Page 28 of Quake
“Eight?”
We were supposed to be done by seven so I could get home while it was still light. I couldn’t go out there. I couldn’t… I yanked off the gloves and let them fall to the floor, a blind panic beginning to pulse through my vision.
“Juliette?” Caleb’s voice echoed from someplace far away. “Are you all right?”
I rushed across the studio, pushing into the weight room, oblivious to the fact he’d followed me. Snatching up my shoes, I jammed my feet into them and gathered up my bag. How was I going to get home when the mere thought of walking fifteen minutes through the pitch dark side streets of Brunswick turned me into this? A quivering mess, overcome with fear, who couldn’t even defend herself.
“Juliette,” Caleb said again. This time, he grabbed my shoulders and forced me to face him.
My breathing quickened, signaling I was seconds away from crumbling to the floor and hyperventilating. Great, a panic attack in front of Caleb Carmichael,Greek god. Who’d want a broken mess like me for a girlfriend? Not him.
He glanced out the window, then back to me. He seemed to get the cause of my fear, and his grip softened.
“You want me to take you home?”
I couldn’t ask him to be my bodyguard… Could I? It sure would be convenient.
“How far are you?” he asked. “Do we want to take the car, or can we walk?”
“Walk,” I managed to get out. “Albion Street.”
“That’s ten minutes or so,” he mused. “I’m going to crash here tonight, so walking is fine if that’s what you want to do.”
He was sleeping at Beat? My mind began to latch onto the notion, serving as a distraction, and I felt my heartbeat slowing to somewhere near normal.
“I…” I began, but I didn’t know what to say even if I could get the words out.
“Don’t worry about it,” he murmured, his thumbs caressing my skin. “I don’t mind at all. Honestly.”
“I don’t mean to…”
“I know. Just let me get my keys and some shoes, then we’ll go. Okay?”
I watched him walk away, the door to the weight room swinging behind him. I couldn’t ask him to do this for me. It was way beyond the agreement we had. I paid him to train me in self-defense, nothing more.
I stewed in my own juices for what felt like a millennia before he returned.
“Caleb, I can’t…” I shook my head, my hands tightening around the handle of my bag. “I can’t ask you to take me home like this.”
“Why not?” he asked with a confused frown. “I don’t mind.”
I scowled, not knowing how to say what I felt without giving away how attached I’d become to him and how terrified I was of things changing the moment he found out I was thinking about him like that. Then there was everything else. My name, my past,my sister.
“I hate this,” I hissed to myself. “It’s eight o-fucking-clock.”
“C’mon,” he said with an encouraging grin. “We’ll be there before you know it.”
He pried my bag from my fingers and slung it over his shoulder, looking almost comical. The muscled boxer with a ladies handbag.
Outside, it was still muggy, the city trapped in the midst of a heat wave.
Caleb and I walked side by side down the footpath, our arms almost touching. I was beyond talking, and he seemed content with the silence, so I stopped trying to think of clever thoughts to fill the void.
My gaze darted through shadow after shadow, imagining evil things were lurking just beyond, waiting to jump out and grab me. It didn’t escape my notice when Caleb shifted position, placing his brawn between me and the open mouths of the alleys we passed.
Turning down my street, we were forced closer by the small footpath, the row of parked cars on the street making the space tighter. It wasn’t long before my unit block came into sight, the row of brick buildings facing the road shining like a beacon of safety.
“This is me,” I murmured as we stood outside my door.
