Page 1 of Collin: Episodes 4-6
Episode 4
Alice huffed into the phone, clearly moving around her room on the other end. “I went to check in with her this morning after my morning run, and she didn’t answer, so I looked up her location. After yesterday, I think she grabbed one of the first flights she could get this morning.”
Collin beat his head against the mattress. “Mom needs to chill!”
“No arguments from me. At this rate, I’m going to buy a decoy phone and swap sim cards. I am not going through this when I graduate and start having an actual life.”
“Move to a foreign country. Tell her the app doesn’t work there.”
“It’s a thought. So, what are you going to do?”
“Tell Mr. Reevesworth. And then fake my death.”
“That’s not funny, Collin.”
“I know. I know. But seriously, you weren’t the one with police at your door a few days ago.”
“True. She did run background reports on all my professors and my roommates, though. Can you imagine what she’s going to do if I ever date?”
“Is this why you don’t date?”
“I don’t date because Lan Wangji belongs to Wei Wuxian, and I will never mess with their relationship, but no one else has yet met my standards.”
“I knew the internet was good for something. Accept nothing less.”
“Does this mean that your Mr. Reevesworth is as good as my cultivators?”
“No comment.”
“I accept your honorable silence. Now it’s time for me to shower. Got to go. Bye. And good luck.”
Collin groaned and rolled over onto his back, covering his face with his arm.
“Does your mother travel alone, or is she the kind to appear with an army?”
Collin opened one eye. Mr. Reevesworth, still wonderfully naked, stood over the bed. He had one bruised eye and a collection of marks that would have put a prize fighter to shame. In short, he looked like one of the battered heroes in his sister’s danmei novels. Glorious.
“Probably traveling alone. Unless she got her friend Natalie to come with her. She’s a psych professor. They’re close. And Mom thinks I’m depressed.”
Mr. Reevesworth arched one brow. “You look very depressed, pretty boy. If you sink any further into that mattress, I will have to send for Damian to dig you out.”
“Sir, respectfully, tell him to bury me. Deep enough I can’t hear the screaming.”
Mr. Reevesworth grinned. He stretched and winced. “Actually, Damian would be the perfect one to put on this problem.” He walked out of the room.
Collin shook his head. But now that he was awake, he did need to pee. He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and crawled out of the comforting cocoon. Mr. Moreau was at the bathroom counter, skin shiny with ointment on various scratches and bruises. He was applying something to the skin under his eye.
“Sir, can you help me use the toilet? Mr. Reevesworth went to talk to Damian.”
Mr. Moreau nodded. He reached into his pocket for the key.
Collin had barely finished washing his hands when Mr. Reevesworth returned. “Damian’s going to send a driver down to the airport for your mother. There’s only two flights she could be on if she took a direct flight.”
“How did he do that so fast?”
“It’s his specialty. And this one was easy. He just checked for flights leaving the airport near your mother and coming here that are still in the air.”
“That information is public?”
