Good Together by C. J. Carmichael Read Free Book Online

had been especially kind. She’d picked her up at the airport, taken her shopping for clothes for rush week, and given her a tour of the campus. She’d explained to her about the various sororities and made recommendations on which ones she thought Portia would like the best.
    Since Portia had settled into her sorority house, every Sunday night Dani invited her to dinner, in her beautiful modern condo with a view of the city. It was painted white with gray furniture and gleaming wooden floors. Real oil paintings were on the walls and all the appliances and lighting fixtures were high tech. One wall was floor to ceiling windows and you could look out at the Space Needle. Portia wanted to live in a place like that when she was older. But she still wasn’t sure how she’d earn the money to afford it.
    She sure couldn’t see herself being smart enough to become a professor.
    The lecture today was hard to understand, even though she’d done the required reading. She tried focusing harder on her aunt, who was moving confidently around the stage, not huddling behind the lectern and reading from notes the way some of Portia’s professors did.
    “The simple fact is,” her aunt Dani was saying, “we don’t always see what we think we’re seeing. Our perception is more than what we take in with the five senses. It also includes the ability to detect changes in another person’s body position or movement. Does anyone know what we call that?”
    A few of the students sitting lower down in the auditorium-style classroom called out some answers. Portia, at least, could recognize when she heard the correct one. It was proprioception.
    Despite her aunt’s advice to sit as close to the front in each class as was possible—the professors will remember you better that way—Portia was in one of the back rows, hidden among the almost seven hundred students. She was more comfortable here. She was pretty sure being remembered by her professors for being dumb wouldn’t work in her favor.
    Her phone vibrated against the desk, signaling an incoming text message. Probably another from Wren. Unable to stop herself, Portia turned her phone over to read it.
    “I haven’t talked to her all week. Have you?”
    What was the matter with her? Her sister was getting paranoid. Placing the phone in her lap, Portia used both thumbs to make a quick reply.
    “She must be busy.”
    Portia wasn’t worried about her mother the way Wren was. She was annoyed. After making such a big fuss about them leaving, and insisting that the three of them Skype every Sunday afternoon, her mom had been the first to bail out. If her laptop wasn’t working, then she could have used the computer in Dad’s office.
    Or bought a new one.
    What kind of mother would go a whole week without checking in with her daughters. And no, text messages did not count.
    Portia’s own proprioception kicked in then, and she glanced up to see that the students were filing out of the auditorium. Her aunt was no longer on the stage, she must have dismissed them and left already. She had to stop zoning out like this. From now on when she went to class she would turn her phone completely off, not just put it on stealth mode.
    “Hey, Portia. Have you decided what to wear to the party tonight?”
    A redhead with olive shaped green eyes, wearing trendy Citizen jeans that Portia coveted, but couldn’t afford, stopped by her desk. Kirsten was in her sorority, they’d met during rush week. Kirsten’s family lived in Portland, her father owned a car dealership and her mother managed an art gallery. Portia had seen pictures of all of this, including the mansion where Kirsten lived, the beautiful Irish Setter that was the family dog—and the gorgeous brother who was one year older, and also enrolled at UW.
    For some reason Kirsten thought it was cool that Portia had grown up on a ranch and that her father was a rodeo cowboy. It wasn’t cool to Portia, though, when on the night they were all