Page 73 of Sincerely, Butterfly

“It’s not,” I agree.

Part of me is wondering if this is some big joke, like any second now she’s going to start laughing and tell me I’m a weirdo or something.

“Shit.” Her eyes widen as she pulls her phone out. “I’m going to be late for my first class.”

Grabbing my phone, I check the time. “Damn it. Me too.”

“What’s your class?”

“Biology in the Royce building.”

“No way,” she laughs. “Me too. Wanna walk together?”

Did I just make a new friend?

“Yeah.” I smile, nodding and feeling a bit more giddy than I should.

It’s not that I didn’t want friends growing up, it’s just that no one wanted to be my friend. No one but the guys, that is. And that was only until they decided that I didn’t fit into their world.

“Let's go before we’re late on our first day. I’d never hear the end of it from my brother.” She groans as we start to walk towards the building our class is in.

“Is he controlling?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “Just protective, they all are.”

“They?”

“My brother and his friends. They’re kind of like my brothers, too. They’re just as fucking annoying as he is, that’s for sure.” She rolls her eyes, making me laugh.

“I wouldn’t know what that’s like. I’m an only child.”

She sighs. “Once I left for boarding school, I kind of felt like one. I only came home to visit a handful of times. It was just me, alone in another country."

My brows furrow. “What about your mom and dad?”

“It’s complicated.” She looks off into the distance. “My whole life is.”

“I can understand complicated.”

She turns to me with a soft smile. “At least I’m not alone.”

Yeah. Me too.

Callie and I sat in the front row of our biology class, both of us enthralled with everything our professor talked about. It was mostly an introduction to the class and what we should expect to learn, but I find myself excited.

Crest Wood wasn’t a bad school, academically, it’s one of the best in the country, but a university is a whole different ball game.

One I’m looking forward to playing. I’m just going to have to make sure I keep up with my studies so my…extracurricular activitiesdon’t bleed together.

Get it, bleed, murder.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Callie comments at the end of class as we walk out of the building.

“I’m looking forward to it. You?”

“Same.” She grins. “What’s your next class?”

I look at my call schedule before answering. “I have nothing until the afternoon. But it’s physics.”