I'm already awake when my alarm clock goes off Monday morning. I forcefully hit the off button as my sour mood prevented me from getting any sleep the night before. Liam called right before I went to sleep but our conversation lasted less than five minutes. Neither of us knows what to say to each other.
 
I sluggishly get ready for class but I refuse to put too much energy into my appearance. I just don't care today.

Mischa spots me coming out of my dorm room and she slides her arm through mine when she catches up to me.

"Hey, are you feeling better?" She asks me and I shrug my shoulders. I picked her up after I left the beach so we could go get her bike that was still locked up at the diner. She knew I looked awful but I refused to talk about Liam, knowing I would start bawling again so I lied and told her I had food poisoning.

"Not really. I knew we had a quiz today, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered going to class," I confess and we walk with our arms intertwined all the way to class.

I am glad she studied because I feed off all of her answers for the entire quiz. It's multiple choice so it's easy to follow along. I laid in bed all night last night trying to study but my brain refused to retain any of the information I was skimming through. I finally shut my textbook and shoved my earbuds in, trying to find songs that matched my horrific mood. Zoe had a paper due today so thankfully she spent almost the entire night in the library. I was pretending to be asleep when she came creeping in because my mood couldn't handle any of her weirdness.

I circle "B" for the last question and hang out a moment after Mischa finishes her quiz. I figure it would look odd if we finished at the exact same time. She walks up to the front of the room to turn in her quiz and I am bouncing my pen on the desk when she walks back over to me. She grabs her bag from the floor and lightly touches my back as she leaves class. Another great thing about college is as soon as tests and quizzes are over, we get to leave regardless of how much time is left.

I finally flip my pages to the front and walk my quiz up to the basket. I notice more than half of the class is still scribbling away, so I try and be quiet as I gather my things. When I am steps outside the classroom door, I see we still have a half hour of class time left. I spot a coffee cart down the hall and decide to try and fix my mood with caffeine.

I order a mocha and as I am waiting at the pick up counter, I feel my phone buzz. I see a text from Lily and I immediately open it.

Hey Ellie, sorry I've been MIA. New York is crazy. Harper told me last night that u've had somewhat of a hard time too so I am just checking in with u. Hope u r ok. I miss u like crazy and I will try and have a phone date with u soon. XOXO

My throat tightens and my fingers hover over the keyboard debating what to write her back. She seems like she's been stressed, so that last thing I want is to worry her with my problems.

Lily! It's sooooooo good to finally hear from u! This week will be madness b/c it's rush week for me so how about once that settles down, we can make a plan to facetime. I need to hear all about NY. XOXO

I reread what I wrote her and desperately want to tell her more. I want to be honest with her and spill everything that's been going on but I still keep my huge secret from her, so I know I will have to omit a few details. The barista slides my steaming mocha over to me and I go find a plush seat to kill some time. I've been debating all morning whether or not to go to Topher's class, even though we have our first quiz in that class today too. I didn't bother to study for his quiz either because I would love for him to try and call me out for cheating. I would love for him to taunt me just so I would have a valid reason to go off on him.

I have a sleep deprived headache and the caffeine is slowly helping. I glance to my phone hoping to see something from Liam but my screen remains blank. I am tempted to close my eyes as I sit here but I would be too embarrassed to take a nap in the middle of the science building. I decide to waste the time by mindlessly scrolling through social media. I notice Derek has posted that he is in a new relationship, so of course I investigate through all his new girlfriend's pictures. From what I can gather, she's way different from me and Harper. Her face is pretty plain and it looks like she grew up on a farm in Minnesota- which is ironic seeing she is dressed like the "dirt's" Derek hated oh-so-much back in high school. I screen shot her picture and quickly send it to Harper just as students come pouring into the hallways. I stow my phone back into my backpack and decide to make my way to the business building after all. I need to show Topher that I will put up a fight and I refuse to let him get to me.

I find a seat smack middle in the stadium seating and arrive a few minutes before Topher does. When he walks into the classroom, he scans the seats and his eyes run over me while observing his students file in. Once the last person settles into their seat, he pulls a thick stack of papers from his messenger bag. He breaks the large stack into smaller ones and sends the packets down each row. When I am handed my test, I glance to Topher before reading the first question. I quickly circle the multiple choice answers with help from the person to my right and I listen in closely to the person on my left for the fill in the blank questions. I keep glancing to Topher and I let my mind remain open for the duration of the test. After listening in to the people around me, I gather what I need to know for the paragraph questions and as I jot down my final answers I give one last look to Topher who is now staring at me. He knows I am openly cheating and I am just waiting for him to say something to me. I put my pencil down but instead of walking my test up to the front of the class, I wait until the very last person hands in their paper. I watch the door close and now it's just me and Topher in the classroom. I pick up my backpack and snatch my quiz from my desk. I keep my head down as I walk to the front of the classroom but I make eye contact with him as I hand in my paper.

"Eleanor, you know I can't accept this. I specifically told you my policy on cheating," Topher says as he hands my paper back to me.

"Go ahead and report me then," I snap back and Topher's eyes narrow.

"Don't tempt me. This university doesn't take cheating lightly." He warns but I keep my eyes glued to his as I reply, "Well I don't take you threatening to take Liam away from me lightly. So go ahead and try to fail me. Piss Liam off even more. I dare you." Topher shakes his head but I thrust my paper back into the pile of completed quizzes.

"Your threats fall flat with me Eleanor. I can easily get you kicked off this campus and still leave with Liam to Virginia," he says flatly.

"He'll hate you for it. You'll never have the relationship you want with Liam if you force him to go with you."

He starts gathering up all the papers on his desk as he says, "We'll see. But to be honest I don't think it's my relationship with Liam that you should be concerned with. Now, as far as I know Kappa Delta's have to have a minimum G.P.A of a 3.0, so I would suggest you use more of your free time to study and less of it worrying about things out of your control. You already failed one quiz and that might just make you ineligible for rush week."

"I didn't fail that quiz. I know I did quite well in fact," I snark back and he suddenly swings his messenger bag so it sits in front of him. I see him pluck my quiz from the pile and he holds it up for me to see.

"Oh this quiz?" He asks as his eyes stare at my paper. Instantly, my paper is on fire and I watch the orange flames smoother my answers as he hold onto the corner. He moves it over to the trashcan next to the desk and I watch the ashes fall into the bin. Once the last shred of paper floats into the trash, he snaps his fingers and the smoke subsides. He just produced fire out of thin air and I am too gobsmacked to say a damn thing.

"Funny, I didn't receive a quiz from you so as far as I'm concerned, you missed class today which results in an automatic zero," he spits and he turns on his heel to walk away from me and out the door. I swiftly move to the trash can and see tiny flakes of black paper covering the bottom. I kick the trashcan over and it rolls until it hits the wall the whiteboards sit on. I leave the mess behind me as I hit the classroom door open.

I march my way back to my dorm room and I glare at anyone that cuts in front of my path. My mood went from sour to horrific and I don't bother calling Liam to tell him why. I can't fight with him anymore.

When I reach my door, I press my ear against it to see if Zoe is doing anything annoying inside. I don't hear any noises or tribal music so I swipe my card and stumble my way through the door. I hear it click shut behind me and I dump my backpack on the floor. I am standing in the middle of the room and all I want to do is let out an ear piercing scream. My life cannot be falling apart around me.

This time last year, I was trekking along, queen bee of my prestigious high school than BAM! Liam pops in out of nowhere and flips my life upside down. Now this year, everything is status quo and BAM! Topher pops in and once again takes a sledge hammer to my life. The Greysor men have a way of making a mess of everything.

I close my eyes and suck in a deep breath through my nose. My heart is thundering and I am doing everything I can not to let out a frustrated cry. I pull my hands to my face and rub my eyes as I try to regain control of my emotions. I have my first rush week activity in three hours and joining a sorority is the last thing on my mind. I know I need to go, but I don't know if my brain will allow for any more thoughts to process today. I can't focus on Kappa Delta when I'm consumed with thoughts of Liam leaving me. It's not fair.

I realize I want to take a page from Liam's book and push my emotions off a cliff for a bit. I snatch my keys from my desk and swiftly walk out to my car. I aggressively drive down to Liam's place and I find a parking spot on the road outside his gate. I quickly punch in the code numbers and dart through the sliding door. I see his car parked in the driveway, so I continue to march my way through the back yard and up his front steps. My hand lingers above his door knob but I find the courage to turn it. I'm relieved when it's unlocked and I find a startled Liam waiting for me on the other side. He has a towel wrapped around his waist and he runs his hand through his wet hair as he sees me. I close the distance between us in five steps and right as he's about to say something I put my hand up to cover his lips.

"Don't say anything. Just kiss me," I whisper and Liam hastily clutches onto my face with his hands. His lips find mine and we are both desperate to hold onto each other. He finds my hips and hoists me onto the counter behind us in the kitchen. I am now level with him and I wrap my legs around his waist. We can both hardly breathe but I pull his hips into me with my legs and his hand instantly goes up my shirt. I run my hands down his toned tanned chest and my fingers trace the line of his towel. We momentarily stop kissing as he tugs my shirt off and it's the first time we look at each other.

"I don't want to think about anything right now Liam, I just want you," I plead and I see the twinkle in Liam's eyes again. He softly kisses me again and then I feel his kisses grow more desperate. His hands slide around me and he lifts me off the counter and over to his bed. His eyes tell me he wants me just as much as I want him and I decide that I won't let anything ruin this moment. I'm surrendering to my feelings and not asking for permission to get what I want. I just want us to collide.