4 Waxing & Waning Read Online Free Page A

the trek.
    “That’s good,” Aric said, his brown eyes searching my face. “How about you, Kelsey? How was your summer?”
    “Boys and beer,” Kelsey said. “Pretty much a typical summer.”
    “That’s good,” Aric said. “It sounds like you had fun. And you, Zoe? How was your summer?”
    I licked my lips, my mouth dry. “It was a summer.”
    “Not a good summer?”
    The truth was, the previous summer, the one I’d spent with him, had been the best of my life. There was no way I was telling him that. “It was just a summer,” I said. “Work. Some parties on the eighteenth green of the golf course. Jen. You know the drill.”
    “I do,” Aric agreed. “Nothing else happened?”
    “Nothing of consequence,” I said.
    “I … um … can we go somewhere and talk?”
    The hopeful look on his face almost broke me. Almost. “We are somewhere,” I said. “I’m not sure there’s anything for us to talk about.”
    “I think there is.”
    “Really?” I challenged. “What can you possibly say to me that changes what happened?”
    Aric swallowed hard. “I can’t change what happened,” he said. “I just want to find a way to make you understand my side of things. I want to make you … .”
    “What? Forgive you?”
    “Yes,” Aric rasped. “I need you to forgive me. I … miss you.”
    Tears were prickling my eyes, and I fought hard to tamp down the emotion flowing through me. He seemed lost – and I didn’t like seeing him that way. That didn’t mean I could forget – or even forgive – what had happened. “I can’t do what you want,” I said, getting to my feet.
    Kelsey and Paris wordlessly followed my lead.
    “Just … give me a chance,” Aric said, reaching out a hand toward me.
    I jerked back. If he touched me, I was afraid I would give in and tell him that everything was forgiven. “I can’t,” I said, my voice breaking. “I can’t trust you.”
    Aric nodded, shifting his head to look around the UC. “No. I guess you can’t.”

Four
    The Friday night before classes start on a college campus is officially “Party Night.” In mid-Michigan, the nights are still warm – the days even warmer – and you can practically feel festivity in the air. Even though my heart wasn’t in it, I reluctantly agreed to go out to a party with my roommates. Having a good time was out of the question. I was almost sure of it.
    “If you keep that look on your face, you’re going to scare everyone in a ten-block radius away,” Kelsey said.
    We were standing on the front porch of a house on fraternity row. The Alpha Chi house – Aric’s fraternity house – was two doors down. I was uncomfortable being in proximity to the house, and my gaze was constantly traveling to the sidewalk in case I found a familiar figure and needed to flee.
    So far, I’d been lucky.
    “I don’t have a look on my face,” I argued, taking a sip from the red plastic cup in my hand and grimacing. Keg beer – especially the cheap stuff served at college parties – leaves a whole lot to be desired.
    “You have a look,” Kelsey said.
    “Where did Paris go?”
    Kelsey pointed to a spot on the front lawn where Paris and her boyfriend, Mark, were arguing.
    “Ah.”
    “They’re not going to make it,” Kelsey said. “You know that, right?”
    “Yeah. I figured that out on my own.”
    “Do you think she’ll break up with him tonight?”
    I shrugged. “She’ll do it soon.”
    We both jumped when someone started playing the piano on the front porch. And, when I say playing, I mean slamming their fingers down in a rhythm that was nothing akin to actual music.
    “Who puts a piano on the front porch of a house?” Kelsey complained.
    “Drunk people?”
    “And who plays it?”
    “A drunk person?”
    Kelsey frowned, shifting her head so she could eye the piano player over her shoulder. “Hey! You suck.”
    The girl sitting on the bench a few feet away from us ignored the insult.
    “Hey!” Kelsey tried again.