6. Death by Embarrassment
Death by Embarrassment
LUKE
T he fall air was crisp with a hint of wood smoke and dried leaves. Hoodie weather. Curl up with a book and a steaming cup of hot tea weather.
Luke had finished his classes for the day, and he was waiting for Harper to get out of her final class so they could walk across the quad to her car.
As much as he wanted to head home and curl up in the library with a book and tea, he had to get to his evening job.
Harper had offered to drive him so they could catch up.
Life had gotten busy, both of them tightening their focus on their master’s theses.
They weren’t finding a lot of opportunities to hang out and shoot the shit.
“I’m here! I’m here!” Harper’s high-pitched voice rang out across the campus.
Luke lifted his head from where he’d been feeding the crows some unsalted trail mix to see the woman in bright colors holding her bag by the strap in the air with one hand while waving books at him in the other hand.
He wasn’t the only student to stop and gawk at the spectacle, but everyone soon shrugged and returned to their own business.
As she reached the bench, she flopped down, so that she was a millimeter away from sitting in his lap.
She leaned on him, panting. “Oh, my fucking gawd. The professor just kept droning on and on and on, even after the class had ended. Students were creeping along the floor like cockroaches so they could sneak out the side door of the lecture hall. I gave the man another ten minutes and then I said fuck this shit and walked the hell out of there. I had places to be, and this man was disrespecting my time.”
“First one out the door at the front of the room, weren’t you?”
She snapped her fingers near the tip of his nose and smirked. “You fucking know it. And a shit-ton of people followed behind me.”
“Not afraid of missing something important?”
“Nah. This professor loves to repeat himself. I know my parents are paying big money to get what’s in this guy’s head into my head, but you gotta respect other people, too.
” She shifted from leaning on Luke to slumping against the back of the bench, her books in her lap and the messenger bag at her feet.
Her eyes found the crows, who’d been watching the conversation with bright, attentive expressions, as if they understood everything she was saying and agreed with her. “So, have you begun naming them yet?”
“That is Atticus there,” he said, pointing at the largest bird perched on the rim of a nearby trash can.
He shifted his finger to point at the two crows on the sidewalk.
“These are Banks and Dante. And Caspian is sitting up in that tree across from us.” He dropped his hand into his lap and grinned.
They were nice company. Not that he didn’t enjoy hanging out with Harper.
It was just that they didn’t seem to notice when stupid or embarrassing things came out of his mouth.
“How do you even tell them apart?”
“Easy. Atticus is the largest and bossiest. The others follow his lead. Banks is missing the tip of his beak, and sometimes he has trouble prying things open. Dante always hangs close and helps. And Caspian is usually in the tree or higher perch as a lookout.”
There was no reason to go into the fact that he could recognize them on sight or by the sound of their caws. He was sure Harper would think he was crazy, and that was not something he needed.
“Have they brought you anything else interesting since they found that apartment for you? You know, a better-paying job listing, a treasure map, a boyfriend?”
Luke snorted. “I think that might be asking a little much of them. I’m content with having a new place to live. They don’t need to bring me anything else.”
Harper huffed out a laugh. She bent over, leaning toward the ground where the birds were watching them. “You know, I could use a girlfriend. Tall, muscular so she can open things for me, nice smile, good laugh. Think you can manage it?”
With a roll of his eyes, Luke grabbed Harper’s shoulder and pulled her back against the bench. “Keep in mind, they’re just crows. That might be a big order for them.”
“Yeah, whatever. A girl can dream.” A long sigh escaped Harper, and she slumped on the bench. “Speaking of your crows and changing luck, how’s the new living arrangement working out? It’s gotta be better than flopping wherever you could manage.”
“Way better than couch surfing or catching some Z’s in the library.
” Luke closed up the bag of trail mix and tucked it away inside his bag.
He pulled out the fruit smoothie he’d been sipping on.
With the cheaper rent and steady hours he’d been getting, he’d stashed away enough money to treat himself here and there.
“Both of my jobs have been crazy, so I haven’t been home for more than sleeping and tossing in a load of laundry, but it’s nice having a home where I don’t feel unwelcome or a burden. ”
“That’s awesome!”
“Except…”
“What?”
Luke opened his mouth but shut it again without speaking and shook his head. “It’s nothing.”
“No, what? What happened?”
“Only some small, weird stuff.”
“Like what? Has one of your roommates been rummaging through your underwear when you’re gone?”
“No! Nothing creepy like that. I just…one night I returned from work and spiders were all over the house. And?—”
“Are you shitting me? And you stayed? You didn’t burn the building to the ground? Everyone knows that’s how you deal with a spider in your house. Burn it down.”
Luke arched one eyebrow at his friend. “You don’t simply kill the spider? Or better yet, catch it and put it outside?”
“Fuck, no! What’s the point?” She leaned close and dropped her voice as if she were about to share some ancient, forbidden secret with him. “Spiders always have friends. You might get one, but all his friends are hiding in the shadows, waiting to get you after you fall asleep at night.”
“You’re insane. You know that, right?” Harper tsked at him and gave him a dismissive wave of her hand. Luke returned to his story. “I dealt with the spiders without burning the house down, but not long after, I came home from work and the house was full of cats.”
“Aren’t you deathly allergic to cats?”
“I am! Thankfully, one of my roommates was there to help me get them out of the house. Apparently, a neighbor has a shit-ton of cats, and they get into the house sometimes.”
“That’s fucking weird.”
“Yeah, definitely.” Luke slouched on the bench beside Harper. “It’s like the house doesn’t want me to be there.”
“But your roommates have been nice to you? They haven’t said anything to make you feel unwelcome, have they?”
Luke was quick to shake his head. “No! They’ve all been nice. Well, the ones I’ve seen, anyway. With all my classes and work hours, I haven’t been around much, and I haven’t talked to them all that often.”
“Then don’t worry about it. Just some weird shit. Coincidence. That’s all.”
Luke grunted. What Harper was saying made total sense. It was a coincidence that those two strange things had happened so close together. The house wasn’t haunted and trying to get rid of him. His roommates didn’t secretly hate him and want him out of the house. He was being silly and paranoid.
“Hey look! It’s creepy poor Bird Boy!” Several heavy and loud guffaws followed the shout.
Luke’s head snapped up to see a trio of frat boys wandering across the green space, pointing and laughing at him.
This was not the first time he’d encountered these idiots.
Sadly, every time they ran across each other, crows surrounded him.
It had also spread through the campus grapevine after he’d been caught sleeping in one of the school’s stairwells that he was a penniless student studying to be an ornithologist. His reputation on campus was sinking by the day.
He didn’t need this shit. Grabbing his backpack with one hand, he tried to grip the top of his drink with the other.
Except it slipped from his fingers as he stood.
The lid remained in his hand while the drink came loose, spilling the contents all down his hoodie and jeans.
His head jerked up to see who was there to witness the mess, only to lock eyes with the sweet and sexy Matteo as he exited the library close by.
“It looks like a giant bird shit on Bird Boy!” one of the frat goons shouted between his cackles.
Heat swelled in his face, sweeping from the tips of his ears and across his face until Luke swore his entire body was on fire. This was not what he needed. Not in front of Matteo.
Harper jumped to her feet beside him and bellowed, “Fuck off, assholes!” But that made them laugh harder.
For reasons he couldn’t understand, it seemed like the crows weren’t big fans of how he was being treated.
Atticus cawed loudly and flapped his wings.
The other crows took notice of his cries and began crying out as well.
A great cacophony of bird calls filled the quad as if every bird within the immediate area was shouting.
Before he could even wrap his head around it, Atticus took to the air and headed straight for the frat goons. Banks, Caspian, and Dante immediately followed.
And then so did other crows in the quad.
And other birds like starlings, robins, and even tiny finches in the area.
Anything with wings that could hear Atticus’s shouts was now dive-bombing the frat goons.
Another shout went up, and Luke’s heart squeezed. The birds were also harassing Matteo and a few other people who had been unfortunate enough to walk out of the library as this entire incident occurred.
“What…the…fuck…?” Harper said slowly, her voice barely more than a whisper. “Did…did you teach them to do that?”
“Hell, no! How would I even—?” Luke couldn’t finish his question.
The idea was mindboggling. How would he teach a bunch of wild animals to protect him from emotional injury?
Besides, he’d known Atticus and his companions for only a short time.
That wasn’t nearly long enough to train them in anything.
Except birds of the corvus genus were known for being remarkably smart.
But still…
He opened his mouth to call Atticus off, but the birds had chased the frat boys and some of the other students to the other end of the quad.
He doubted the crows would even hear him.
Plus, he didn’t know if they’d listen to him if he shouted.
It wasn’t like they’d done this for him. That idea was crazy.
Right?