chapter twenty-seven
kira
Maddie pulls in at five-fifty with a grocery bag full of ingredients for sundaes. She hands me a carton of vanilla bean ice cream, and I hug it to my chest. It’s basic, but it’s my favorite. We’ve only been friends for a few months, but she already knows me almost as well as Jared does. I wince. I’ve been trying to contact him, but he’s ignoring me. I brush it off.
Maddie sets her blue moon ice cream on the counter and proceeds to haul out various candies, syrups, and sprinkles. It looks like she robbed Willy Wonka’s factory to get this much stuff.
“Do you have—” I start to ask as she wordlessly sets a can of whipped cream next to the other accouterments.
“What’s the occasion?” I ask, mildly concerned. Something is off. She isn’t her usual self.
“Trust me, we need it,” she says, her voice tired. I examine her appearance. There’s a slight slouch in her posture and a puffiness around her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
Her bottom lip shakes as she tries to hold in her tears, and my heart sinks. I pull her into a hug. She melts into me, a sob escaping her lips. I hold her while she cries, rubbing small circles on her back. She takes a few deep breaths and releases me.
“Lucy and I… we aren’t together anymore,” she explains, voice cracking at the mention of her. That is the last thing I expected her to say. They were so happy together. She notices the confusion on my face and sighs.
“Lucy isn’t out to her parents.”
I nod slowly, starting to understand.
“I thought I would be okay with it. It’ s college. We ’re not really around our parents anyway. But her parents visit every weekend, and I get introduced as her friend every time,” she says with air quotes.
“I can’t be someone’s secret, Kira. I spent too long hiding from myself. I can’t go back to that.”
My heart breaks for her. I can’t imagine something like that. I grab her hand, gesturing for her to look at me.
“You deserve someone who is openly proud to be with you. Maybe that can be Lucy eventually, but if not, I need you to know that you are a fucking catch, Maddie. If your person doesn’t show you off, they’re not good enough for you.”
Tears still stream down her face as she smirks at me. “Sounds like you need to take your own advice, Kira.”
I let out a breath, shaking my head.
“You know that’ s different. ”
“Is it?” she asks, her eyes narrowing.
The only difference is Jared. His anger and hurt about our relationship are valid, and I don’t want to make it worse.
“Look, right now, it’s still fresh with Jared, and I get that, but the same goes for you. You deserve someone who will love you shamelessly.”
“I think it’s time for ice cream,” I announce, changing the subject.
“I second that statement,” Maddie says with a small smile.
We load our bowls full of all the possible toppings. I cover my ice cream with strawberry syrup and sprinkles. If this were a fro-yo shop, the bill would be massive.
“Gilmore Girls or Supernatural?” I ask as I plop onto the couch.
Maddie grabs a blanket and snuggles in next to me, ice cream in hand.
“Supernatural. Start on season four, though. I need some Destiel tonight.” That earns a giggle from me as I select the show.
We ’re halfway into the episode when Maddie’s phone goes off. We both glance at the caller ID, and Lucy’s name lights up.
“I’m not answering,” she asserts, but conflict wars in her eyes.
Despite her noticeable desire to do the opposite, she lets the phone ring, not reaching for it once. When it stops, we look at each other, still silent, both jumping when it starts to ring again.
“I’m just going to tell her to stop calling,” Maddie rationalizes as she lifts her phone from the table. I’m about to snatch it back, but she swipes to accept the call. She musters up as much confidence as she can before speaking.
“I don’t want to talk right now.”
Her face quickly shifts, though, from hurt to complete concern.
“I’m at Kira’s, why? What’s going on?”
Her face goes white as Lucy answers, and I catch a few words.
Fire. College dorms.
“Let me put you on speaker real quick,” Maddie says.
“There’s a massive fire at your dorm building downtown. It’s horrifying. I wanted to make sure you were safe. They’re taking people out in ambulances. Even a firefighter had to get put on a stretcher,” Lucy explains.
Those words rob my body of oxygen. It wouldn’t be Noah. His station doesn’t service Traverse City. My heart races as I search for my phone, tapping Noah’s contact as fast as possible.
It rings.
And rings.
“Hello, this is Noah. Leave a message.”
Shit.
He’s probably just busy. There’s no reason to think he went downtown to that fire. Maddie recognizes the panic in my eyes and stands.
“ We ’ve got to go. Thank you for calling,” she says before tapping the red hangup button.
“Let’s go.”
“Go where? We don’t even know if he’s down there,” I tell her.
“We can see if he’s at the station.”
Maddie drives, and I call Noah again on the way. He’s probably completely fine and going to think I’m a maniac for calling him seven times in a row, but I don’t care. I focus on my breathing, telling myself that everything is fine.
When we pull into the station, my eyes scan the parking lot and land on the garage. One of the trucks is missing. My jaw tightens as I throw open the car door and make a beeline for the entrance. I push the glass door harder than intended, scaring the old man behind the desk.
“Sorry,” I mutter. “I’m looking for Noah Keller. Have you seen him?”
“He’s not here right now. He’s on a call. There’s a fire at the dorms downtown. Everyone got called in to help. Is there something I can help you with?” His voice is calm, a complete contrast to my emotions.
He’s down there. A firefighter is hurt.
“No, thank you, though,” I say as I whip around and sprint to the car.
“They’re down there. At the fire,” I rush out, my breaths coming in short bursts. I need to get downtown. Now.
“Kira, it’s okay. I’m sure he’s fine. Take some deep breaths. I’ll get us there.”
“They’re not going to let us get anywhere near that scene,” I say, my voice shaky.
“They’re not going to have a choice,” she says as she throws the car in reverse and speeds out of the parking lot.
I need to tell Jared. I don’t want him to panic, but he needs to know. Pulling out my phone, I press ‘call’ under his name. Come on, Jared, I know you’re mad at me, but please pick up. To my surprise, on the third ring, I hear his voice.
“ Kira, ” he starts. “Listen, I don’t want to talk to you or my dad right now. Please stop calling me.”
On any other day, those words would have broken me, but I can’t focus on them right now.
“Jared, wait,” I say before he can hang up. “It’s your dad. I mean, It’s probably nothing, but his crew is at that fire downtown right now, and apparently, it’s really bad.” I ramble, trying to get my point across. “ Maddie ’s gir—ex-girlfriend called and told us that she saw a fireman hauled out on a stretcher.”
There’s no response on the other end, and I’m convinced he hung up until he mutters a whispered curse.
“Where?” he asks, his tone hard.
“The dorms at Northwestern,” I answer. “I just thought you should know about it.”
“Thanks,” he grumbles, and a tone indicates the call has ended.
I’m pretty sure he’s going to hate me forever.
As soon as we even get close to downtown Traverse City, the roads are blocked. Traffic is stopped, and they’re directing cars away from the college.
“ We ’re going to have to go on foot,” I tell Maddie.
“Already on it,” she says, pulling onto a side street and shoving her car into park. We waste no time, stepping out and jogging toward the chaos. We’re about five blocks from the college, and even from here, the blaze licking up over the top of the building is visible.
“He’s okay, Kira, I’m sure of it.”
I nod, but there’s no way she can know that. This has always been a risk for him. He puts his life on the line to save others. My heart rattles in my chest as we jog down the street toward the danger.
We ’re stopped in our tracks by flashing blue and red lights. It’s a roadblock, officers stationed on either side. I suck in a breath. There’s no way they’re going to let us through.
“Follow me,” Maddie says, guiding me into some trees on the side of the road. I catch a glimpse of the bay in the distance as we stumble through the brush. My heart races as we give a wide berth, sticking to the trees for longer than is likely necessary. Thankfully, the officers’ main goal is to stop cars from driving through their barricade, so they don’t notice us.
He’s going to be okay. Everything will be okay.
I let out a shaky breath as we pop back out onto the street. I’m overwhelmed by the sheer size of the scene in front of me. The entire building is on fire, flames spilling out all of the windows, and I can feel the heat radiating from it. There’s a crowd of people, many of them students, watching helplessly as it all unfolds. I push through them.
Where is he?
I scan the slew of firefighters, trying to see if he’s there with them. My eyes land on one of the men, not Noah, but Jeff. One of the firemen from Noah’s station. He’s part of the team keeping the crowd at bay.
“Jeff!” I call, trying to project my voice as loudly as possible.
His head spins around, his eyes softening in recognition. He bounds toward me.
“What are you doing down here?” he asks.
“Where’ s Noah? ” I ignore his question. I need to know that he’s alright. He has to be alright.
His face hardens, and he takes a moment to respond as his eyes flick to the burning building.
“ Inside. ”