Sophia's P.O.V.

ONE MONTH LATER

Early on, it came to my attention that birthdays weren't Bryce's thing. He despised them and would rather not acknowledge the day of his birth.

When I asked him what he was doing for the special day, he said he would go to class and then pick me up after I was done with my study session with Nicolas.

Even though my car was back from the shop, he was still persistent to drive me. He has nothing else in mind for the day.

I was determined to change that.

"Good luck, but it's not going to work," Kelsey said, sitting with me in the quad. It's only the second week she's been fully back from the hospital and socializing with us outside of class.

Conner had her on lock down, constantly making sure she doesn't burst her stitches and reopen her wound.

The smothering was getting out of hand. He was like a helicopter mom at this point, always waiting for her outside of the lecture hall and making sure she was driven on time.

Conner and Bryce were both upping the antics when it came to being an overprotective boyfriend. It was like an unspoken competition between them.

Kelsey and I joked about it one afternoon, saying that they needed to ease off this new helicopter trait of theirs, hovering above us.

Kelsey's gunshot wound and the kidnapping of the three of us was the reason behind their paranoia. It wasn't as though I didn't see where their fear was derived from.

With what happened, I wanted to celebrate Bryce's birthday even more. We hadn't been able to catch a break and relax since that dreadful day in October. It was almost Thanksgiving now and the semester was coming to an end.

"We should have a movie night." I snapped my fingers. "It would be only our closest friends over at your house, Kels."

Kelsey's parents had the nicest in-home theater I'd ever seen. It had eleven velvety red chairs, each one having a cup holder and facing the large projector screen.

"Do you think that'll be a good idea?" I asked, chewing the inside of my cheek.

"Bryce has hated birthdays ever since I met him. There's no way you can just turn that around. It's a deep-seated hatred." Kelsey said, picking up her fork and stabbing it into her salad. "You're better off making it a small get together between you and Bryce. I think he'd like that more. It would be the first birthday he's spending with you."

"That sounds sweet and all, but that wasn't what I was going for," I explained, putting down my tuna sandwich on to its wrapper. "I wanted to do something that involved all of us. You, me, Nicolas," I looked over at him. He was seat to my right, "Bryce, and Conner. Anthony and his girlfriend can come, too."

"Eh, that's not the brightest plan, Sophia." Nicolas cut in. "I would be trapped in a room full of couples."

"You can bring a date," Kelsey nudged him. "I have a cousin who's single and lives near by."

Nicolas wiped his hand on the side of his slacks. "How do they look?"

"She's got bright -"

"I'm not interested." He jumped in. "Me not having a date isn't the main problem though. Is it just me or have those two been acting oddly around each other?"

I cocked my head to the side. "Bryce and Conner?"

"Yeah. It's almost like they can't stand each other."

"They've been on edge...sure," I admitted with a brief shrug of my shoulders, not seeing it as a big deal. "I think we're all on edge though after Lora's death."

I hadn't entered the dorm room yet. The police called me up a week into her investigation and I went downtown to talk to the men and women who were working on her case.

When my dad heard about it, he was infuriated that I didn't tell him about it. He told me not to go on my own anymore and to contact him next time. He had a long list of lawyers, on call, for the next time they needed me downtown.

The cop covering her case didn't find anything on me. I was cleared and the questioning didn't last long.

The last time I had gone into the dormitory building, I ran into Brooklyn in the hallway.

She was lucky enough to talk to the Resident Assistant and get a new dorm room. There was a girl who had a spare bed. I still haven't met her new roommate, but I was hoping that she was getting along with Brooklyn.

"Maybe I should invite Brooklyn," I suggested out of nowhere.

"No." Kelsey choked on a slice of tomato. "No way am I letting her come over to my house for Bryce's birthday. I'm not in the mood to beat her up, but I surely will if she looks at Conner the slightest."

"That's a bit much," Nicolas puffed, dragging his spoon through his vegetable soup. "I know my cousin. She's not going to do anything; she knows he has a girlfriend. Brooklyn wouldn't try to get a guy who's already settled down with another girl." He fibbed.

This was untrue, but I wasn't going to correct him. We knew Brooklyn would stop at nothing to get with Conner. Him having a girlfriend wasn't enough to stop her. She just saw that as a fun obstacle to brush aside on the way to the guy of her dreams.

I didn't see the appeal when it came to Conner Blackwell. The appeal must've went right over my head.

"You guys don't have any beef," I stated, attempting to persuade her into this. Her deep scowl stayed in place. "You've never spoken to her."

"That doesn't mean I like her, Sophia." Kelsey withdrew a napkin from her bag and patted the corners of her mouth. "I don't want her anywhere near my house. Conner is going to be there and I don't want to feel like I have to monitor her."

"You won't have to. She hasn't talked about Conner in a long time."

"Is that meant to make me feel giddy and glad?" Kelsey scoffed. "I don't want her at my house. If you want to invite her, then have the get together at Bryce's apartment then."

"Fine." I forfeited on my plan. "I'll go back to the drawing board and figuring something out."

Not inviting Brooklyn didn't sit well with me. We had issues in the past, but I wanted to put that behind us and work towards mending this fragile, partly battered, friendship. I cared about her and I didn't want her to feel left out in any way.

"Where are you going?" Nicolas asked when I wrapped up my sandwich, put it into my backpack, and got up from my spot on the bench. "I thought we were going to the library later to study."

"We still are," I told him, swinging my bag around and putting it on my back. "I'm going to talk to someone for a little and see how they're doing. I'll be at the library at 2:15–like I promised."

Nicolas gave me a curious look, but didn't speak up. I waved goodbye and went on my way. I left my pager in Bryce's car this morning, but I had my phone. I was tempted to contact him to see where he was. Usually, he'd call after my philosophy class and we'd speak until Nicolas walked to my lecture hall.

I wondered what he was up to now. For the last month, we had been on this similar pattern. It wasn't like him to not follow our routine.

I didn't think too much about it. Figuring out where Bryce's party would be held was my only priorities. That, and also finding the perfect gift.

Out of curiosity, I brought out my phone and called his cell. It went straight to voicemail.

Squirming at my phone, I pushed it back into my bag. "That's weird. I hope he's doing anything reckless."

Bryce's P.O.V.

I'd consider myself a simple man. I wanted one thing for my twenty-fourth birthday.

I wanted Grayson dead.

The low ring of my landline caught my off guard when I entered my apartment. I got back from my psychology class early because the professor didn't show up.

Shutting the door behind me, I picked up the phone and put it to my ear. "Hello?"

"Bryce. Why didn't you answer before? I've been paging you for an hour," Anthony huffed up a storm.

"I didn't take my phone or pager with me to class."

"I've been trying to contact you for ages."

"What is it?" I inquired. "Breath, calm down, and tell me what's going on."

He was panting so loud. I was having a hard time understanding him, blurting random words in between breathes.

"Guess who I just saw? I saw Grayson." He exhaled. "Ernie and I saw him walk into a restaurant on Olive Street and 7th street."

"Keep your eye on him. I'm on my way." I put up the phone and collected my keys back off of the dinner table.

Looks like wishes do come true.

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The song above is Get You by Daniel Caesar. I highly recommend looking him up.