Chapter 16
AUDREY
My shoulder throbbed under the ice pack, and my eyes blurred under the bright lighting in my room. My brain was fried and begging me for a break, and I reluctantly obliged.
So far this week, I’d completed twenty essay outlines, five metaphoric critiques, and eight “hot seat” reviews, but I still had so much more to go. And as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I could see why people dropped out and simply took the “Postscript Scholar” title with them.
This place was like having a constant Hell Week—for nerds.
I fell back against my mattress and noticed my phone flashing with new text messages.
Cece
You can’t be serious about asking me for feedback on your essays…
Please take time to do one fun thing for yourself this week.
PLEASE.
I changed clothes and grabbed a shawl.
In the hallway, I glanced at the events board and saw “Beach Fire” listed for the day.
“Are you going?” A girl in all yellow poked her head out the door. I recognized her from one of my workshops but couldn’t quite remember her name.
“Thinking about it.”
“Come on.” She stepped out, her keys jangling. “I’m picking up my boyfriend, and I can drop you off.”
“I wouldn’t want to trouble you.”
“You can afford to take a night off, Miss Audrey ‘We All Know You’re Going to Be in the Top Three at the End of This’ Parker.” She smiled. “Let’s go.”
Empty beer bottles littered the sand, and several people from my cohort were grinding against each other as if no one else was watching.
Taylor sat shirtless by the bonfire, his abs and chest tattoos catching the firelight as he laughed with our classmates—too easy, too familiar, like none of this program ever got under his skin.
I focused on the flames instead, watching how they danced under the night sky.
“We’re going to pick up some late-night food from Gayle’s!” someone shouted, which suddenly made everyone erupt into cheers and rush away from the bonfire.
Torn between following them and staying here, I remained frozen.
“So, you still have a problem knowing how to have a good time?” Taylor’s voice made me realize he was staying put.
“I know exactly how to have a good time.” I picked up a beer from the cooler. “You can ignore me until everyone comes back.”
“Or you can run and catch up to them.” He smirked. “I’m not holding you hostage here.”
I plopped down on a towel, knowing I wasn’t running anywhere.
I didn’t have the energy.
“Feel like being cordial with me for a moment?” Taylor asked.
“Not really.” I hated how the fire illuminated his perfect face. “Call Stacey and talk to her.”
“Can’t.” He looked at me. “She’s extremely upset with me right now.”
“Oh, okay.” I shrugged. If he was waiting for me to ask him to elaborate, he’d be waiting until his last breath.
“She’s mad that we can’t come back to my place,” he offered anyway. “Something about not buying my roommate-rules excuse.”
“You can bring her home if you can’t keep your cock in your pants.” I shrugged. “I probably won’t be coming home tonight anyway.”
“Where are you going?”
“Someplace I can write with a change of view.” I downed the last of my drink.
“Do you need a ride there?”
“Yeah. I mean, no. No, I don’t.”
“I wouldn’t mind driving you.”
“Please keep the hateful energy we have going,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”
“This is about being a decent human being.” He pulled out his car keys, dangling them between us. “You can drive yourself if you don’t trust me.”
“I’m not driving your car, Taylor.”
“You used to.”
Silence.
“How will you get home, then?” I asked.
“I’ll ride with whoever when they get back,” he said.
“Then I’ll just do the same. That’s how I got here in the first place.”
“I’m sure you were biting your nails and tensing up the entire time.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Here.” He pressed the keys into my palm. “We’ll pretend it’s for old time’s sake—a temporary truce—just this once.”
I closed my fingers over the keys, feeling his hand brush against mine. That mere touch sent a jolt of heat through me so sharp that I jumped back.
From the look on his face, I could tell he felt it, too.
As I was standing to my feet, headlights flashed in front of us. A black town car rolled onto the sand, stopping right next to the bonfire.
The driver stepped out, looking right at Taylor.
“Mr. Wolff,” he said. “Miss Stacey said you’d be covering this fare. Is that true?”
Taylor stood up, looking confused. “I guess…”
“I’ll bill you in the morning after I get the cost of cleaning my seats.” He opened the back door and reached for a hand, but someone slapped it away.
Stacey climbed out, wobbling on her heels, clutching the door handle for balance. Her eyes narrowed the second they landed on me.
“Why are you hanging out with your roommate this late at night?” she slurred.
“Everyone’s hanging out tonight, Stacey.”
“Then where the hell is ‘everyone’?” She looked around. “Looks like it’s just you two.”
“You’re drunk.”
“Drunk, not blind.” She rolled her eyes. “You said you weren’t close with her, but you’re out here—shirtless with her and a fire?”
“Let’s not do this here,” Taylor said quietly. “Get back in the car. Let’s see if he can drive us home.”
“Which home?” She scoffed. “I can’t let my parents see me like this, and I think your roommate likes having you all to herself at your place.”
“Jesus, Stacey. Stop.”
“Why should I?” She stepped closer, teetering. “You think I don’t see what’s going on?”
In the distance, a few cohorts began walking back toward the fire, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“I see both of you. I see you.” She reached Taylor, and he slid his arm around her waist to keep her upright.
“We should leave before you make this any more awkward. Can you drive us home?” He looked at the driver, but he shook his head and slid behind the wheel, speeding away from the beach.
“Awkward?” Stacey snapped. “We’re way past awkward, Taylor. We’re now at—” She heaved and bent over, vomiting into the fire.
Taylor sighed, running a hand down his face.
“I need to take her home first,” he said to me. “And you’ll need to be okay with letting her sleep at our place until she gets better.”
She vomited again, and I nodded.
“Can you grab her purse for me?” Taylor asked.
“Sure.”
I walked over and grabbed it, handing it to him.
Still keeping her close, he rummaged through her clutch, glaring at something I couldn’t see. He took out what appeared to be a wet wipe, but he shook his head and wrapped his arm around her waist.
He gently helped her to stand and looked at me.
“Do you mind driving?”
“No…” I followed them up the dunes and then slid behind the wheel as he settled with her in the back seat.
I turned the heat on low and slid my hand under the passenger seat out of old habit, wondering if he still kept bottled water there.
He did.
I pulled out two and handed them to him before typing the school’s address into the GPS and slowly pulling out of the lot.
His eyes met mine in the rearview mirror, but I looked back at the road.
“Taylor…” she croaked.
“Shhh. You’re drunk. Try not to talk.”
“It’s not fair…” She whined. “You said you wouldn’t put this program before us.”
“I haven’t.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she murmured, slumping sideways. “Can I have some water?”
“Sure.” He opened the water. “Sip.”
She obliged, sputtering a few times.
“Good,” he said when she finished. “Lie still and try not to talk.”
“You never answered my question the other night,” she said.
“I’ll answer all the questions you want when we get back to the room.”
“No, answer me now,” she said. “Do you think Audrey is attractive?”
Our gazes met in the rearview mirror again, but this time he held my eyes through the red light.
“Yes,” he said. “I think she’s attractive.”
“I don’t know why I even came to your private bonfire thing then,” she muttered. “I guess I should’ve let you have some additional time to stare at her perfect-ass face, huh?”
“I’m definitely not into my roommate.” His eyes met mine. “There’s nothing there.”
“You promise?” she whispered, already half-asleep.
He didn’t answer.
Her soft snores filled the car seconds later.
We didn’t speak for the rest of the ride, and when we returned to campus, I held the door open as Taylor helped her inside and onto the living room couch.
I wondered why he wasn’t placing her in his bed, but I didn’t dare ask aloud.
Instead, I grabbed some medicine and a can of ginger ale and placed them on the side table. “She’ll probably need that when she wakes up.”
“Thank you.” He looked up at me. “Heading out for a drive now?”
“No, I’ll take you up on your car offer another day.”
“Okay.” He was still staring at me.
For a while, the only sound was the low hum of the refrigerator and Stacey’s soft snores.
The tension that always hovered between us felt quieter now, but it was still there—coiled, waiting.
“Were you in love with Craig?” he asked, catching me completely off guard.
“No,” I said. “But I wanted to be… Are you in love with Stacey?”
He didn’t get a chance to answer.
Stacey suddenly groaned and rolled over, vomiting onto the carpet.
I sighed and searched for some towels.
Somewhere behind me, Taylor exhaled—a quiet sound that said everything he didn’t.