Chapter 1

WREN

The ceiling of my dorm room had a crack in it shaped like a question mark. I'd spent the last three weeks staring at it. I had been on the list for a room change for a week. I kept staring at my phone, hoping for good news.

"Wren." Ross snapped his fingers in front of my face. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Uhm…yes. Sure."

"What did I just say?"

"Something about me complaining about housing."

He pointed at me. "Exactly. Go complain. They have a whole office for this. That's literally what it's there for."

I sat up on my bed and gestured broadly in the room.

 The radiator that only worked when it felt like it. The window let in more wind than light. The mysterious smell coming from the left corner vent that I had made peace with but should not have made peace with.

"Ross," I said. "I love you. But you are so aggressively unaware of how others live."

"What does that mean?"

"It means complaining to the office doesn't work when you're not paying premium rates. You know what they do with my complaint form? They put it in a pile. The pile has been there for a decade. I have seen it."

He looked around the room again like he was only now truly seeing it and he pressed his lips and sighed. "Okay yeah this is actually bad."

"Thank you."

"So just move in with me." he raised a brow.

I laughed hard, almost losing my breath.

I stopped laughing seeing the serious gaze on his face. "Wait. Are you serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be serious?" he tilted his head to the side.

"Because you live off campus in an actual apartment with functioning heat and I'm your friend not your charity case." I pointed out.

"You're my best friend," he said, as that settled it, like that was a complete sentence and an argument and a solution all at once.

 "The spare room is just sitting there. I'm not using it. You're suffering in this crack den. It makes sense to come stay there."

"Ross, I can't—" I shook my head.

"Wren. Come on." He nudged my shoulder. "It'll be fun. You're over all the time anyway. You might as well just stay."

I looked at him. He looked back at me with that open, easy face that had never once in twenty-one years held a single ulterior motive. That was the thing about Ross Calloway. He meant everything he said. Every single time.

Which was exactly why I couldn't tell him the reason I was hesitating had nothing to do with pride.

It had to do with his brother.

Ross knew me well enough to know something had happened between me and Dani two years ago. Though he didn’t know the details, I would rather be in the cracked ceiling dorm for the rest of my degree than let him find out. What he did know was that moving in meant that I would have to see Dani. Everyday, everywhere. I wouldn’t be able to hide like I have been doing. 

Dani Calloway. Twenty-three, the star quarterback. A resident of the very apartment Ross was currently inviting me to move into. I had been in love with Dani in a deeply inconvenient, entirely irrational way since I was a teen and made the mistake of watching him come out of a pool on a very hot sunny day. I felt my whole chest rearrange itself. I had spent four years since then being very normal about it. Even though I thought about him more than was reasonable.

I recalled my sixteen year old self who had put all my savings into getting him flowers and a note confessing my feelings right in the locker room with just him in it.

“What are you doing?” Dani stared up at me coldly, with my shaky hands i still held the bouquet and note in front of him and smiled.

“I-i like you.” i pressed it forward, he slapped it from me, letting it crash on the floor.

“Quit this rubbish, there's no way i could ever like you.” 

Those words were still buried in the back of my mind. I wanted to stay as far away from him as possible.

"Okay," I sighed.

Ross blinked. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. But I'm paying my share of the bills, I don't care what you say."

He was already grinning. "Fine. Move this weekend?"

"Sure."

I was fine. Totally fine. I just needed to avoid Dani, easy peasy. 

”I already asked Blake.” I said, almost like an afterthought, because it was important information that Ross needed to know about. “About moving in with him, he said no.”

Ross frowned for a moment. “He said no?”

“He said now wasn’t the right time, we’ve only been together for eight months, and moving in was a big step and…”

“Eight months isn’t a big step?” Ross was trying hard not to show how angry he was. Blake and the guys used to be very good friends while we were younger but suddenly after Ross’s injury during hockey training that led to him breaking his leg and being ineligible to play, they had drifted apart. And were now on opposite teams. Every mention of each other made them visibly annoyed.. “Wren, you were going to ask him because your housing situation is a crisis and he said no?”

“He has his reasons.” I defended him. “Besides there is no way you would want your girlfriend to live with two guys who you aren’t friends with anymore.” I shrugged.

“I’m sure he did.” He nodded, pressing his lips together. “I have never liked that guy from the very start of whatever you have with him, I keep telling you that he’s no good for you.”

“Ross, whatever problem you have with him and have refused to tell me, I hope you can put it in the past because he really cares for me.” I pressed my lips with a smile.

“I’m not going to say anything else about it.” He held up both hands. “I’m just stating a fact, he said no to someone he’s supposed to care about when she needs something practical and reasonable, it’s a fact, that’s all.”

He looked back, his jaw clenched and I could tell he was trying hard not to show just how angry he was.

“Thank you for asking me,” I said quietly, his face softened again. 

“Always.” He nudged my shoulders. “Let’s get you out of this room..”

I smiled. “You noticed the crack?”

“Of course Wren, that shit looks like a curse, I noticed it the first time I came here.” He shrugged, chuckling.

Moving in was easy enough. Ross helped carry boxes, ordered pizza, gave me the full tour like I hadn't been to the apartment a hundred times, and pointed out where they kept extra towels like he was presenting a museum exhibit. Dani wasn't home. I noted that with casualness, I tried not to track his movements. I mean who cares right? Right.

By evening I had my room mostly sorted, my clothes in the wardrobe, and my fairy lights up because I am just a ‘girl’.

“I will be back, I just need to grab some groceries,” Ross said.

“Oh, don't worry about me, I'll be fine, staying all alone….” Ross rolled his eyes with a smirk.

“I will only be gone for a few minutes. Try not to be so dramatic.” Ross nudged my shoulder. “Do you want anything?”

I’m okay.”

“You sure? Crisps? Chocolates?”

“Ross, go.”

He grinned and left, the front door clicked shut behind him, I lay back on my new bed and stared at the new ceiling, no crack, no issues and I loved it.

I shut my eyes already drifting to a comfortable sleep but popped them right open again. I needed water.

I pulled myself off the bed and since I was already familiar with the house I was able to know where the kitchen was. Half asleep I pulled my legs over the bed and walked out of the room. The kitchen light was on, Ross had left the kitchen light on and it had spilled some of its light into the corridor, making it easier for me to walk through.

I moved toward it and stopped.

Dani’s bedroom door slid a little ajar, not open, not closed.

A few inches was enough for me to see what was happening but I should have minded my business and kept walking. All I needed to do was to find my way to the kitchen and get myself some water but trying to figure out the sound coming from his room.

“Keep it down.” I heard him talking to someone but I couldn’t see who it was.

“Please go faster.” A lady moaned, my heart dropped, and I peeked closer seeing him right on top of her thrusting deep into her.

I gasped, pulling away again, I kept hearing her soft moans and peeked again only to be met with him looking my way… he was staring right at me, our eyes locked.

A smirk trailed up his lips.

I jerked back, he saw me!