Chapter 14 Lois
I’m sitting to Lane’s right, watching the streets of Sycamore Heights rush by.
The temperature has plummeted, the locals swaddled in their coats, hurrying down the sidewalks.
I can’t believe how fast time is flying by.
It’s been two months since Kirk broke up with me, eight weeks since I decided to whip myself into shape and get my shit together.
I’ve spent sixty nights or so on Lane’s couch.
It’s comfy enough, but ever since I found out the room down the hall is a whole ass empty bedroom, the cushions don’t feel as soft.
I honestly thought Lane asked me to go and get the script stuff in that room.
And when I entered, the spaciousness of it took me by surprise.
Despite the closed shutters, I could make out a large bed, a desk, and two dressers.
It didn’t take me long to realize that the script wasn’t there and that Lane never uses the room—no clutter, none of his telltale scent lingering in the air.
I stood there rooted to the ground as surprise turned to anger.
I mean, really? I’d been stuck on that crappy couch for weeks, while there was a nice plush mattress going spare right down the hall?
When Lane called me back in, I closed the door, ran to the desk in his room to complete my mission, and headed back into the living room, shaken.
I was tempted to shoot him down with a quip, but then I remembered: He’s doing me a huge favor, and one that keeps me within striking distance of Kirk.
There’s no way I can have a meltdown over this.
“What’s on your mind, Heartbreak?”
I turn away from the world outside the window to focus on my driver.
“The grocery list I wrote and left in the kitchen.” I shrug.
I could ask him about the room, and in fact I’ve had two weeks to do just that: But something’s stopping me. Probably the prospect of being made homeless, all because I disrespected Lane’s blurry boundaries.
“Considering that lame-ass diet you’re on, you probably don’t need a list.”
“Uh-huh. Tuning out now.”
“Your conversations are fascinating,” Lewis calls out from the back seat. “You sound like my fucking parents.”
I stick my tongue out at him and glance at Lane again.
He’s focused on the road, one hand on the wheel, jaw tense.
There’s something about the way he’s driving…
like he’s starring in some moody indie film or something.
I hate that I’m even noticing how annoyingly sexy it looks.
The relationship we have is a plot twist, to say the least. I’m not sure I can describe it as a friendship, because we’ve never shared anything too personal, but the fact is, we get on weirdly well.
I wonder what will happen to us if Kirk and I ever got back together.
“You’re staring at me, Lois. Don’t tell me the Campus Drivers effect is finally kicking in.”
“Right, that’s me busted!” I laugh, maybe a little too hard. “I’m falling in love with you, Laney. The way you buckle your seat belt… Your hands on the steering wheel…”
“Wait until you see me parallel park.” He wiggles his eyebrows.
“Oh, yes! Please.” I fan myself with my hand. “Parallel park, parallel park me right this minute!”
“You guys are super weird,” Lewis interjects, leaning between our seats.
Lane glances at him as he waits for the lights to change. “Remind me why you’re coming grocery shopping with us, again?”
IN THE GROCERY STORE, LEWIS grabs a cart and races ahead like a kid.
I swing down the first aisle, on a mission to shake off the boys—I don’t need them all up in my business while I buy tampons, that’s for sure.
I wander past the shelves, filling my arms as I go, and it’s only once I get to Lane’s cart that I notice what we’ve done.
He’s shopped for me. I’ve shopped for him. I laugh.
“Dude, what is this?” Lewis gestures at the cart with the box of condoms he’s holding. “Since when do you eat healthy shit?”
Lane frowns. “It’s not for me.”
“Where’s all the junk food and the good snacks?”
“Here!” I drop my haul into Lane’s cart, and Lewis looks back and forth between us while Lane chews on his lip.
“You guys are shopping for each other,” he says, jaw hanging.
Lane groans as he watches his friend take a photo of the scene. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I need to show Dexter Drake—the poor guy is still feeling guilty about the whole couch thing.”
I don’t understand a single world Lewis is saying, and his reaction is making me feel awkward.
“Give me that,” snaps Lane.
While he runs after Lewis, I head to the checkout. I can’t take my eyes off the cart. I don’t know why I picked out Lane’s food, or why he did the same for me. I have to admit, it’s weird.
When it’s my turn to pay, it takes me a few tries to make sense of what the cashier is asking me.
“That your guy?” she repeats.
“What?”
“O’Neill. Are you guys dating?”
“Who?”
She rolls her eyes, pointing at something behind me. “Lane!”
I frown. And then it dawns on me. She’s a student at SHU, too.
“No. Hell no!”
She narrows her heavily made-up eyes. “I’ve never seen him in here with a girl.”
“He’s just a friend.”
The words sound off to me, but she seems satisfied.
“Ninety-three dollars and sixty-two cents,” she says.
I hand her the money, and she beams at me as she hands back my change. It takes a second for me to get what’s going on—the smile wasn’t for me at all. I didn’t notice Lane coming up behind me.
“How’s it going, Zoey?” He grins at her.
She fiddles with her necklace. “Going good.”
“Sweet.”
“Are you coming to Jonas’s party?”
“When’s that, again?”
“November twelfth.”
I raise an eyebrow at the date, and Lane sighs.
“We’ll see,” he mumbles. He’s done a complete one-eighty.
She leans forward. “Hope I see you there.”
He lets out a strangled laugh before grabbing the bags and stalking out to his car.
“You going?” she asks me, dropping her smile.
“No, it’s on my birthday.”
I’m pretty sure I hear her whisper something under her breath as I turn to leave the store.
Lane is stuffing the grocery bags into his trunk. I feel like his shoulders are tense.
“Are you okay?”
He jumps, hitting his head against the tailgate, and swears.
“Yeah. Get in, I’ll drop you off at the gym,” he says, before slamming the hatch shut.
“Where’s Lewis?”
“He’s gone off to play with his condoms.”
It’s a short ride to the pool, and Lane doesn’t say a word on the way there.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I say quietly, unbuckling my seat belt.
“Yeah.” His hands tighten on the steering wheel.
“Okay. Well, thanks for the ride. Are you heading back to the apartment?”
“I’m gonna grab a beer at Carter’s.”
“Okay. See you later.”
I swipe up my bag and head for the sports complex, turning back several times as I go.
By the time I push open the glass doors, the car is still there. This guy’s mood swings are exhausting.
I get dressed and slip into the water with a shiver.
I can’t seem to focus on what Ethan is saying, and he calls me out on it throughout class.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m nearer his age, but he picks on me much more than my classmates, which Hope and Prudence love.
They keep shooting me knowing glances, while some of the other grandmas look at me like I just stole their cookie.
As I’m zipping up my coat after class, Ethan wanders over to me, smiling.
“You’re making some serious gains, you know.”
“You think? I feel like I move like a drunk whale. I thought I’d be wiping the floor with those little old ladies!” I tug on my beanie.
“What can I say? I’ve turned them into machines!”
I laugh and sling my bag over my shoulder. “I need to go. See you next week.”
“Can I walk you to your car?”
“I’m actually walking home.”
“You live far?”
I sidestep the question with a shrug. “Kind of.”
“In that case, let me give you a ride.”
“Thanks, but it’s all good. I’ll walk.”
“No way. It’s dark, it’s cold, you just burned off a thousand calories…”
I laugh and take a step back. “At least!”
“I’m serious, Lois.”
I shift on my feet. I want to turn him down, but the truth is, I’m exhausted. And starving, too.
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
“I’m parked out front.”
We chat about the playlist he made for this evening’s class, and I poke fun at some of the lamer songs before stopping in my tracks on the sidewalk.
“Here!” he says, holding out a helmet.
“It’s a—”
“Motorbike,” he finishes for me. “This your first time? I’ll be gentle, I promise.”
I pull a face. A second later, there’s a helmet pressing against my skull. He clips the strap under my chin and helps me scramble onto the bike.
“Hold on tight to my waist, and follow how I move. I’ll take it slow, don’t worry. We’ll be home before you faint.”
He settles in in front of me, and I grip his jacket.
“Ready?”
I part my lips to reply, but there’s a voice cutting through the night air so loud that I startle, nearly slipping off Ethan’s bike.
“Lois!”
My name is echoing down the street. I turn my head for a glimpse of the person yelling at me, but my helmet is too tight, and all I can see is gray fabric.
“Get off, now.”
A raspy, threatening voice. One I’m not sure I recognize. I instinctively clench my thighs tighter around my driver’s hips.
“You know him?” I hear Ethan call out to me.
I fumble at the chin strap, and by the time I manage to shrug the helmet off, I see Lane standing in the middle of the road, running toward us. I open my mouth and squint as I try to figure out what’s going on with him.
As he nears us, I shrink back, hunching down in my seat.
Lane is terrifying. I’ve never seen him like this before—cussing and cursing as he runs, anger radiating out of every pore.
Ethan slips off his helmet and glances at me, confused, but I’m not looking at him.
I’m too focused on Lane and the electricity filling the air.
“What the hell are you doing, Lois?”