Page 4 of Academically Yours

“Noelle?” Charlotte’s voice broke through the fog in my head.

I looked up at her and realized I was frowning. I had spaced out without even realizing it. “Uh. Yeah?” I pushed away my bowl as I looked back at her. “Sorry.”

Of course, she had noticed me zoning out. “You know… I’m always here if you need to talk. About anything. You’ve barely talked about New York since you moved back.” I raised one shoulder in a shrug. “It’s almost been three years, N.”

I just shook my head. Did I want to talk about what was bothering me? Did I want to talk about New York? I had given them all minimal details, but they all knew why I moved there—who I had moved to be with.

So, no, I didn’t want to talk about it, but I also didn’t want to deal with this conversation that Char was going to drag out until she left my tiny apartment. The perks of living alone and on-campus—she’d have to leave eventually.

Instead, I did what I had always done best—deflected the situation. “I’m fine. Just tired, I think. And I have another long day tomorrow.” I yawned. Well, I wasn’t lying. I was exhausted.

Exhausted from the first day of school, exhausted from always trying to be positive and happy all the time, exhausted because I didn’t know what I was doing with my life, and I didn’t know where I was even going to start figuring that out.

And that night, long after Charlotte had left my apartment and told me she’d see me soon, there was one comment she made that kept replaying over and over in my mind.

And I knew one thing—that I was absolutely, definitely, no way in hell going to fall in love. Not again.