Iwoke the next morning, my body fully exhausted from everything, but it was a good exhaustion from Cruz. I could still feel him, deep inside of me. Not thinking about anything else, I grabbed my phone, unblocked one of my mom’s numbers and called it.
She answered with a clipped, “About time–”
I shot up in bed. “You are a shit mother. You were a shit wife. You want to blackmail me for fifty grand? Good fucking luck. You want to know what I’ll do in return? I’ll go to the police. I won’t let you threaten me, do you hear me? Do not try me or we really are done. Forever.”
She was quiet on her end.
I didn’t wait to hear the sobbing because that was her next move. She’d go straight to being the victim, so I hung up and blocked her number before going to get ready for the day.
I had a quiz I needed to ace.
Me: Need to run something by you. Breakfast on me tomorrow morning? 9 am? Campus Coffee Bar?
Leander Carrington: Who is this?
Me: Uh, show up and find out.
Me: Just kidding. This is Mara Daniels. Show up. Free food.
Leander Carrington: What’s this about?
Me: Are you serious?
Leander Carrington: No. See you there.
Tuesday morning, Leander was lingering outside the campus coffee bar when I approached. He saw me and came over, his hands in his pockets. “What’s this about? Also, was this a secret thing?”
I’d been reaching for the door past him but stopped. “Why?”
He had a sheepish look on his face. “I didn’t know if this was a date or something, but Mikey mentioned you asked for my number and yeah, Miller heard and, yeah.”
“Did they come with you?”
He winced, motioning inside. “Miller’s here.”
I cursed, swinging open the door and marched in. Susan was in a back booth, and she perked up when she spotted me. Her hand went up until she saw my face, and she lowered it as I marched over near her, but not to her. I felt Leander trailing behind me. Gavin and two other guys were in a separate booth. I motioned at Gavin. “Out.”
He raised an eyebrow. Scooting back, he rested his arm across the back of the booth and motioned to me with his drink in hand. “Good morning to you too.”
“Get out.”
“Uh, Mara?” I heard Susan behind me. Her voice was so small.
Leander had turned to look at her instead. “Hey, I know you.”
“I ran your orientation club.”
“Yeah! Sarah, right?”
“Susan.”
“Susan. That’s right. I’m so happy you remembered me.”
“I–”
I could work with this. “Leander.”
He frowned at me.
I motioned to Susan. “We were going to have breakfast with Susan this morning, but how about you go on ahead without me?” I gave Gavin a dark look. “I’ll handle this guy instead.”
“Uh, you said–”
I held up a fifty-dollar bill, and he whisked it out of my hands. “Thank you very much. Susan, what would you like? On me?”
“Oh. I’ll go with you.”
She moved behind me, pausing just briefly to say under her breath, “Thank you.”
I nodded, waiting until they were up at the counter. “Can we at least go somewhere else?”
Gavin was studying me with narrowed eyes before sliding them to where Leander and Susan were, but he nodded, one long up and down motion. “Sure, Daniels. Anything for you.” He motioned for the guys. “See you guys.”
Both waved as Gavin got up and I felt him following me out of the coffee place. Susan gave me a little grin before moving closer to Leander, which Gavin also caught. He waited until we were outside before saying, “What was that?”
“Nothing.”
“Daniel–”
“Leave it alone. My God.”
He stopped walking. “You know what? Enough of this shit. You were weird at laser tag. You don’t respond to my texts and now you’re just snapping all the time. You’re not that fun and you used to be fun. I don’t think I want to be friends with you anymore.”
Oh… I shrugged and kept going. “Okay.”
I got three steps before, “Are you kidding me?”
I kept walking. I had an hour before class, and still needed coffee, so I veered toward the food courts.
“Daniels!”
He was following me. I kept walking.
“Come on!”
We were attracting attention, and oddly, I didn’t care this time.
“I was–can’t we talk about this?”
That made me smile, and I didn’t know why. I didn’t pause because I really needed some caffeine, but I said over my shoulder, “You’re not fucking me, Miller.”
“Why is that always your go-to? I thought there was a basic foundation of consideration for friendship.”
Well, damn. He had me there.
I was going through the door but paused and stepped aside as a group of students were leaving. I shifted to the side, my arms folded over my chest. “Miller, you don’t act like a guy just wanting friendship.”
He was more wary, closing the distance between us. He stopped a few feet back. “Yeah. I can see it that way.” He gestured behind to where we’d come from. “What was that back there?”
“None of your business.”
He was studying me again before he looked into the food court. “What are you getting in there?”
“Coffee.”
“Because you didn’t get it back there?”
“You’re not wrong.”
Another long up and down motion of his head. “Because I was there?”
“Again. You’re not wrong.”
“Because you weren’t there to go on a date with Leander Carrington?”
I didn’t respond to that one.
“Hey, Mara.” Skylar was coming up the sidewalk with a few people. “What’s up? Don’t usually see you at the food court.”
“Coffee.”
“Oh yeah.” Her gaze skirted from me to Gavin. She said to him, “Hi. Gavin, right?”
“Hey. Yeah.”
She stopped walking and shot him a confused look before switching back to me. “Did you hear that screaming the other night?”
I went cold. “No.”
“Really? We couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Felt like it was from your place. Were you watching a movie or something?”
“You know, I think I was. After studying, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I put on a horror movie, but I fell asleep. That’s probably what woke me up.”
“Oh.” She visibly relaxed. “We got a little scared there. Wasn’t sure what to do and we were in bed. I don’t think anyone else heard it so for a minute we were even thinking we had a ghost.”
“No one else heard it?”
“Wade went to Lindsay’s house. Darren didn’t say anything. And Miles was stoned.”
“Right.” Small blessings.
“Okay. Well, see you at home?”
Her friends had gone inside and were waiting. Skylar joined them, and I stared at Gavin.
He stared back, raising his eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes but went in to get some coffee. Gavin followed me, and as I got my coffee, he paid for it. I didn’t fight him on it, and then, together, we went to wait outside the building of our morning class.
Cruz came over that night.
He came over Wednesday night.
Thursday night.
Friday and Saturday, he was gone for an away game.
He came over Sunday night.
And we repeated the next week, until Thursday.
