Chapter 5 Lane #2
I hardly have time to pull on a pair of shorts and knock back a coffee before Carter knocks on the door.
Sorry, I mean: Carter starts by trying to break in using the spare key I should never have given him, except mine is already in the lock—call it a safety quirk of mine.
I glance over at Lois. She’s fast asleep, her fists clenched.
When I unlock the door, Carter pushes it open without a beat, stalking right past me and pulling up a barstool at the kitchen counter, setting up his laptop and laying out a few loose sheets of paper in front of him.
“Heavy night, huh?” he says, chuckling behind me. “I can smell the whiskey fumes from here. You’re a walking hangover.”
“You were supposed to come tonight,” I remind him with a shrug. “Deal with it.”
I snatch up his favorite mug and fill it to the brim with coffee while he settles in, kicking off his shoes.
“Uh, Lane?”
I keep my eyes focused on the coffee, throwing in two sugars. “ ’Sup?”
“Anything you’d care to share?”
“About?” I look up at him.
He’s turned sideways, gazing toward the back of the living room.
“What’s up with the chick on your couch?”
“Oh, that…”
“Yeah, that! Don’t make me call the cops on your ass, man. I’m picturing a SWAT team, tear gas—”
“Why does your mind always go to the worst scenarios? Maybe she just fell asleep here.”
“I mean… There’s a girl… lying on your couch… and that’s weird. If this was the guys’ apartment we were talking about, then sure. But here…” He stands up.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking she’s breathing.”
“Sit down!” I hiss, grabbing him by the arm. “You’re being ridiculous, dude! Drink your coffee!”
“So explain yourself, then. You’re not the kind to let a girl hang around once you’ve screwed her. Wasted or not,” he adds.
“I haven’t even screwed her yet!”
“ ‘Yet’? Okay, now that makes sense! So, you’re keeping her on the back burner, huh?”
“No! That’s not what I meant. Jeez, you’re fucking exhausting, you know that?”
He scours my face, a wry grin playing on his lips, and it takes everything I have not to launch the sugar cubes at his head.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I warn, wagging a finger at him.
“Okay,” he says, but he keeps staring at me.
“Carter…”
“Lane…”
“I mean, seriously, look at her!” I throw up my hands.
“She’s a hot mess. I scooped her off the stairs on Sunday morning.
Her ex threw her out two days before she started at SHU.
I felt sorry for her, and now I have no fucking clue how to ditch her.
She was supposed to go stay at a motel, but it fucking burned down! ”
“She’s been here since Sunday? Wow, my best friend is suddenly becoming a saint, and I’m the last to hear! So did you, like, comfort her and shit?”
“Oh, give me a break, Cart! She crashed on the couch, that’s all.”
“So is she looking for an apartment, or what?”
“An apartment, a dorm, a basement… Whatever, man, as soon as she wakes up, I’m dropping her somewhere, and hasta la vista!”
He seems to think for a moment, and when I catch him sneaking glances down my hall, I stiffen.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“You’ve got a spare room.” He shrugs.
“It’s not spare, Carter!”
He opens his mouth to reply when Lois lets out the grossest yawn I’ve ever heard.
“Great, she’s up!” He claps his hands.
Elbows propped on the kitchen island, chin resting on my fists, I tilt my head for a better look at her, and watch as she stretches her legs, tugging at her hoodie and staring up at the ceiling.
She mutters something and slips two fingers beneath her sunglasses, rubbing at her eyes.
I’m not sure whether she can suddenly sense us looking at her, but I see her freeze before slowly turning to face us.
“Morning!” Carter wiggles his fingers at her. “Sleep well?”
“Uh, yeah. Thanks.”
I roll my eyes. She sits up, pulls back her hood, slips off her shades, and rearranges the hair piled on her head. Her eyelids are red and swollen.
“Bad night?” I raise an eyebrow, but all I get in return is a curled lip.
Carter jumps to his feet. “Coffee?”
“Sure.”
“Sugar?”
“No, thanks.”
“Milk?”
“Nope.”
What the fuck is happening to him? We’ve known each other since forever, and in all that time, I’ve never known Carter to make a coffee. Ever. He flashes me a knowing grin, and I don’t like that one bit. Not him, too.
I focus back on Lois as she makes her way toward me.
“Make yourself at home,” I mutter, pointing at a stool.
“Really?”
“No.”
She shakes her head, doing her best to ignore my glare.
Carter is back with two piping hot cups. “What’s your name?”
Lord, give me strength…
“Lois.”
His eyes widen. “Lois?”
“Yeah.”
I’m expecting him to launch into the same joke my friends made yesterday, but all he does is shoot me a quick smile.
“I’m Carter.”
“Nice to meet you,” she says politely, disappearing behind her mug. “Are you a student, too?”
“Hell no! Never set foot in the place. I mean, I have—but not for class, if you get me. Don’t let the lame attempt at a beard fool you. I’m twenty-four.”
She smiles, blowing on her coffee.
“So Lane tells me you’re homeless?”
The smile vanishes, and she shoots me a dirty look before turning back to my friend.
“Temporarily.” She sighs.
“What are your options?”
She takes a quick sip. “Well, all the dorms are gone, so today I plan on widening my search. What with the fire at the motel, every place in town within my budget is full with guests, so—”
“So you’re kinda in a bad spot.”
“Just a little,” I mutter sarcastically.
“It’ll be okay,” she replies.
“Can your family help out?”
Damn, chatty much? He’s asked her more questions in two minutes than I have in a whole four days!
“No,” she says too quickly. “They’re in Fort Myers, in Florida. They have other stuff going on. I’ll figure something out.”
She’s holding back, I can tell—but who am I to judge?
She puts down her mug on the table, and I watch her for a minute, ignoring Cart’s questioning gaze.
“Okay!” She leaps to her feet. “I’m going to go find somewhere with Wi-Fi; I’ll leave you guys to it. Can I… Can I leave my stuff with you for a few more hours, Lane?”
“What’s a few more hours between friends,” I drawl.
“Thank you.”
“Why can’t she just use your Wi-Fi?”
“Carter…”
“Come on, Laney! We can’t let her spend ten bucks on a fancy coffee just to get online for an hour!”
“We’ve got work to do, remember?”
“No shit,” he teases, leaning over the table. “Well, how about that… Now you’re in the mood for work?”
“Honestly, it’s f-fine,” Lois stutters awkwardly.
“Once we’re done, we can help you out,” Carter pushes, shooting me a look. “Plus, it’s pouring outside!”
The blinds are still half shut, and opening them all the way, I have to admit he has a point. I sigh. They’ve backed me into a corner. I don’t want her here because… Well, because. But a part of me knows I’m being irrational.
“You can have the coffee table,” I hear myself conceding. “For now.”
Lois doesn’t notice, but Carter is pumping a fist in the air.
Payback’s coming, you little shit!
She isn’t budging, so I try a more encouraging vibe. “Go on, Lois.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
She slides off the stool and walks over to her bag, pulling out a laptop and settling back onto the goddamn couch, stuffing a pair of earbuds into her ears and vanishing behind her screen.
She plucks out one of the buds. “Can I get the Wi-Fi password?” she asks meekly.
“ ‘JuicyBalls,’ ” Carter answers for me.
“What?”
“ ‘JuicyBalls.’ ” He keeps his face straight. “Capital ‘J,’ capital ‘B.’ ”
“Right. Got it.”
She stabs at her keypad, frowns, and looks back over at us. Carter is struggling to hold back his laughter. And so am I.
She clears her throat. “All one word?”
“You got it.”
She chews her lip, like it’s taking everything she has to bite her tongue. Over the top of her screen, her eyes are flashing back and forth between us. I wait for her to take a swipe, but it never comes.
That all you got, Lois?
Her mood swings are a lot. Yesterday, she was shamelessly ripping into me, this morning she can hardly get a word out.
It makes sense, though: She’s in such a shitty situation, she must feel like she has no choice but to hold back.
I don’t know which I like best. You don’t like any of it, dude! Remember?
She readjusts her earbuds, and I can hear the bass throbbing from here as Lois seals herself away in her own little world.
“Lane?”
“What?”
“Look any harder and you’ll set that couch on fire.”
I drag my eyes back to Carter, and before he has a chance to piss me off with any questions, I sift through the notes he brought with him, offering up comments and questions as I read, but it’s no use.
He doesn’t respond to a single one of them.
When he twists in his seat to look at Lois, I keep my eyes on the papers.
“It’s not bad, I love the tubing idea. Do you think it’s doable, technically?”
He doesn’t reply, and when he leaves yet another one of my questions hanging in the air, I slam the bundle of notes down on the table.
“Carter! You’ve been up my ass for three days now, wanting to talk through these ideas. So can we do this, or what?”
“Uh-huh.”
I snap my fingers in front of his face.
“Can you please stop staring at her?”
“She’s kind of nice,” he says slowly, flicking his tongue piercing between his teeth.
“You spoke to her for all of five minutes.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“So she’s kind of pretty.”
“If homeless crybabies are your thing.”
He ignores me. “You, on the other hand”—he turns to face me—“you’re a dick.”
I offer him my broadest smile, but it doesn’t land.
“Care to expand on that?”
He holds up a thumb to kick off the list. “For starters, you act like you have a serious personality disorder when you’re around her.”
“Dude, I was really nice on the first day.”
“And instead of helping her out of a shitty situation, you kick her while she’s down,” he says, adding his index finger to the tally.
“I helped her on the first day,” I insist.