“I'm. So. Exhausted.”

“It was so worth it though! Now you're finally ready for college.”

Looking at the garbage bags full of most my old clothes I laughed and let my head fall back onto my pillow. “I think you're right.”

“Now we just need to get you comfortable being around cute guys and you'll be golden. What's your type?”

Your brother. “Um, I'm not sure I have a type.”

“So no preferences? Hair color, eye color, skin color? Athlete, geek, musician?”

Rugged surfer, with dirty blond shaggy hair, impossibly blue eyes, the most breath taking smile you've ever seen and cover him in tattoos. I'll take that, please? “Nope, none. We'll just have to start from scratch.”

Just thinking about his tattoos had me biting my lip and fantasizing again about tracing them with my fingers. He was exactly the kind of guy Sir would hate, so naturally I was drawn to him.

“Hey Bree?”

“Yeah?”

“There's kind of something I've wanted to do for a whi– You know what, never mind.”

She sat up on her knees bouncing, “No you don't! You have to tell me now. You've wanted to do what?”

“Well there's a lot of things. But it'd probably be a bad idea to do them all at once. I should spread them out, and think about them more.”

“I'm waiting Harper.”

I sighed and scooted up against the wall, “I want to get a couple piercings.”

“Pfft, I thought you were about to say something juicier than that.” Figures she wouldn't be excited, each of her ears had four piercings.

I frowned at her.

“Okay, okay! What piercings do you want?”

“Um, I don't know what they're called. But here, and here.” I pointed a finger to my upper lip, and another to my ear.

“Oh cute! Your lip is called a Monroe, and your ear is a tragus. I actually really want my lip pierced too! Do you want to go get them done together sometime?”

I looked down before stealing a sideways glance, “Could we maybe go right now? Eighteen years of not being able to do what I want, I'm kind of impatient.”

“Harper, I'm pretty sure we're going to be best friends.” Without another word she shot off her bare mattress and headed for the door. Guess that means we're going.

I'm really glad she knew the area, because she drove right to a tattoo parlor, and after chatting it up with the piercer, we were sitting in his room picking out the studs before I could even think about this possibly being a bad idea. To my surprise, I wasn't even nervous ‘til I was sitting on his chair and he was putting the markers on me. “Oh my God, Breanna I need your hand.”

She laughed and sauntered up to me.

“Don't laugh, you're next.” That shut her up.

“Okay deep breath in.” The piercer said, “Annnnd blow out.” After he finished putting the one in my ear, he opened up a new packet and got to work on my lip. “Another deep breath in...and blow out.”

My eyes were watering, but thankfully it was done. I glanced in the mirror and a huge smile crossed my face, I absolutely loved them.

“Oh my God those are perfect for you! Ahh I'm so excited for mine now!” Bree had also decided to get her tragus pierced so we both were getting two, but she and the piercer had agreed her bottom lip would be better for the way her mouth was set.

Another ten minutes and hers were done, I made her eat her words when she grabbed my hand at the last minute and squeezed until I thought I'd never get the circulation flowing again. We paid the guy and ran to her car, looking into the visor mirrors before we left.

“Are your parents going to mind?”

“What? No way. Have you seen my brother? They love his tattoos so they aren’t going to care about this. Besides I'm pretty sure I couldn't get them mad at me even if I tried.” She laughed, “Let me guess, daddy's gonna be pissed?”

“Ha! Yeah, I'm almost positive he's going to try to rip them out. Good thing I'm not going home for ten months!”

“Ten months?! What are you doing for winter break?”

I shrugged, “Stay here. It wouldn't be much different than being there. We don't spend much time together if we're in the same house.”

“Jeez Harper, you had the most depressing childhood didn't you?”

“Not really, I mean it's all I've ever known. I thought it was normal until a few weeks ago when you and I started e-mailing.” I think I need to stop talking about my past, because I always seem to depress everyone. “So...dinner?”

She smiled and turned to glance at me, “You read my mind roomie, let’s grab some burgers then we can stay at my house tonight. We'll move my stuff into the dorm tomorrow.”

3

After orientation that next week, classes had started this last Monday and the first week had flown by. Breanna and I both loved our professors, and thankfully they didn't seem like they'd be too hard. I hadn't seen any of the guys from Chase's house, but that was my fault, I'd been avoiding them until today. Bree always ate lunch with them and though I'd made excuses the first three days, I was tired of eating alone in my room already. I'd never admit it out loud, but after Bree left for her first class this morning, I changed my outfit three times and spent extra time on my make-up. My entire body was shaking just thinking about seeing Chase and I still had to sit through a class, thankfully I only had one today, and that was the last one for the week. Just as class let out, I received a text from my roommate making sure I'd be there today because she was already holding a seat for me. No getting out of it now.