Free Following You (The By You Series) by Kelly Harper Page A

said.
    Sarah gave him a wide-eyed look, hoping he wasn't going to make her ask even more questions. But, like usual, he was oblivious. Sometimes he frustrated her so much she just wanted to break things. This was one of those times.
    "So how did you meet her?" Sarah asked.
    "She's friends with a girl in my dorm. They needed help moving some stuff."
    "And when you were doing all this moving she just happened to tell you all about where she worked and how she wanted you to come see her?"
    "Why are you making a big deal out of this?" he said. "I thought you'd like that I found a nice place to take you?"
    "You didn't come here for me, you came here to see her," Sarah yelled.
    As soon as she said it, Lilly rounded the corner with their drinks. She and Sarah made eye contact for an awkward second before Sarah buried her face in her hands.
    "Here's your drinks," she said, setting them gently on the table. "I'll give you guys a minutes to look over the menus."
    Sarah listened as the clacking of Lilly's shoes faded far away. She wanted to crawl into a corner and die. Was it possible to go a whole day where nothing good happened? Her cheeks were getting hot and she was on the verge of crying. She just wanted to be as far away from there as possible.
    "I can't believe you would say that," Huck said, his voice low and hard. "Now you're just making things awkward for everybody."
    "I want to go home," she said, her hands still covering her face.
    "What?"
    She dropped her hands and looked him in the eye.
    "I said I want to go home. Please take me back to campus."
    "We can't leave, we haven't even ordered, yet. What am I supposed to tell Lilly?"
    "I don't care what you tell Lilly," Sarah said, her voice nearly a shout, again. "I'm your girlfriend , and I want you to take me home."
    She could feel the tears about to come. She was going to leave with or without him--the choice was his.
    Huck stared at her for a long moment. She could see the anger in his eyes, but she didn't give a shit about it. He didn't have the right to be angry with her, right then.
    "Fine," he said. "Have it your way."
    Huck pulled a twenty-dollar bill from his wallet and left it on the table. Sarah grabbed her stuff and wanted to run out of the restaurant as fast as she possibly could. The only saving grace was that they didn't pass Lilly on their way out.

Chapter 12

    Huck was quiet the whole way back to campus, and Sarah wasn't in much of a mood for talking, either. It was supposed to be a magical night--their last night of fun before classes started. Instead, her day had been filled with one disaster after another, and their date had only gotten worse. She just wanted to curl into a ball and sleep for a week--was that too much to ask?
    When they pulled onto campus, Huck parked in the lot closer to his dorm instead of hers. She gave him a confused look.
    "Where are we going?" she asked.
    "You're coming back to my place, aren't you?" he asked. "I told you we have it to ourselves."
    Sarah hadn't even considered going back to his dorm after everything that had happened. But, she didn't want to be alone, either. Given the choice, she'd still rather be upset and with Huck, than upset by herself.
    "Yeah, that sounds nice," she said.
    It was still early in the evening, and the campus felt as busy as ever. It was different coming from a small town to being surrounded by so many people you didn't know. Huck was the only one she wanted to be with, though. As they walked back to the dorm, she could tell he was still upset, but that didn't stop him from putting an arm around her when she leaned into him.
    She loved it when he held her like that. Being that connected to him had a way of making all of her worries melt away. By the time they made it back to his room, Sarah had even started feeling bad about the way she'd acted at the restaurant. Huck hadn't really done anything wrong, he was just clueless, sometimes. Looking back on it, she got worried that she had overreacted about