Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
ELIZABETH
After a quick meet and greet with Daniel and lots of hugs from me because I was so happy to see him, Ryder and I make it to campus just in time for me to push through the auditorium doors into English Lit.
“There she is!” Meredith exclaims, causing a few heads to turn my way. “I told you she was coming.”
“Huh?” I take my usual seat next to her.
“Trevor thought you weren’t coming today because you’re never late.”
I bend forward to look around her at Trevor, and he shrugs.
I get my tablet out. “I still haven’t decoded your text message.”
Meredith snorts out a laugh, and several more heads turn our way. She leans in and whispers, “I’ll fill you in later.”
The auditorium quiets down when Professor Hallenger and his TAs walk into the room, but then it erupts into a cacophony of groans when he announces, “I hope everyone finished reading the book because before you leave class today, you’re going to write a five-paragraph essay about the impact the main protagonist’s brother’s suicide had on her.”
That’s a pretty heavy topic to write about at eight in the morning.
A half hour later, Meredith, Trevor, and I finish our essays within minutes of one another, and once we turn them in, we’re allowed to leave.
I text Ryder to let him know that I’m out early. He doesn’t immediately reply, so I assume he’s still busy. He had a meeting with one of his professors this morning, and we were going to meet up at the student center later for coffee.
As soon as we step outside Mason Hall, Meredith does the cutest celebratory dance.
“More free time for me! Want to go grab something from the cafeteria?”
“I’m down for that,” Trevor replies.
I check my phone. Still no text from Ryder. “I’m in.”
As we walk, Meredith talks a mile a minute about what she wrote for her essay. I’m half listening because my thoughts are too preoccupied with Daniel’s arrival, Ryder, Jayson, and…
“Kitten! Hold up!” someone shouts.
Two girls walking in the opposite direction on the sidewalk stop.
“Oh, my god! That’s Fallon Montgomery. So freaking hot,” one of them gushes.
Fallon?
Before I can turn around, Trevor takes my arm and picks up his pace.
“Trevor, what?” I ask while trying to free myself from his grasp.
“That guy’s bad news.”
Meredith runs after us. “Will you please slow down? My legs aren’t as long as yours. Do you know Fallon Montgomery?” she asks me.
I’m able to extricate my arm from Trevor. “No.” At least, I don’t think so.
“Oh. Right. Forgot.”
I poke her in the side when she snickers at her pun.
“Kitten!” Then, “Elizabeth!”
Is he talking to me? Why does he keep saying kitten?
Fallon slows as he nears us, but his scrutiny goes to Trevor before his gaze returns to me.
I didn’t pay much attention to him when Ryder found me in the student center. I can see why so many girls on campus are stupid over this guy. He’s gorgeous. Tall. Leanly built in a way that screams danger. Sandy-blond hair, effortlessly disheveled. His eyes are so vibrantly blue, I wonder if he wears colored contacts. And he’s got this charismatic aura about him that immediately draws your attention, you can’t look away.
“Ryder has had you on lockdown.”
He flashes me such a cocky grin, I find myself grinning back before I can smooth it away.
“Fallon,” Trevor says, his tone flat.
Fallon’s affable grin fades. “Trevor. Don’t you have someplace to be?”
“No.”
“Well, we do.”
Fallon takes my bag and then my hand and starts walking with me in tow.
I don’t make out what Trevor says as I’m being pulled away, but whatever it is, Fallon lifts his middle finger in the air.
Luckily, my brain finally engages, and I dig my heels in. “Wait one damn minute.”
“I want to talk to you.”
“What if I don’t want to talk to you?”
He laughs and keeps walking. “You do.”
I tug sharply on his hand. “Could you please let go?”
“In a sec.”
“If you want to talk to me, you ask politely, asshole. You don’t just grab someone and kidnap them.”
“It’s good to have you back, Kitten.”
“Stop calling me Kitten.”
I look around and spy a bench between two trees in the quad. I change our direction of motion and take the lead since he won’t let go.
“You want to talk to me so badly, we can do it here.”
When he finally releases me, I take out my phone and immediately text Ryder.
Me: Just got abducted by Fallon. In the quad near Mason Hall.
Fallon places my bag on the ground and leans against the adjacent tree. He plants his hands in his pockets and cocks his head, staring at me, that all-knowing smirk once again plastered across his roguish face.
My phone dings with an incoming text, but it’s not from Ryder.
Meredith: Trevor is losing his shit. Text me later. OMG! Fallon Montgomery! Holy crap, girl!
I look across the quad to where Trevor and Meredith are watching. Trevor looks pissed.
Sighing, I sit down on the bench. “You’ve got your audience, Fallon. So talk.”
He takes a stick of gum out of his pocket, unwraps it, and pops it into his mouth.
“Don’t know if you remember or not, but I used to smoke. Mostly weed. I quit. Gum seems to help keep the cravings down.”
“Good for you. It’s better for your health,” I reply, not knowing where he’s going with that opening.
His pale-blue eyes take me in for longer than I’m comfortable with, and I start to become self-conscious.
“You look good.”
“Thank you,” I curtly reply.
“Heard you don’t remember shit.”
“Yep,” I reply, popping that “p” like a boss.
Fallon’s grin turns into a deep laugh.
“Fallon,” I say in exasperation when he continues to look at me in that unnerving way without saying anything else.
“Elizabeth.”
“So you can say my actual name and not just Kitten.”
He laughs even harder, seeming to enjoy our banter.
“Since you seem to know I can’t remember anything, were we friends or something?”
“Not quite,” he replies.
“So what were we then?”
“Cat and mouse.”
I think I’m getting a clearer picture. He was the cat, and I was the mouse. It seems Fallon likes to play games. No wonder I apparently steered clear of him in high school.
He slides his back down the trunk of the tree and sits, legs outstretched, like we’re here to shoot the shit with one another, all the time in the world.
“How’s the no memory working out for you?”
“It sucks.”
“How’s that working out for you and Jay?”
Caught off guard, I snap, “That’s none of your business.”
His smile widens. “Thought so. About fucking time you and Ry made it official. Glad you finally got your head out of your ass and chose the right guy.”
What the hell?
“How did you—” I stop midsentence and decide to turn the tables with my own question. “Trevor clearly doesn’t like you. Why?”
“You tell me.”
His flippant replies make me want to pull my hair out.
“You really are a very difficult person to have a conversation with.”
“That’s just how it is with us.” Something behind me draws Fallon’s attention. “And the cavalry arrives.”
I twist around. Jayson and Julien are heading our way. I can only assume Ryder must have texted them. I check my phone, and sure enough, there’s a reply from him.
Hellcat: Stuck and can’t leave yet. Texting the guys.
“What’s up, Fal?”
Julien greets Fallon with a fist bump and sits down next to him on the grass. Jayson takes a seat beside me on the bench.
Fallon’s gaze shoots to Jayson, his smirk firmly back in place. I swear this guy finds everything amusing.
“Haven’t seen you around lately,” Julien says.
“Been busy,” Fallon replies. “Saw Kitten and wanted to catch up.”
Jayson frowns. “Cut the Kitten crap.”
Fallon’s enjoyment grows, but when he addresses Julien, I notice his demeanor shift from bemusement to something more real.
“Heard you’ve got the attention of the big guys. Congrats, Jules.”
“Haven’t decided if that’s what I want.”
“What big guys?” I ask.
“The national men’s soccer team,” Julien replies.
That’s huge news. Why didn’t he tell me?
“Julien, that’s great. Why wouldn’t you want to go professional?”
“I love soccer, but I also want to help people. Athletes. That’s why I want to do sports medicine with Elijah. Not kick a ball down a field for the next ten years. The travel and everything else associated with going pro would keep me away for long periods of time, and that’s not the life I want.”
I can understand. I want to be a doctor, so I can help people, too. People like Drew. I also wouldn’t want that kind of transient life.
“What do you want to do?” I ask Fallon.
“Whatever the hell I want.”
“Rich prick syndrome,” Jayson mumbles under his breath.
“It was a serious question. I want to know,” I reply.
“Kitten, I have more money than I know what to do with. I’m already set for life.”
“Then why even be here? Why CU?” I persist.
Fallon’s silent for a second. I about fall off the bench when he gives me a straightforward, honest answer.
“I came for Ry and Elijah. Someone had to look out for them.”
I wasn’t expecting that. “Good. Someone should.”
I’ve picked up enough from the guys’ conversations to know how bad Julien and Jayson spiraled after I disappeared. Elijah even gave up Stanford to be here with Julien. Jayson and Julien had Elijah and Ryder to look out for them, but who looked out for Ryder and Elijah? Apparently, Fallon did. And knowing that just shot Fallon up several rungs on my ladder of respect.
“I’m heading to the cafeteria.” I meet Fallon’s icy-blue gaze. “And you’re coming.”
That wry amusement lights up his face. “Whatever you say, Kitten.”