All That Remains Read Online Free

several weeks of backing out and making up excuses, she’s finally relented and agreed to go to a party in exchange for an all-night cram session before final exam. It seemed a good deal at the time, but as she rides the elevator down to the first floor of her building, she’s starting to question her decision.
    “Jules!” Debbie, a short athletic girl with large brown eyes and a short pixie haircut, shouts as Jules steps off the elevator and into the common area. “We were wondering if we were going to have to come after you.”
    Jules glances at her phone. Eight-thirty. Right on time. She rolls her eyes and waves, making her way to the small group of costumed co-eds standing around outside of her classmates’ dorm. A few of the girls are already sipping from cups and Jules can’t help but glance around to be sure the R.A. isn’t lurking around to catch their underage drinking.
    Always the good girl, Jules, she sighs, as her brain mocks her.
    When she’d agreed to go to ‘a party’ with Debbie and Lisa, she had no idea exactly who was throwing the party. As they drive off campus and into a nearby neighborhood filled with nearly identical houses all decorated with school colors and Greek letters, she starts to get the hint. They’re still three weeks from the official move-in day for fall semester, so she’s surprised there’s much going on on campus right now. But A&M isn’t Tyler, Texas. This isn’t backwoods bonfires and high school. Jules is about to get her first real taste of college life.
     
    * * *
     
    It was an interesting sight, all of the tacky eighties gear and crazy drunk co-eds wandering around the small box house with the neatly trimmed yard. Entering the house, she reminds herself of the plan:
    Follow all the rules about college parties you’ve learned from countless on-line articles, your friends back home, and even Mom and Dad.
    Number One: Don’t drink anything you didn’t pour or watch being poured.
    Number Two: Don’t put your cup down.
    Number Three: Don’t leave said party with a boy drunk.
    Number Four: Don’t leave said party with any boy. (That one was her parents’.)
    Debbie, Lisa, and the other girls don’t seem to subscribe to her strict list and she soon finds herself deserted, nursing a warm beer from the keg, and standing amongst a group of be-wigged, glam-rock wannabes when someone calls her name over the din.
    “Jules?”
    She lifts her head as she searches for the owner of the vaguely familiar voice. Turning to her left, she spots someone heading her way. He is shirtless, wearing dog tags and faded jeans, and he is carrying a volleyball. Her jaw drops as she takes in Austin Rutledge.
    “Jules! There you are!” he bellows, practically diving to her side. His arm knocks her beer cup, causing it to spill, as he pulls her into his bare chest. His mouth presses snuggly against her ear and his breath is ridiculously hot as he speaks.
    “Save me, please,” he implores as he takes her cup from her while his arm wraps around her lower back. She pulls back instinctively and his hand tugs her closer. “Jules, please work with me here.”
    She’s startled by his request. The last time she’d spoken to Austin he’d just delivered her heart a death blow by way of the ‘Dear John’ letter West left her. She’s tempted to pull back and slap him, but when a thick southern accent whines ‘Austin,' in three long distinct syllables, she has to cover a laugh at his predicament.
    Austin loosens his grip on her back and Jules laughs as she takes in the Madonna look-alike standing before her. The bleached blonde appears to be reenacting the ‘Like A Virgin’ video with her white lace bustier and mini. Her eyebrows are painted on thick and dark, and her eyelids are hidden by blue shimmering shadow. Jules imagines there must be a pretty girl underneath the layers of make-up, though it’s hard to tell.
    Austin nods at Madonna, tossing his volleyball prop into the air and