon as I'd said it. What was I going to do in this place by myself?

Griffin looked unsure, but I knew how important being on the team was to him.

"Go already." I insisted.

"Okay."

***

I laid back down for an hour or so after my brother had left with Bryce, but decided my time would be better spent doing something productive like prepping for classes.

Gathering my toiletries from my duffel, I used Griffin's bathroom to wash up and then exchanged yesterday's clothes for a fresh pair of jeans and a graphic tee.

Finally feeling a bit better, I opened up my laptop to go over some of the course content when I realized that I didn't have the wifi password.

Motherfucker.

I groaned in frustration. Everything just had to be online these days.

Grabbing my laptop, I made my way downstairs, hoping to find it posted on the fridge or something. Knowing my brother, I expected it even.

What I didn't expect to see though, was Scott. Sitting on one of the stools of the breakfast island. In pyjamas. Eating a bowl of cereal.

I stopped walking just as he lifted eyes up to meet mine. We stared each other for a few moments in silence. I guess since our first impressions of each other weren't great, with him assuming I was a pimp and me throwing that in his face, neither of us had wanted to run into one another anytime soon.

But if I was going to stay here for two weeks, I needed to make amends. Not that I gave two shits about what one of Griffin's roommates thought of me, but because I didn't want to cause any trouble for him.

Scott was still looking at me when I addressed him. "Didn't you have practice this morning?"

He took a moment to reply, probably surprised I had even spoken to him.

"Practice was held only for the defencemen. I'm an attacker."

"Cool... I didn't know Griffin played in defence."

I tried to keep my tone as casual as possible, but it was hard for me since I rarely tried to make conversation with anyone.

"Why don't you know which position your brother plays in?" Scott asked me, annoyance lacing his voice.

"Because I have better things to do than follow Carson's lacrosse team." I snapped, without meaning to.

Scott looked taken aback.

"Are you always this rude?"

"I don't know, are you always this much of an asshole?"

Fuck, this wasn't going the way I'd hoped. All I had wanted to do was apologize for acting out last night, but I was just making things worse. It almost seemed as though I couldn't help but unleash my fury around Scott.

I took a deep breath to help me keep my temper at bay and was just about to call truce when something strange happened.

Scott smiled.

I was blinded with rows of straight, white teeth and a dazzling twinkle in his eyes.

This somehow got on my nerves even more.

"Why are you smiling?" I gritted out.

"Because."

"Are you going to finish that sentence, or am I going to have to punch you in the face?"

This time, he chuckled. He actually chuckled. The fucking nerve on this kid. He was pissing me off more and more by the second.

"I've just never had any girl speak to me like they wanted to wring my neck, that's all."

"Well, as we discovered last night, I'm not the kind of girl you think I am."

Great, now I sounded like a total cliché. But, baby, don't you see? I'm different from all the other girls!

Scott sobered up instantly and a look of discomfort came over his face. "Yeah... about that-"

"It's cool." I said, before he apologized or something. "I was a total bitch anyway, so I think we're even."

Scott thought about this for a second, then nodded.

With nothing left to say, I turned to go back upstairs when I remembered I still needed to wifi password.

"Hey, do you mind giving me the wifi password?" I asked, spinning back around.

"Sure."

I handed my laptop over and couldn't help but watch Scott's fingers steadily stroke the keys as he typed in the password.

"Thanks." I muttered quietly. Again, I wasn't used to things like thanking people. Except maybe Griffin.

"So, you're a physics major?"

"How the fuck did you know that?" I hated when people knew things about me. From my experience, nothing good ever came out of it.

Scott held up his hands. "Chill, woman. I just saw the 'Introduction to Electricity and Magnetism' syllabus on your desktop and assumed."

I gave him a pointed look that said I didn't believe him.

"I'm a physics major too, so I know only incoming first years have to take that course."

Oh.

"Then I guess you already know I am one." I took my laptop from him and walked back to the staircase before calling out again.

"Oh and Scott? I have a name. It's Grace. Use it next time instead of 'woman'."

With that, I made my way back to Griffin's room.

[ S C O T T ]

This was the second time in the past twelve hours that this girl had rendered me speechless.

And no one made me speechless. Ever.

When she showed up at our door last night, there was a hint of desperation in her eyes. That's why I had assumed she was a lacrosse groupie.

But when Griffin came downstairs and I saw them embrace, I knew it wasn't that type of desperation.

She was vulnerable. She needed someone to be there for her, to help her. And something told me she didn't ask for help often.

My heart had lurched at that moment. For a split second, there was a part of me that wanted to be the one to be her hero.

But then she'd gone and opened her mouth.

Damn, the girl was a little firecracker with the mouth of a tyrant. I swear, I'd never heard so much cursing come out of a woman before.

It was insane.

She was insane.

And I was insane because I was still thinking about her.

I shook my head to push any thoughts about my roommate's sister out of my mind just as my phone rang.

I Am Your Father, read the display screen. I smiled at my cleverness.

"Hey Dad. How's it going?" I said, as my way of greeting. Then added, "Are you okay?"

A deep and frail laughter came through the phone.

"Always worrying about your old man, aren't you, Scooter?"

Scooter.

Only my dad called me Scooter. And he said it so damn lovingly that I fucking felt like flying every time I heard him say it.

Maybe I just loved it because it meant he was okay. Happy. Alive.

"That's what sons do, Dad. They worry about their aging fathers."

"Ah, my boy. Always the hero."

"Far from it. Anyways, how are you?"

"I'm great. Listen, I called because I wanted to have some lunch with you. Talk about a few things. Are you free right now?"

Talk about a few things?

My heart began hammering in my chest. This couldn't be good. Talking was never good.

"Is everything okay?" I barely managed to choke out.

"Oh, everything's fine. Stop worrying, worrywart. Can you meet me for lunch then?"

"Of course I can. I'll be there in half an hour."

"Alright son, see you soon."

"See you." I clicked off my phone and scrambled out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

On my way to my room, even with all the rush I was in, I couldn't help peeking into Griffin's room when I noticed the door was slightly ajar.

Grace was sitting cross legged on the futon, pillows and blankets neatly folded to her right, reading something on her laptop with obscene concentration. Her hair was up in a bun and the bruise on her cheek was glowing from the sunlight entering through the window on her left.

I wondered what had happened to her face. I hoped it was an accident because the only other possibility would be that someone had hurt her. For some reason, that didn't sit well with me.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and walked to my room, which was two doors from Griffin's.

I changed out of my pyjamas and pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt in thirty seconds time. As I grabbed my car keys and headed out, I made a quick decision to let Grace know I was leaving.

I softly rapped on Griffin's door and waited.

A few seconds later, the door was pulled wide open with a very pissed off looking Grace on the other side.

"Yes?"

So rude.

"I'm heading out. Just wanted to let you know."

"Why?"

She was fucking impossible.

I resisted the urge to kick myself for even wanting to be courteous.

"Because I have manners, something you obviously don't." I gave her a narrow-eyed look, but she remained unaffected by my words.

"Well, thank you so much for gracing me with your manners." she told me, sarcasm dripping off every word.

"You're very welcome, Gracie."

I may or may not have overheard the threat she made to Griffin about calling her Gracie when I finally found my way upstairs last night.

I felt guilty about it then, but the look of utter disbelief on Grace's face right now made any guilty conscience fly right out the window.

Her eyes were bugging out. And for a moment, mixed in with all that disbelief and annoyance in her eyes, there seemed to be a tiny bit of amusement.

A teeny tiny, microscopic bit.

I gave her a sickly sweet smile and waved her farewell as I turned to make my way down the stairs.

***

Carson Falls Retirement Home

I hated that fucking sign. I'd argued with my dad until my throat was sore to let me pay for a personal carer. But he wouldn't have it.

The money your grandparents left you is to be used to pay for college and other expenses. Not to be wasted after me.

I parked near the front of the entrance and walked around back, towards the courtyard.

The courtyard was our place. Dad and I had lunch there two days a week, every week.

As I neared our usual table, my dad's salt and pepper hair entered my line of vision. He was sitting with his back to me, indulged in a book. Two plates of what looked like a pasta dish and two water bottles were placed in front of him.

Pasta? He had requested pasta? Oh, shit.

It was an old habit of his; whenever he wanted to tell me something he thought would upset me, he'd start by feeding me one of my favorite foods.

"Hey, old man." I called out, when I was close enough.

He put his book down and smiled at me warmly.

"Scooter, my boy, you made it."

"Of course." I took a seat opposite to him. "I see we're having pasta."

My dad cleared his throat.

And that's when I realized.

He was nervous.

Once again, my heart began pounding wildly in my chest. I couldn't take this anymore, I had to know what was going on.

"Dad, what is going on?" I questioned, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible.

"You just got here," he tried to excuse, "Let's have lunch first. You must be hungry."

"No." I pleaded. "Please, tell me what's going on."

He took a deep breath and seemed to be gathering his thoughts.

At this point, bizarre scenarios were going through my head.

He was going to tell me I was adopted.

He was going to tell me he was dying.

He was going to tell me-

"Son, I think I'm in love."

------

Hey there :D

Thank you for reading this..

<3

NOTE: I know a lot of you aren't huge fans of mid-chapter POV changes, so I promise, this is the one and only chapter in the book that has one!