Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
“Maybe…maybe I remember him. What’s his name?”
Donnelly expels a short breath, his hand slipping back through his hair. “Keagan Bell.”
Keagan…Bell.
Bell, Keagan. I fight for an image, for a fact, for a sign—anything to help figure out my history with him. But…there’s nothing.
Just tabloids of us kissing. Just these recent texts and calls that border on harassment.
“Okay,” I murmur.
“Okay?” His brows spring.
I nod, knowing he just wants to keep me safe, and I want that too. Swiftly, his arms curve around my shoulders, and we’re hugging so fiercely that I pretend our spacecraft is experiencing unexpected turbulence. And we’re keeping each other stable with the mighty force of our love, with the enduringness of two cosmic entities.
If death occurs, it’ll be in each other’s arms.
JANUARY
“You have to be with other people…In order to live at all. I mean, before they came here I could stand it, being alone in the building. But now it’s changed. You can’t go back…You can’t go from people to nonpeople.”
— Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
CHARLIE & LUNA’S TEXT THREAD
Jan 5th
10:12 p.m.
Luna: Do I ever mention a Keagan Bell??
10:45 p.m.
Charlie: No.
Charlie: Not by name.
Luna: Any mention of guys I met at a club?
10:57 p.m.
Charlie: Yes, but only in relation to your dad being protective. I can send you the excerpts if you want them.
Luna: No, that’s okay. I just wanted to know my feelings on these guys.
11:44 p.m.
Charlie: Why?
Luna: Idk…I guess I want to believe I chose wisely and that I saw something in Keagan that I liked. But I doubt it’d make me feel any better to know.
Luna: Donnelly is the only one I really want.
Luna: If that wasn’t clear.
Charlie: It’s clear.
Luna: Phew. I was worried I’d need to spell it out in the sky.
Luna: I still might do that.
28
LUNA HALE
January rings in the start of the year when New Year’s resolutions have yet to be failed and the Orion and Taurus constellations brighten the winter sky. Fresh beginnings can practically be smelled in the crisp air. People light-footed with the hope of a good year.
I’d be prancing around too, if not for the new semester nerves.
College.
Still can’t believe OG Luna took a swing at it. She didn’t quite hit it out of the park, which is why I’m at bat now, looking for my first homerun. And why—why am I thinking in baseball metaphors? Has to be because Donnelly was talking about the Phillies last week. He said he’d like to go to a game with me, Oscar, and Farrow in the spring.
I’m being included in his friendship circle, which might be as strange for me as he’s felt being incorporated into mine. Sure, I’m friends with Farrow, but our interactions rarely involve both Donnelly and Oscar. To Farrow, I’ve mostly been “Maximoff’s sister” rather than “Donnelly’s girlfriend”—new titles, new feelings.
I’d like to think Donnelly and I would seamlessly fit in each other’s worlds. I’d also like to think our two worlds can become one. But I wonder if that’s more fanfic than reality.
I can’t worry about infiltrating the deep bonds of friendship. Not when I’m…lost?
I glance down at my phone for the fourth time since I landed on campus. The digital map hasn’t helped much.
I’ve been to the University of Pennsylvania a handful of times when I was an itty-bitty child. So the memories are fuzzy around the edges. Uncle Connor often gave speeches to business students, and I think my parents brought me along to hear him.
In the past three years, I’m sure I’ve ventured here twice as many times. But with those memories completely gone, I feel like an unprepared freshman who skipped out on orientation. Just feeling my way through.
I zoom in and out of the map with my fingers. It only makes me more confused, and I’m silently kicking myself for rejecting Ben’s offer to be my campus tour guide. I thought I could do it myself.
It didn’t seem so hard.
It’s not, Luna.
These are just directions. Class hasn’t even started yet! I blow out a long breath. I’m at a standstill next to a bubbling fountain. Water spurts out of a dome of cast iron ivy leaves.
Frog and Quinn stay ahead of me, waiting. Both sport Penn sweatshirts, appearing like regular ole college students. They’re also young enough to blend in that I even forget they’re here to watch over me and not attend lectures.
“Luna?” Frog approaches, toting a trendy leather backpack.
I think the most unbelievable thing would be her being friends with me. But Frog has said, “We were friends before you-know-what, but it’s not a high priority—our friendship. Don’t be that concerned about it or anything. I don’t even think I should be telling you this.” She let out a breath. “I’m your bodyguard first and foremost. Your Number One Protector. Quinn is Number Two, and ignore him when he tries to pull out the seniority card. He’s still two.”