8. Calista
EIGHT
CALISTA
T he library doors slammed shut behind me as I dragged in a deep breath. The cold seared my lungs and washed away some of the fog drifting throughout my mind. Tutoring Lincoln Pierce was the most draining thing I had ever had to do.
It wasn’t the prep work or the additional lecture I now attended, but Lincoln himself.
I could tell he wasn’t listening. In one ear and out the other.
His body was there with me, but his mind was somewhere else.
It was like he was on autopilot. He would occasionally nod along.
But his eyes were void of anything that resembled comprehension.
No glimmer of understanding. No eureka moment. Nothing.
The exhaustion I was feeling seeped through my pores as I stomped back to the dorms. Any ounce of energy I was conserving for my first day of practicum fizzled out as soon as I reached the other side of campus.
As I climbed the steps to my floor, my mind drifted to the little girl who showed up with Lincoln.
I didn’t know how they were related. But the question still stood.
How could someone so sweet, so angelic, be related to something like Lincoln Pierce?
Were they siblings or something else? An odd sensation bubbled in my stomach as I thought of the possibility of Sadie being Lincoln’s daughter.
Banishing the thought, I pulled my lanyard from my pocket and slipped the key into the lock of my shared room.
“How did the tutoring go today?” Ella questioned from her desk. It was one of the rare occasions when I witnessed my roommate doing coursework.
“Fine… better than I expected, in all honesty.”
At least he decided to show up today.
I hung my jacket on the back of the door.
“That’s good,” Ella said, studying my face for a moment. “So why do you look so frazzled?”
Sadie’s doll-like face flashed into my head.
“Oh,” I breathed, pressing the back of my fingers over my warm cheek. “It’s from the wind. It’s colder than I thought it would be. It’ll probably be time to switch to a winter coat soon.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share the new information I’d learned that day with my roommate. It was almost… gossipy? Did I want to blurt out anything without knowing everything?
“Alright,” Ella drawled before turning back around in her seat. I could tell she didn’t believe me, not one bit, but I was glad she didn’t push the subject.
A comfortable hush settled over the room. The sound of Ella’s long nails clacked against her keyboard. I didn’t move from my spot by the door, frozen in contemplation. I didn’t have all the answers, but maybe my roommate did.
Ella was a part of circles that touched every athletic team at Fenton U—both literally and figuratively.
Before being forced into the shabby dorms, she had been part of the most exclusive sorority at Fenton.
If anyone could potentially know something about Lincoln Pierce having a daughter, it would be her.
Curiosity gripped me and wrestled with my better judgment. I couldn’t stop the question as it loaded onto my tongue.
“I know this might be a bit random,” I started. “But does Lincoln Pierce have a kid?”
“A kid?” Ella blinked. Her fingers froze over her keyboard. “What makes you think Lincoln has a kid?”
“Maybe she’s his sister then… I’m not too sure. But he showed up to tutoring today with a preschooler.”
Ella’s eyes glazed over in thought. “Honestly, I don’t know anything about him having a kid. Not going to lie though,” she said with a dreamy look in her eye. “The thought of Lincoln with an actual child does something to my lady bits.”
I gasped. “Ella!”
“Not in a sexual way.” Ella put out her hand to stop my train of thought. “It’s more of a men-with-little-kids-are-fucking-attractive kinda way, you know?”
Oh, I was well aware. Being there to witness the tender way in which Lincoln doted on Sadie almost changed my perspective of him.
Almost .
I sighed, kicking off my boots. “I know what you mean. It was just weird to see Lincoln in that way.”
Ella all but wiggled her eyebrows. “Oh, really now?”
“Don’t get any ideas.” I pointed a stern finger at her as I placed my bag on my bed. “It was just different not having him completely broody for a change.”
My roommate’s eyes twinkled. “I’ll bet.” She turned in her chair, phone in hand. “Well, like I said. I don’t know anything about him having a daughter, but I can ask around if you want?”
I waved a dismissive hand at her over my shoulder, pretending to search for something amongst the folders I had stashed in my backpack earlier. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not like I care whether he has a kid or not. I was just curious.”
Ella parted her perfectly glossed lips, prepared to argue, when the door to our dorm room swung open.
“Did someone request a new set of scrubs?” Harper appeared in the doorway. The navy blue set I had ordered for placement was folded perfectly and tucked under her arm.
“You’re a lifesaver,” I said to Harper, giving her a hug and taking the clothing from her. “I hope my dad didn’t talk your ear off.”
“He didn’t,” Harper said. “Your mom mentioned that she had to wash them twice already, though. Willow decided to turn them into her bed the first time around.”
I smiled fondly at the mention of my long-haired cat. “Of course she did.”
We’d had Willow since she was an eight-week-old baby that my dad discovered under our shed.
When he brought her through the backdoor, she was wrapped in a greasy cloth he found next to Mom’s gardening tools.
I was only five years old. We grew up together.
She was the closest thing to a sibling I ever had, and I was very used to her falling asleep on my clothes, whether they were dirty or clean.
That’s the one thing I was sort of able to escape when I went off to college—cat hair. From time to time, I would find little white strands stuck to clothes I wore when I went home for breaks. But I didn’t mind. They were small, happy reminders of her.
Sometimes, I found it harder to say goodbye to her than I did to my own parents.
I breathed in the familiar scent. This was another benefit of having your best friend go to college with you. Especially when she still lived in your hometown and could bring stuff to campus.
“Thanks for grabbing them for me. I would have gone today, but with this whole tutoring thing?—”
“Do you know if Lincoln Pierce has a kid?” Ella’s voice caused both of our heads to snap in her direction.
“Pierce has a kid?” Harper echoed, confusion painting her freckled face.
I groaned. “Ella!”
“What?” Ella gestured towards a perplexed-looking Harper. “Maybe she knows. You made me curious.”
Harper plopped herself down on my chair, crossing her sweater-clad arms. “I don’t know much about the guy besides the fact that he likes to start fights around campus.”
“He starts fights around campus?” I asked. The idea of Lincoln purposefully starting a fight didn’t sit well with me. From what I saw and what Dante told me, he seemed to keep to himself for the most part. But then again, what did I know?
“Are you talking about the fight that broke out at The Underground with a few guys from the policing program?” Ella rolled her eyes. “Half of those guys have a chip on their shoulder. I would fight them, too.”
Harper scoffed. “You wouldn’t fight anyone.”
“Only because it would ruin my chances of getting into law school. I don’t need an assault charge on my record.”
“Regardless,” Harper said coolly. “He doesn’t have the cleanest reputation. That’s why I warned you about him, Cal. Everything about Lincoln Pierce is bad news.”
Lincoln and Sadie sitting side by side in the library study room flashed through my mind. Sadie and her big blue eyes blinking up at him. I didn’t want to believe what my best friend was saying. He couldn’t be bad news when caring for something so precious, could he?
“Whether he’s bad news or not, I have got to make this work,” I stated, shoving my scrubs into the forgotten bag that lay limp and open on my bed.
“Do you have practicum tonight?” Ella asked. I was grateful for the change in topic.
“First day,” I said with faux enthusiasm.
Harper kicked off her sneakers and climbed up onto my made-up bed. A tell-tale sign that she and Ella would be hanging out after I left. “You’ll do great. You always do.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” I muttered as nerves sparked through my body.
Up until this point, my practicums consisted of geriatric and NICU.
While both were physically and emotionally taxing, I had heard horror stories from other students who did placements in intensive care—especially at Saint Francis Memorial, which just so happened to be the hospital I was assigned to for placement this semester.
“I still don’t get why you aren’t able to pick your placements based on your interests,” Ella said, completely forgetting about the assignment she was working on when I had come in. “It seems counterproductive, no?”
“They want us to have a variety of experiences before we graduate. Sometimes, as a nurse, you don’t have much control over where hospitals put you.”
Ella’s mouth twisted. “I guess.”
“Alright!” I said, slapping my legs. “Enough feeling sorry for myself. I’ve got to leave for my lab. I’ll be catching the bus right after, so don’t wait up.”
“You could take my car if you wanted. Harper and I are going to the gym after I finish up here. We won’t need it.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I want to try and learn the route now before the snow starts,” I said, grabbing my backpack off my bed.
Once it was gone, Harper sprawled out across my comforter, her curly ponytail splashing a streak of red across my pillow.
“You definitely don’t want me driving your car in the winter. ”
Harper snickered. “Not unless you want to lose your bumper.”
“That wasn’t even my fault!” I said, tossing a stray sock at her before slipping on my white sneakers.
“Alright,” Ella said, a grin on her face. “Suit yourself.”