Chapter 18
RUBY
Thankful the day is coming to an end, I exhale. Turning back into the classroom, I walk over to my desk and grab my things. My eyes do one last sweep of the room before turning the light off.
Out in the hall, I start toward the teacher’s lounge to pick up my lunch bag from the refrigerator, where I spot my lunch bag shoved behind a pint of vanilla coffee creamer.
My phone buzzes in my pocket as I close the refrigerator door, loud in the quiet lounge. I pull it out and smile. Promise’s calls always brighten my day.
I answer on the second ring. “Hey.”
“Hey, Ruby. Been thinking of you. How are you holding up?”
I shift my lunch bag in my hand and lean my hip against the counter. My feet throb, and my lower back aches something furious. “I’m… making it,” I say, because that’s the most honest answer I can give at the moment. “Still at school.”
“Okay…” Promise pauses. “How are things with Catcher?”
“Still at my place,” I tell her. “The club hasn’t backed off the twenty-four-hour thing.
He slept on my couch again last night.” I keep my voice low, not wanting lingering coworkers to hear.
“It’s weird, Promise. It’s supposed to make me feel safer, and maybe it does, but mostly it just feels like I can’t breathe at home. ”
Promise sighs. “I hate that for you. I hate that this is your normal right now.” She hesitates. “But I agree with Riggs’ decision to keep Catcher on you. Everyone just wants you safe.”
I swallow. “Yeah, I get it. That’s why I’m going with the flow.”
“So, how’d things go at your parents’?”
My fingers tighten around the strap of my lunch bag. “About how you’d expect. They’re worried for me and pissed at Robby.”
There’s a second of silence before Promise gently says, “Have you thought about how you’ll tell him about the baby?”
My hand goes to my stomach. “I’ve thought about it,” I say. “I just don’t know the right way. But…” I add, voice dropping, “… it has to be soon. I know that.”
Promise hums. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just tell the truth. You’re not alone. I’m here… London and Sadie too.”
I nod to myself. “Thank you. Seriously.”
“Call me when you get home,” Promise says. “Just so I know you’re okay.”
“I will.” I glance at the clock on the wall and push off the counter. “I’m about to head out now, actually. Catcher’s supposed to be waiting for me, and I don’t want to keep him out there any longer than he has to.”
“Okay,” she says. Her voice has a reluctant tone. “Be careful. And—”
“I know,” I say. “I’ll call you tonight.”
“Love you,” Promise says.
“Love you too,” I whisper back.
I slide my phone back into my pocket, adjust the strap of my lunch bag, and head for the exit.
The front office is dark when I pass it, and somewhere down the hall, a custodian’s cart squeaks. By the time I push through the double doors and step outside into the late-afternoon heat, the pick-up loop is empty, but a handful of faculty cars remain.
My eyes go automatically toward the front entrance, expecting to see Catcher waiting nearby with my car. At first, all I catch is a crooked angle of metal and a dark SUV sitting where it shouldn’t be.
I take two more steps, and my stomach drops. My car sits crooked near the front, driver’s side crushed, glass shimmering like ice across the pavement. A black SUV is rammed nose-first into it. For a stunned heartbeat, I can’t make sense of the wreck, and my lunch bag slips from my hand.
“Catcher!” I shout, already running, my voice ragged and sharp.
I don’t make it more than a few strides before a body slams into me from behind. The impact steals the air from my lungs. I go down hard, the world tilting into sky and asphalt and then pain as my hip hits first and my palms scrape against the pavement.
My purse scatters across the blacktop as I scramble for balance, desperate to shield my stomach—the baby.
“Catcher!” I scream this time, the name ripping out of me.
Someone grabs a fistful of my hair, making my scalp burn as I’m yanked backward, and stars burst behind my eyes. I claw at the hand, my nails catching skin, but whoever it is doesn’t let go. I’m dragged across the rough blacktop, my skin screaming where it scrapes, my vision blurring.
In panic, my thoughts stutter.
This isn’t happening.
This can’t—
Then my head is forced down. My face hits the pavement with a sickening crack on impact.
Light explodes behind my eyes—white, then red, then nothing at all.
The sounds around me start to fade. I open my mouth to scream, but nothing comes out.
My body suddenly feels heavy, and my cheek is pressed against the hot asphalt.
The last thing that flickers through my mind is thoughts of Catcher and our baby.