Beg You to Trust Me (Lindon U #2)(12)
CHAPTER SIX
SKYLAR
“Good, you answered,” is how Dad greets me a few days after my great escape from film class. “How are you, pumpkin?”
Pumpkin. He hasn’t called me that in a long, long time. He only uses it when he wants me to do something. Sadly, it usually works too. I may not be a daddy’s girl or have him wrapped around my finger like the other girls do, but I’m still a sucker.
“I’m…okay?” I mentally slap my forehead at how unbelievable that response sounds, which he takes notice of with a chuckle.
“You sound it,” he muses. I can picture him leaning back in his office chair at our house, legs tucked under his big oak desk that was custom made just for him. His mouth is probably tilted into a soft smile that makes the corners of his dark blue eyes wrinkle a little. While my sisters take more after our mom, both in looks and personalities, I have a little bit of both my parents. Dad’s height, like my sisters, Mom’s blonde hair, a combination of both my parents’ blue eyes—not too light or too dark—and Dad’s social anxiety.
Like me, he also isn’t big on talking over the phone. Though, to his credit, he checks in with me whenever he can now that I’m clear across the country.
“If this is about Serenity’s event…” I give an awkward smile to a few people who are walking down the library steps as I huff up the steep stairs toward the main entrance. “I’ve already told Mom and the girls I wouldn’t be able to come. It’s the weekend before midterms and I need to use the time to study.”
I only have three midterm exams and one paper to write. My film class doesn’t have any examination, though Professor Vincent says he may have some project due around that same time. Considering I’ve always held a 4.0 grade point average without much effort throughout high school, I’m not that worried about locking myself away with my books and notes leading up to the test days.
He doesn’t need to know that, though, even if he’s probably thinking the same thing. Where I may not have the outgoing, shiny personality of my sisters, I’ve always had the brains. I’d feel giddy whenever my parents praised my school reports, especially since they usually scolded me over other things like shutting myself in my room to read or how often I rolled my eyes over things I thought were stupid. Like Mom getting two new pairs of Louboutin stilettos even though she already has at least thirty she never wears. Or Sienna paying for tennis lessons even though she usually skips them.
“…a lot to her. Don’t you think?”
Oh crap. I swing open the heavy glass door to my favorite place on campus and walk through the metal detectors. “I zoned out a little, Dad. Sorry. Can you repeat that?”
His sigh is light, but not unsurprised. He’s always called me out on daydreaming in the middle of conversations. “I think taking even a day off to support her would mean a lot to Serenity, Skylar. She’s worked hard planning this event and she wants her family there.”
She wants to show herself as a family-oriented person because she thinks her boyfriend, Anthony, will look at the full picture and finally seal the deal. He’s always admitted he wanted a big family—a close one. She’s been trying to show him that’s what ours is, whether it’s true or not. It isn’t like any of us are on the outs. I text my sisters often and stalk them on social media since they’re always posting. I just don’t want to have to fly across the country every time she plans something, especially if it’s just so she can secure a rock on her finger.
They’ve been dating for three years and still aren’t engaged even though I’m almost positive my oldest sister has dropped hints a time or five. It’s only a matter of time before she gets frustrated and decides he isn’t worth it. It’s happened before, though I actually like Tony, so I hope she sticks this one out. I think she’d be depressed without him in her life, but what do I know? My experience with relationships is limited.
The only time my sisters gave me any advice on the matter was when I’d started seeing a boy in high school. I’d been on one date to the movies with him when they told me I needed to take him out for a test run to see if I liked the model, and considering they’d passed me condoms with wicked grins on their faces, I knew they didn’t mean an actual car ride.
Considering I graduated with high honors and my virginity intact, I obviously didn’t follow their instructions. I wasn’t ready, Ryan was, and neither of us compromised, so we went our separate ways.
I find myself walking on autopilot to the third floor where my favorite table is located. The third and fourth floors of the library have study rooms and quiet sections for students, separate from the open computer labs and tables near the indoor organic café.
Lindon spent a lot of money to make sure there was plenty of caffeine available, and it’s probably a good thing since I’ve been spending most of my free time here instead of in my room where Becca and I have created a clear divide between our spaces.
Since letting her convince me to go out with them a couple of times, I wasn’t about to get peer pressured into a third rendezvous. I don’t care if she thinks I’m lame for finding our room to be a safe haven away from the things that could happen when alcohol enters the equation.
Especially when DJ from Boston made it abundantly clear that I was so bad in bed the first time he didn’t want to ever have sex with me again.