Chapter 19 Lane
Finals season is in full swing, and my evenings are depressingly monotonous.
Beer, study, pizza, study. Rinse and repeat.
I fucking hate exam season. In true Lane style, I’ve waited until the very last minute to start studying—and I’m stressed.
That said, this year is pretty different.
I’ve got a rock-solid study buddy who’s drilling me like a Marine now.
Once she realized how behind and disorganized I was, my roomie put together a military-style schedule.
Now I’m stuck with Drill Sergeant Lois, who quizzes me even when I’m in the bathroom.
In exchange, I let her practice her physio stuff on me, and trust me: There’s nothing enjoyable about it.
I get the sense she takes sadistic pleasure in hearing me grunt.
“Quit the whining,” she snarls, tugging on my leg.
I’m lying on my bed, Lois sitting at my feet.
“I think you should pick a different major.” I wince, trying to shake myself free. “Maybe try something where you only handle corpses.”
“I said, don’t move!”
“This is literal torture.”
“You really are such a crybaby, aren’t you?”
She slaps my knee and gets to her feet. While her back’s turned, I go for gold, pushing myself up and grabbing her by the waist, pulling her back onto the mattress and watching her squirm once she realizes I’m out for revenge.
“Let me go!” she shrieks as my hands wrap around her lower thigh.
I dodge a foot that comes flying toward my stomach and dig my thumb in above her kneecap, my other hand clasping her wrist.
“Ow!”
“Now who’s the crybaby?” I laugh, running my fingers over her skin.
“I’m gonna kill you, Lane!” she yells.
She’s thrashing harder now, and I decide to kick things up a notch, hovering over her and launching into a full-blown tickle attack, watching as she wriggles and shrieks. She’s wasting her breath—keeping her pinned down is child’s play.
“Help! You’re squashing me!” she yelps. “Get off me!”
“That’s funny, because I think you’re super comfy.” I pinch her gently on her side, and she falls still, her limbs suddenly loosening. Just when I think she’s decided to call it quits, she starts her thrashing again, her knee slamming me right in the balls.
“Fuck!” I groan, collapsing on top of her.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I can feel her breath against my Adam’s apple. “Did that hurt?”
I’m too winded to speak. Once the stabbing starts to fade, I lift my head and glare at her.
“I won that round, right?”
Unbelievable. I blink a few times, suddenly aware of how we’re sprawled out on the bed, her beneath me. She must have read my mind, because she’s blushing.
“So now that we’ve quit—mind getting the hell off me?” she whispers, before swallowing hard.
“What’s a little roughhousing between friends?” I prop myself up on one elbow beside her head.
“No, this is weird. It’s like you’re about to lick my face, or something.”
“Who even does that?”
“Please respect my friendship boundaries, Lane.”
“Don’t worry.” I wince. “I just got my dick smashed in. I’ll be out of action for a while now.”
“Music to my ears.”
I sigh and stretch out on the bed. “In fact, a professional massage would probably do me good.”
“So gross.”
“Oh, come on. This is just another day at the office for a PT.”
“Did you get that from Lewis?”
I nod, just as she shakes her head. She looks me up and down, biting her lip. She’s kind of adorable when she does that.
“Okay, let me go grab a rolling pin. I’ll be right back.”
She flings herself out of the bed and dashes out of the room, and luckily for me, she doesn’t come back.
I look down. A hard-on has sprung up out of nowhere.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Getting hard for Lois?
Really? I drag the comforter over my lap—just in case—and make a mental note to call April ASAP.
It’s been way too fucking long since I got laid.
All I need is a quick fix to set me straight again.
After my shower, I find her sitting in the living room, deep in conversation with her mom.
“I’ll be there late afternoon. Yeah, got it. Me either. I can’t wait.” She smiles. “Sounds good. Tell Dad I love him. And tell Kesley to get out of my room. If I find his Kleenex in there, I’m shoving them up his ass.”
She hangs up and walks over to join me by the fridge.
“When are you leaving, again?”
“Saturday. I’m psyched. Ten whole days back home.”
She pours herself a glass of water and gulps it down in one. “Are you getting a tree?”
“Nope. It’ll just be me, Carter, a few games, and a microwave meal for two.”
“Keeping it rock ’n’ roll,” she says, pumping the air. “It’s sad you aren’t seeing your parents, though.”
“It’s been that way since forever. It’s a good thing, trust me.”
She frowns, and I tense up. I can feel questions bubbling away under the surface. All I’ve told her is we aren’t close—no more, no less. She didn’t press me for details. I’m guessing she can tell it’s a touchy subject. She’s a good friend like that.
“I’ll be back on the thirtieth,” she says after a while. “Any New Year’s Eve plans?”
“I’m still waiting to hear what we’re doing—Lewis is checking whether we can hang out at one of the cabins. Somewhere not too far.” I pause. “Would be cool if you came with us, though.”
A smile tugs at her lips. “Then I guess you’re stuck with me on New Year’s.”
“Wow. Didn’t expect you to say yes so quickly.”
She rolls her eyes and ignores me.
“By the way,” I continue. “I need to drive Hope and Prudence to a tea dance at seven and bring them home afterward.”
“So you’re their driver now? That’s cute.”
“They helped me out that evening on your birthday, and I told them I owed them one. Definitely no problems on the memory front.”
She whistles. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into!”
“I don’t mind. I kind of like them.”
“Wow.” She smiles widely. “So somewhere under that hard exterior, Lane O’Neill has a gooey marshmallow heart, after all. Or maybe it’s the Christmas spirit.”
“I’m obviously a saint,” I tease. “You should know that by now.”
“True. You’re so unhinged, I sometimes forget,” she says, letting out an exaggerated sigh.
“Need a ride to campus?”
“That’d be great. I’ll be a little early, but I can get one last study session in. I can’t wait until all this is done.”
On our way to our final exams, I’m feeling excited and uneasy, all at once. I can’t wait for winter break to finally start, but there’s something gnawing away at me, and I can’t figure out what.
“LOIS, IF YOU DON’T HURRY the hell up, you’re going to miss your flight.”
“I’m coming!” she calls out from the bathroom.
I’m pacing the living room, raking a hand through my hair. I’m stressed and I have no idea why. There’s no traffic at this time of day: If we leave now, Lois will make her flight, no problem.
“You’re finally getting your peace and quiet back,” she says, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“It’s a Christmas miracle!” I tug on her bag strap, relieving her of the weight. “That all you’re taking?”
“My room back home is full of clothes. At the start of the school year, I was planning on taking them to Kirk’s over Thanksgiving break, but…” She shrugs and takes one last look around her, pulling on her coat, fumbling with the zip. “I can’t wait to get to Fort Myers and lose this thing.”
“You can lose the hat, too.” I yank it down over her nose, so all I can see are her lips pulling back into a smile, the tip of her tongue sticking out.
“Yeah, I won’t be missing that, either.”
“How about me?” I hear myself ask, barely a whisper.
What the hell? Why did I say that? I drop my hand and step back, suddenly tense. She peels the hat off her face.
“Someone’s getting soft.” She arches an eyebrow and puts on a sickly-sweet voice. “But don’t worry: Yes, I’ll miss you, Laney.” She pinches my cheeks. “You’re such a joy to live with—these ten days without you will be pure hell.”
I slap her hands away. “I won’t miss you one bit.”
“Liar! Your life is going to be one big empty black hole without my positive vibes.”
“Oh, really? So all those times you cried—those were tears of joy?”
“Bitch, please!” She glances around the room. “We good to go?”
“I thought you’d never ask!”
“May your Christmas tree be bare.”
“No tree—remember?”
She rolls her eyes, swipes up my car keys, and stalks out the apartment, while I hang back, slinging her bag over my shoulder. Now’s my chance: the perfect opportunity to tuck a gift into one of the pockets, just a little something for her to find once she gets home.
It takes us thirty minutes to get to the airport. Once I’ve parked, I shepherd her through the check-in hall toward the departure gates, until I can’t go any farther.
“Thanks for driving me,” she says, staring at her toes.
“No problem. Message me once you get home, okay?”
“I will. The flight’s around four hours. My dad is picking me up, then it’ll take another hour or so to get to the house.”
I nod, scuffing my feet. I’m not great at goodbyes. I normally just leave people at the drop-off bay, so now I feel stupid as hell, with no idea what to do next.
“Okay. Well…”
Lois doesn’t let me finish my sentence. She steps closer, slipping her hands around me, lacing her fingers behind my back. When she presses her face to my chest, I almost forget to breathe. My arms are dangling by my sides. I don’t know what else to do with them.
“Happy holidays, Lane.”
She looks up at me, and the smile I see on her face finally springs me into action. I pull her in for a hug, giving her a clumsy squeeze, and press my lips to her forehead. I can’t help but breathe her in.
“You too. I’ll be here to pick you up on the thirtieth, okay?”
“Okay,” she says into my sweater.
She smells good. It’s a scent I know well by now.
“Lane?”
“Yeah?”
“I need to go.”
That’s when I realize I’m still holding on to her. I let go instantly, stuffing my clammy hands into my pockets.
“Take care of yourself.”
She starts walking backward. “Don’t worry.”