Page 79 of Provocation
I look down, smiling a little at the thought. Has anyone ever stuck up for me like that? Fought my corner like that? No one but Shade when we were kids, that's for sure. Maybe my mind is fucked up from the Heath, but I find it oddly romantic.
I take a seat at the back of the room and the lecture goes quickly. At the end, I make sure I've sent in my part of the project to McKinsey, so that I don't need to see or speak to Bennet again. Blake seems to have put the fear of God into him though. As I pass Casey’s bag, I slip the flyer in just to make sure she knows the party is happening.
My plan is simple, but Bennet has to show up. Blake may have taught him a lesson on my behalf, but I still feel a need to do something to him and those sorority clones myself.
After class, I stop by Grinder, deciding to help with the lunchtime rush when I see Lu there all alone.
‘Why are you by yourself?’ I ask as I throw on my apron and join her behind the counter.
‘Janet’s on break.’
I look closer at my friend, and she definitely looks more harried than usual. There are dark rings under her eyes, and she looks a little pale, too.
‘Hey, are you okay?’ I ask, not needing to feign concern.
I’ve never seen her like this. She’s not even her usual bubbly self.
But she just gives me a shrug. ‘Just tired, dude. When it rains it pours, you know? I’m sick, got rehearsals, work, and the holidays coming up, which with my family is always crazy, but we have some, uh, drama going on right now with my cousin and my gramps. Everything’s just a little nuts. Sorry I’ve been MIA.’
‘It’s okay,’ I tell her. ‘I’ve been busy too.’
She waggles her eyebrows. ‘I’ll bet you have. Are they all as good in the sack as half the girls on campus want them to be?’
I feel my cheeks heat as I look away and she squeals. ‘I fucking knew it!’
I help Lu until Janet gets back, at which point Lu waves me away and tells me to get out of there before I catch her cold, and she’ll message me later. I return to the science building, taking the elevator to the lab.
The guys are sitting at one of the tables together studying. I join them without a word.
‘How was Bennet?’ Mav asks, grinning down at his books.
‘You knew?’ I ask.
He shrugs. ‘I know Blake.’
I chuckle. ‘He looked like shit. It was pretty awesome.’
Mav winks and I’m handed a protein bar and a bottle of water. I bump into him with my shoulder, giving him a smile as I open my books.
We study until Mav needs to go to class, leaving Shade and I alone. Only a few minutes goes by before he’s letting out a sigh and closing his books. I look up curiously.
‘Did you mean what you said? About coming with me to visit the place… where it happened?’
I immediately know he’s talking about the crash site, and I nod. ‘Whenever you want.’
‘Now?’
I close my books and give him a small nod. ‘Now works.’
We pack up our stuff and take the truck away from campus, through Richmond, and out to the winding road where my mother met her end. Shade parks the truck by the side of the road close to where Lu did when I came with her the first time.
It’s sunny today, but I bundle the huge coat Mav lent to me more tightly around myself as the autumn wind whips through the trees, making browning leaves fall to the ground in waves.
Shade stands at the clearing, looking at the gouged tree. I can’t read his face and I’m not sure what to say, so I don’t say anything at all. After a few minutes, his hand finds mine and he squeezes it. When I look up, I see that he’s crying, his eyes clenched as he sobs quietly.
‘You were right,’ he whispers. ‘I feel her more here than I do at her grave.’
‘Do you…want me to go for a bit so that you can be here with her alone?’ I ask, but he shakes his head.
