Paper Airplanes (2 page)

“We all have to grow up sometime,” I told him, and he just shrugged.

“I’d rather stay young and immature. It suits me better,” he said honestly, and I laughed around a shiver as my body convulsed from the cold.

“There will be other girls,” I told him,
as I nudged his shoulder, knowing it was true. A thousand girls would have given their right arm to be with Will Stephens, including me.

“That
is true,” he said, angling his drink toward me in acknowledgement. “You’re so right.”

“I know I am,” I said, hugging myself tighter.

The wind was whipping around the roof making it almost unbearable to sit up there. I was afraid Will was going to get hypothermia if he stayed up there much longer without a jacket on.

“Why don’t we go inside?”
I suggested.

“Nah. I’m good,” he said, rocking back and forth slowly, his gaze fixed on a middle-distance in the dark night.

“Okay, well, I think I’m going to head in.”

He nodded. “You do that.”

“Do you want me to bring you your coat?” I asked him as I got up from the rocking chair.

“No thanks.”

“Okay, well, come find me when you come back in. We’ll do shots or something.”

He nodded but didn’t look back at me. “It’s a plan.”

As I headed back inside, he called out to me.

“
Hey Witter?”

I turned to look at him.
“Yeah?”

“Thanks
,” he said and shot me a small smile.

“
You’re welcome,” I said, nodding in acknowledgement.

I could have said a million other things in that moment
. I could have told him that he could come to me if he needed to talk, if he needed a friend. I could have told him that Isabella was an idiot and he deserved better. I could have told him that break-ups suck and it would get better, but I knew I couldn’t do that with Will. He didn’t want to talk about dark things. He wanted to pretend that everything was fine and his heartbreak could be cured by turning the other cheek and drinking a strong drink. I had to admit, it was a pretty awesome outlook to have. Why waste time on things that made you sad when you could push them down and away? Why dwell?

If only it were that easy.

And after that night, Will seemed to be in a better place. I knew he was still hurting because I’d catch glimpses of the darkness that would flash across his face at odd moments, but he never wanted to talk about how he was feeling. He just acted like everything was great, and because I knew that’s what he needed, I did the same.

Right before we all le
ft to go to our respective hometowns for Christmas break, Marley and I went over to the APB house so she could see Aiden. I ran into Will who convinced me to come up to his room to hang out while Marley and Aiden had ‘quality time’ together. We both knew what that meant and how long they’d take. It wasn’t the first time I’d hung out with Will while I waited for Marley.

But instead of the platonic TV watching we usually engaged in,
Will kissed me that night as we watched
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
and drank Coors Light. It was the last thing I’d expected since I’d hung out with him too many times to count without him ever making a move. We kissed for a long time, and for as experienced as I knew him to be, I expected him to urge me to take things further, but he didn’t. He just kissed me, seemingly content to do that all night.

And before we said goodnight, because I wasn’t about to ruin things by spending the night so early on in what I hoped was going to be a relationship, Will walked me downstairs and out to where my car was parked. Marley
had decided to stay the night with Aiden, so I was going back to our apartment alone. Will kissed me and told me he’d call me over break.

I looked up at him then, needing to ask, because I couldn’t go home for three weeks without knowing. “What
is this?”

He raised an eyebrow
and smirked at me before adjusting the beanie I was wearing. The temperature was close to freezing, and snow was expected to fall overnight.

“At the moment or in the larger sense of the word?”
he asked.

I shot him a
knowing look. “The larger sense, obviously. You’ve never kissed me before.”

He looked amused by my question. “Do we need to define what we’re doing?”

It was such a typical Will response.

I shrugged. “I guess not, but I think I need to know that I’m not a rebound for you.”

He sighed, his breath visible in the cold night air as his hands slid up and cupped my upper arms. “I like you, Cassie. I’ve always liked you, but if you want me to tell you I’m completely over Isabella, I can’t do that. I want to be. I want to move on and let go of her, and I was sort of hoping you’d be the girl who’d help me do that. But I’ll understand if you’re not cool with my baggage.”

I wasn’t sure I’d ever had a guy be so honest with me.
I hadn’t expected that from Will. “What does that mean?”

I needed to hear that he wasn’t just looking for something physical. I couldn’t do that. I was
already emotionally invested in him. I wouldn’t do just sex.

He dropped his hands then and
pulled something out of his pocket. Then he put it in my hand and folded my fingers into a fist around it. I looked down at his hand clenched around mine for a few seconds before I looked up and met his bright-eyed gaze. His brown eyes sparkled as he watched me.

“Open it,” he said instead of answering my question.

I did, slowly unfolding my fingers to reveal a single charm in the shape of a triangle on a chain. There were some variations to the triangle, some folds, making it look like a paper airplane. I looked up at him in question.

“Is it a paper airplane?”

He nodded once. “It’s supposed to be symbolic of being separated from someone you care about. I figured you could wear it over break and think about me.” His eyes shifted away from me for a few seconds before shifting back to meet my gaze. “Give me a chance, Cassie.”

“So this isn’t just a hook up?”

He shook his head. “I don’t want it to be,” he said, and then he kissed me.

I knew right then and there that given the chance, I was going to fall hard for Will Stephens
. No one had ever given me such a thoughtful and meaningful gift. And he’d bought it before that night, almost as if he’d known we were going to get together. And that meant more to me than the gift itself.

E
verything changed after that night. Suddenly I was Will Stephens’ girlfriend, a spot I’d coveted for a year and a half. I finally had the boy I’d been dreaming about for far too long. Of course it was different on the inside looking out than I’d imagined it to be. Will was broken. Isabella had done a serious number on him, but like he told me he wanted to, he tried to move forward. I could see that, and it meant everything to me.

In some ways it was good that we were separated at the start of our relationship because it gave us time to settle in to knowing each other in a different way.
We talked a lot over break, almost every day, and when I got back to school things were good. We’d been together for just five weeks the night we’d gone racing out of the frat house in the snow, and even though Will wasn’t perfect, I already had really strong feelings for him. I knew it was only a matter of time before I fell in love with him. Hell, I was practically already there.

“I always get the hottest guys,
haven’t you realized that yet?” I yelled to my best friend who burst out laughing as Will looked down at me and smiled.

I
reached up and straightened the gray beanie I was wearing over my blond hair, trying to block out some of the cold night air. I’d straightened my curly hair earlier in the day, but it had started to annoy me, so I’d pulled it back into a bun at the nape of my neck and shoved my favorite beanie on my head. Just a few pieces of escaped hair were blowing against my face in the cold wind. Will brushed one off of my cheek.

“And I always get the hottest girls
,” he said, planting a kiss on my ice cold lips.

His mouth was warm as his tongue snaked its way into my mouth, claiming me and causing me to forget that it was below freezing and snowing outside, and I wasn’t wearing shoes conducive to either. I didn’t care. When Will kissed me, everything else faded away.

“You live a charmed life, my friend,” Marley said from behind me, and she was right.

My life so far had been perfect. I
wouldn’t have changed one thing about it. I had a hot new boyfriend, amazing friends, and I was loving my collegiate experience. I couldn’t have been happier.

“Okay, seriously, what are we doing out here? It’s fucking freezing,” Reese complained, as we started walking toward the
dining hall.

Will took my hand in his as we walked
. “It’s cold,” I said, huddling against him.

He c
huckled as he pulled me closer, his lips landing on my temple. “I’ll keep you warm.”

I smiled, feeling so lucky in that moment.

“Yeah, why are we out here?” Marley complained, trailing along behind Aiden.

“We’re starving and we need snacks, obviously,”
Aiden chimed in as he shoved his brother and pulled his girlfriend into his arms. “I’m hungry, and the dining hall is the closest option we have.”

“And we already have drinks,” Will said, pulling a flask from his pocket. He took a swig and handed it to me. He winked. “
Live it up while you’re young, right?”

“Right,” I told him, because I knew he needed to hear it.

Will was a senior, and he was dreading graduating at the end of the summer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he managed to stretch out school for another few years, and I couldn’t blame him. I was only a sophomore, but I knew how crazy it could be in the real world. We had it good with our charmed life in our little, safe bubble.

Or at least we thought we did.

That evening, in the freezing January cold, drunk with my friends and living life to its fullest, I thought we were untouchable. Little did I know that just a few minutes later, everything was going to come crashing down around us.

“I want
ice cream,” Reese called out when we entered the packed dining hall, heading for the back.

“
Get me some too,” Aiden called after him, heading toward the hot food line with Marley trailing behind him saying something about wanting mac and cheese.

“What do you want, Witter?” Will asked me.

I smiled at him. “Definitely not ice cream. I want French fries and gravy.”

He smiled back at me, and leaned over to kiss my temple.

It was then that I heard a blood-curling scream that made my heart stop beating for several seconds. It was cut off by the loudest sound I’d ever heard, several loud bangs in quick succession, and before I knew it, I was on the floor, and Will was on top of me.

I heard shouting and screaming and crying, but I was disoriented. Something wet was soaking through my jacket
and dripping down the side of my face, the side of my head was on fire all of a sudden, and Will’s weight was crushing me. I couldn’t move.

Bang! Bang! B
ang!

More screams. People were crying and running and chairs were scraping. Someone nearby was shouting for everyone to shut the fuck up. His voice was followed by two more bangs. Then the room fell eerily silent. Something told me I needed to get out of there. I needed to run. Something bad was happening, but my
brain couldn’t engage what it was.

“Will,” I groaned, but he didn’t
seem hear me. I tried to push him off of me, but I couldn’t. I felt like my head was going to split open. It was burning and aching at the same time, and a wave of nausea was rolling through me. “Will.”

“Shut up,” someone hissed to my right, and I turned my head
even though it hurt to do it.

I came face to face with a pair of bright blue eyes and a panicked expression. The guy was lying on the floor, part of his body
obstructed from my view by the legs of a chair and a backpack. He had a smear of blood on his face, the black baseball cap he was wearing was askew, his chest was rising and falling rapidly, and when I looked down, I could see he was holding his side. A puddle of blood was beneath him.

My eyes got wide as
I saw the blood and heard another blast go off. Another scream followed it. I started to open my mouth to scream for help, to scream out of fear, to scream just because I was terrified and disoriented, but the blue eyes staring right into mine widened in fear, making me freeze. I closed my mouth, and he nodded infinitesimally.

I started to push Will off of me, not sure why he wasn’t moving. I needed to get up. I needed to get out of there. I needed to run.
Didn’t he realize that? Why wasn’t he moving?

“Stop,” the boy with the blue eyes hissed, and there was so much fear in his voice that I did what he said.