Bound To You (Previously The Hard Mate) - Preview

Chapter Four

"I've been thinking," said Sorelle, who was helping to fold the last of my clothes and put them in my suitcases. It was about nine forty-five the day after the party. "This might actually be better."

"What might actually be better?" I said, deciding I didn't want to bring my i bite T-shirt and putting it in the huge reject pile I had going on, on the bed next to my suitcases. I actually wanted to throw all the neatly packed things on the floor and stomp on them. Real mature, I know. But I didn't. Because I had no reason to be upset, but I kind of was anyway. It was all happening too fast and not the way I'd hoped.

"Canada is a lot closer than California," Sorelle said, pushing some blond hair back from her face. "At least as long as it's, like, the eastern bit of Canada. Is it?"

"I'm not sure. Probably. I mean, if it was Vancouver, we'd be flying, right?"

"So, like, not super far," she said, nodding and licking her lips. "So we'll still be in the same time zone and it'll be totally easy to drive and see each other."

"Yeah," I agreed, "that's true," before reaching for my extra cell phone bag. It was a specially designed one. You could change the straps so that it either worked like a cell phone shoulder bag or as a mini backpack for when you were in werewolf shape. That way you'd never

have to leave your cell phone or cash or stuff behind if you had to change quickly.

"Still fucking sucks that we won't get to go to even one end-of-summer party this year," she said, sitting down on a tiny bit of the bed that didn't have clothes on it.

"Yeah, it's not at all happening the way I was expecting it to," I said, closing one of the suitcases to make room so I could sit next to her. "I mean, I wasn't expecting chocolate and a declaration of undying love the first night."

"Don't lie, you were so expecting that!" she said with a grin.

I giggled. "Okay, maybe a tiny bit, but what I really wasn't expecting was . . ."

"Mr. Asshole?"

"He's not an ass," I said defensively, even though I had no real clue what James was. So far all I knew was that he was distant and bossy. But who knew? Maybe once we spent some time alone, he'd turn into a teddy bear.

"He sounds like one to me," she said, bumping her shoulder against mine. "It's going to be weird. I mean, I'm sort of prepared because you were leaving me for movie stars and frost-free winters—"

"Hey, my second-choice school was MIT," I said. Sorelle was going to art school in Boston and so I'd applied to several universities there. Part of it was that Massachusetts had a whole lot of good schools for engineering, but the idea of having my BFF around had been a big bonus. "I can't help that I was awesome enough to get into Caltech."

"I'm pretty sure MIT is more awesome than Calte—"

"Maybe, but LA's got way nicer beaches—"

"Boston's got the Red Sox—"

"Oh, please, you don't even like baseball—"

Our play arguing cut off, both of us glancing toward the door. Someone was coming up the stairs to the second floor; we could hear it and knew what it meant. Time was up.

Sorelle reached forward, wrapping her arms hard around me. I held on to her just as tight. She sniffed some but I knew she wouldn't cry. During all the years I've known her I've never seen her cry, not even as a kid.

"Canada isn't that far away," she whispered close to my ear. "We'll visit all the time."

"Yes," I said, still hugging her, not willing to let go. Sorelle had been my best friend, the one person I talked to and shared more with than anyone in the world, for so long. It was really hard to imagine life without her.