Winter (Four Seasons #1) Read Online Free Page A

every
now and then. I have no idea if the college does monitor our
emails, or if smoking crack would actually even be a red flag, but
it still makes me smile. I miss him. But not enough to ever head
back to Breakwater. I am never going back there again.
    I’m shutting
down my computer, promising myself that I’ll reply to Brandon
tomorrow, when the door knocks. Morgan’s too lazy to walk up to my
apartment usually, and so any visitors we get are usually for
Leslie. My roommate’s headphones block out the interruption,
though, so it’s left to me to answer. I’m really not expecting the
person on the other side of the door.
    “ Luke? What
are you doing here?”
    Luke’s out of
uniform and wearing a plain black t-shirt and faded-out jeans. His
look still carries a little of the skater style he used to rep in
high school, although there’s a rocky, harder edge to him now. It’s
always a surprise to see him in his casual clothes. Right now I’m
surprised to see him period. He shoves his hands in his pockets,
drawing my attention to the fact that he’s gotten some fresh ink.
Black swirling lines peek out from below his shirtsleeves. Nowhere
near low enough to ever be visible in his uniform, but still low
enough for me to see them when he hunches his shoulders.
    “ Sorry, I know
I should have called but I got this feeling yesterday that you were
gonna blow me off, and—”
    Leslie yanks
the door open wider behind me, tugging her headphones out of her
ears. “Hi!” she says, her voice all easy breezy. “Are you a friend
of Avery’s?”
    Luke smiles
back cautiously—a rueful expression. “Yeah, I’m a friend of
Avery’s.”
    This is only
second time he’s ever said my name. It sounds strained coming out
of his mouth. I stare at him, trying to figure out what the hell he
is doing here. What he is doing inside my
apartment building .
    “ Are you going
to invite your friend in, Avery?” Leslie asks. I can hear the
suggestion in her voice: I can leave if
you need me to . I sigh and give Luke a look
I hope isn’t too difficult to read. Morgan always says I’m pretty
transparent with my emotions, so there’s a good chance he’ll be
able to tell I am seriously pissed.
    “ No. We’re
going out for coffee.” I head into my room to collect my jacket and
my purse and when I return to the living room, Leslie is still
standing by the doorway, twirling her short hair around her finger.
It’s embarrassing to watch her devour him with her eyes. I’m used
to it, though. Unlike Luke, who, despite how often this happens,
never seems to get over the embarrassment factor of being the cause
of such predatory looks in women.
    I storm past
him into the hallway and set off walking without checking to see if
he’s following me. After all the times I’ve met with him and all
the weirdly awkward conversations we’ve shared, I still don’t know
him well enough to be openly mad at him. He must sense the fact
that I need some space because it isn’t until we get to the exit of
the building that he says anything.
    “ Hey, I’m
sorry, okay? I know I’ve messed up here. Avery? Hey, Avery!” He
grabs hold of my arm and spins me around. I’m grinding my jaw
together to keep from saying anything I’ll regret later. “Listen,
this…I wouldn’t usually do this, but I wanted to talk to you.
There’s something you should know. I wanted to tell you when I went
back to Break in September but you were already gone. It’s
important.”
    I stand there
with my jacket still in my hand, contemplating putting it on so I
can stop shivering, but I’m too hyper-aware of him staring at me to
move. I huff out a deep breath and stare at my shoes. Luke’s hand
brushes mine for a second as he takes my jacket and leans forward
so he can put it over my shoulders.
    “ It’s
November, Avery,” he whispers. “You’re gonna get
hypothermia.”
    I shrug it off
so I can thread my arms into it properly and sigh. “Okay. So you
want to tell me