#MeantToBe Read online

  #MeantToBe

  A #BestFriendsForever Companion Novel

  Yesenia Vargas

  Copyright © 2019 by Yesenia Vargas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  For my daughters.

  Remember: self-love is everything.

  Contents

  Book Description

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Books by Yesenia Vargas

  Book Description

  If Adam learned anything in high school, it's that he can’t spend another four years waiting for someone who will never feel the same way about him.

  * * *

  No one will ever compare to the girl he still can’t forget about, and Adam’s not sure there’s anyone else out there for him.

  * * *

  Will Adam miss out on the girl because he’s closed himself off for good? And if he can open up his heart to someone new, will it once again be for nothing?

  * * *

  ***

  * * *

  Brooklyn has been with her boyfriend for three years, but he’s no longer the sweet guy she fell in love with.

  * * *

  She doesn’t know what she fears more: staying in a toxic relationship or starting over.

  * * *

  Should Brooklyn give her boyfriend another chance and figure things out?

  * * *

  Or make a choice that will turn her life upside down?

  * * *

  This sweet new adult romance story will hit you right in the feels… Grab your copy today!

  * * *

  This is a clean new adult/college romance. It is a companion story to the #BestFriendsForever series and can be read as a standalone.

  One

  Seeing my best friend, Sara—the girl I’d loved since the eighth grade—with Brian still stung.

  The way he held onto her wasn’t helping.

  Then again, Sara and Brian had been dating since last year, and we were freshmen in college now. Despite how much I wished it was me dancing with her at this party, at the end of the day, I was still happy for them.

  It was easy to see that he made her happy. And he treated her right.

  But I’d been in love with her for years before he came along, always waiting for the right time to tell her how I felt about her.

  But then suddenly, it’d been too late. Brian had moved to our school during senior year and swept her off her feet.

  Just like that, the possibility of me ever having a chance with Sara had disappeared. If I’d ever thought that we had a chance, no matter how small, it had disappeared when he’d entered her life.

  Before, I thought that maybe someday I might finally get the courage to tell her how I felt about her and she’d realize she felt the same way about me.

  But I could see that, ever since she’d met Brian, she’d cared about him, even if she had denied it at first. I could see it. And I realized there was nothing I could do except keep being her friend.

  Sara pushed through a small crowd of people until she stood right in front of me with her hands on her hips. She’d never been one to go out much before, but now that we were in college and she was with Brian, she’d become more outgoing. Maybe it was the fact that we’d turned eighteen too. The only downside was she usually begged me to come along too.

  Tonight it was a party on campus.

  We were only a few weeks into our freshman year, but I was already slipping behind on my assignments. Plus I was exhausted from late nights doing homework after work. But even now it was still hard to say no to Sara.

  She extended her hand out to me, waiting for me to take it, but I shook my head. She shouted over the music, “Come on, Adam. You've been sitting there all night. Come and dance one song with me."

  I sighed, not looking her in the eye.

  Brian walked up to us, then, gave me a nod.

  I turned back to Sara. “No, thanks.”

  Not that Brian was the jealous type, but dancing with Sara was the last thing I needed so I could get over her.

  She asked me to dance one more time, and again, I shook my head and looked away.

  She finally took Brian's hand and walked back onto the dance floor with him.

  A few songs later, I checked the time on my phone. It was getting late. I stood up and looked around for Sara so I could let her know I was leaving, but she wasn’t on the dance floor.

  Making my way around the house, I kept an eye out for her. Just when I was about to text her, someone grabbed my shoulder from behind.

  I turned around and there she was, a huge smile on her face. Instead of being with Brian, though, a girl stood next to her, one I’d never seen before.

  She had dirty blonde hair, and she was a couple of inches taller than Sara. And she definitely didn’t dress like Sara. This girl had on one of those crop tops and the kind of high heels that looked more like a weapon than a shoe.

  Sara leaned in toward me, shouting over the loud music. “This is Jessica. I met her a few minutes ago, and I thought maybe you could ask her to dance.”

  I looked at her and then glanced at this girl, Jessica. I shook my head no, but she leaned into my ear again. “Come on, Adam. Stop being such a party pooper."

  Biting my lip, I tried not to think about how close she was to me. And how I wished she was my girl, not Brian’s. I glanced at this Jessica girl again, and she came up to my ear on the opposite side.

  Somehow, she didn’t have the same effect on me.

  “Don't worry. I don't bite,” she said.

  But it wasn’t that I was worried about. Her breath reeked, and I did not want to deal with that. “Sorry, I have an early day tomorrow,” I replied.

  Sara frowned. "Just one dance, Adam,” she yelled. "Then you can leave if you want."

  With a sigh, I nodded my head, immediately regretting my decision, and followed Jessica onto the dance floor. A new song came on, and right away, she got way too close. I took a couple of steps back and tried to keep moving to the music without making it too obvious that I wished I was anywhere but there.

  When the song ended, Jessica grabbed my hand, leading me outside. At least I could go ahead and tell her that I needed to go home without having to shout over the music.

  But once we were outside, she dragged me into the shadows of a tree and was all over me before I realized what was going on.

  All I knew was her mouth was only kind of near my face, and there was slobber on my cheek. I turned away and tried to push her off, but she was still grabbing at me.

  "Whoa there,” I said, trying to laugh it off, but I had to admit I was a little freaked out. I could still smell the booze on her and it was grossing me out. “I have to go. Thanks for the dance."
I said, already walking off.

  She called after me. "Are you seriously turning me down right now?" she demanded.

  I scoffed. “Actually? Yeah," I replied. "Sorry."

  I don't know why, but I always thought college would be different than high school. And I guess it was. I liked the classes a lot better. I liked how big this campus was, and I liked that I still had Sara with me.

  That I liked.

  But it seemed like a lot of the people here were still pretty immature. It's not that I didn’t want to have fun.

  Maybe I just wasn’t feeling this party tonight.

  To be honest, I hadn’t been feeling much of anything lately.

  I wasn’t sure if it was me.

  Or just the fact that I was still in love with my best friend, and she’d never be mine.

  The next morning, Sara plopped down next to me in American History.

  We were in our usual seats. Fifth row, slightly over to the left side.

  I could remember the first day I’d walked in here, and I saw Sara slowly walking up the steps of the auditorium, wondering where to sit.

  And I’d smiled as soon as I’d seen her and then waved to her. She had looked so relieved to see me, but really, I think I had been happier. Excited to see her again after a long summer.

  I had waved her over from the first row.

  Yep, I was that kid. But she'd insisted on sitting farther back. So we’d compromised on the fifth row.

  That's where we were now. My laptop was already out, and Sara had her notebook and pencil out. There were still a few minutes before class started. Most of the auditorium was full, but there were still several people coming in, a soft murmur filling the room as students got to their usual seat.

  Most people walked up the auditorium steps with a large coffee in hand. It was an eight o’clock class, but it might as well have been five in the morning for most of us, especially since it was Monday.

  “What time did you finally get home?" I asked Sara.

  She took a sip of her own coffee. "I don't even know. Like three, probably,” she said, blinking hard.

  I laughed. She didn’t seem so outgoing this morning, unlike last night.

  "What, you don't feel like dancing anymore?" I teased.

  She just gave me that look, the one I loved. The sarcastic but silent, “don't mess with me right now” look. It made me grin from ear to ear like an idiot.

  The professor walked in, and he immediately pulled up slides for the day’s lecture. We both turned our attention to the giant projector screen in front of us so we could get ready to take notes. Dr. Wallace talked fast, and it wasn’t easy to keep up. To make matters worse, our next exam was less than two weeks away.

  I glanced at Sara again. Her hair had fallen in front of her face like a waterfall. According to her, she didn’t do much with it. She wasn’t one of those girls that focused too much on makeup or the way she dressed, but she always looked beautiful without trying. Her hair had always been long, but she’d recently cut it to her shoulders. She looked different now, but I liked it.

  I turned back to my computer the second she turned towards me, pulling up my notes.

  She went back to jotting down notes, and I was glad she didn’t say anything. I was pretty sure she knew that I was still in love with her, but I never wanted to come between her and Brian or make our friendship awkward. She meant way too much.

  The professor’s voice boomed throughout the room, reminding me I was supposed to be paying attention. “Okay, so the war of independence."

  I started typing, and Sara began scribbling.

  Once class was over, we walked out of the building. History was our only class together, so after class, we always hung out for a few minutes then headed our different ways. The campus buzzed with students getting to their next class, and it was almost impossible to move without bumping into people on the sidewalk. Most students walked quickly, rushing to get to their next class.

  Sara and I took our time, though, because my next class wasn’t for another hour, and Sara didn’t have anything else until after lunch.

  "So what happened with you and Jessica?” Sara asked with a wag of her brows. "I couldn’t help but notice you two didn't come back to the party."

  We found a half empty bench at the bus stop and sat down to watch everybody else hop on the bus. I liked that we took our time like this sometimes, just sat and caught up while Brian arrived and picked her up.

  "Nothing happened, actually. How do you know her again?” I asked.

  She grinned. “I didn't really. Just kind of ran into her on the dance floor. She looked like she needed somebody to dance with so I introduced you.”

  “Wow,” I replied. “Well, no offense, but you’re a horrible matchmaker. I didn't like her. I mean, did you see the way she was dancing?"

  She giggled. “Yeah, that was kind of awkward. And funny,” she finished with a smile.

  I couldn’t help but laugh again. “Yeah, I felt violated.”

  Sara laughed out loud. “So where did you guys go after that?" She nudged me on the shoulder.

  I rested my arm on the bench. “I was actually trying to leave. I didn't want to be a complete zombie this morning for class, but she pretty much jumped me when we got outside.” That made her laugh out loud again. “I’m not kidding," I said.

  Some people stared at us, but I secretly loved how she didn’t care in the slightest.

  I went on. "I literally had to pry her hands off of me. So thanks for that.”

  Were those tears in her eyes? “No way. She jumped you?" she asked.

  "Like literally, Sara. I'm not even exaggerating here,” I replied, shaking my head. “I could barely get her off me." We were both laughing again.

  She finally recovered. “Wow. She seemed nice enough, but I'll try to pick somebody better for you next time,” she said with a wink.

  I looked at her, and when our eyes met, she glanced away. The awkward moment didn’t go away until her phone went off.

  She sighed. “I have to go. Brian isn’t far but traffic’s bad on this road so he asked me to meet him a couple of blocks from here.”

  "Want me to walk you?" I offered.

  She stood up. “That’s okay. Thanks. It'll only take me a minute,” she said, adjusting her backpack on her shoulders. "See you later?"

  I nodded, and she gave me one last smile. "See you Wednesday,” she said and walked off.

  After a minute, I got up too and began making my way back to my dorm to do some homework before my next class.

  I turned one last time and watched Sara a ways off, her wild hair blowing in the wind.

  Then I kept walking in the opposite direction.

  Two

  I hated math. Absolutely hated it.

  None of those numbers made sense to me. I think that fact was pretty clear after I got my quiz back.

  I looked at the grade and turned the paper over right away.

  D. Not even a C.

  I would've been happy with a C.

  But this was calculus. If I’d struggled in math since algebra back in eighth grade, then I had no idea how I was ever going to pass calculus. I didn’t even understand why I was supposed to take this stupid class. All I wanted to be was a child psychologist. Why did I need to take calculus so I could help kids?

  I waited until the person next to me began going through their own paper before I start looking closely at mine. Most of the paper was covered in red marks. There had only been five problems on the quiz, but it had taken me the whole page to work them out. And this TA had crossed out most of my work and marked all but one of the problems wrong.

  To make matters worse, this was the third quiz in a row I’d failed. If I kept this up, I was going to have to drop the class.

  The TA went up to the front of the class. He was a short Asian guy with black hair, the kind of guy that wore a T-shirt over a long-sleeved thermal shirt and old blue jeans. I didn’t get why we didn’t have a real professor
. Mostly, I didn’t like his teaching style. He talked too fast, and I didn’t really get what he was trying to explain most of the time. I did the practice problems online, but that didn't help either.

  Tears stung at my eyes, and if I hated anything more in that moment, it was the feeling of utter helplessness. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to get a grip on passing this class.

  What was I supposed to do now?

  I made a mental note to research how to drop this class as soon as possible when I got home. Maybe I could take it again next semester and pass somehow.

  My phone buzzed, and I tried to glance at it without drawing any obvious attention. The TA had a strict no cell phones rule. I was sure he couldn’t stand them.

  When he got busy writing our assignment on the board, I turned my gaze down.

  It was a message from my boyfriend, Ethan. He wanted to meet up later. I smiled, hoping I got to see him that evening. That would get my mind off of this quiz.

  The rest of the class began leaving, heading for the door with backpacks in tow. I glanced at the clock and realized it was time to go. The TA finished saying something, and I struggled to catch the tail end of it.

  Oops. I hoped he hadn’t announced another quiz.

  The classroom practically empty at that point, I gathered my things and headed towards the door. The sound of my name stopped me.