Chapter 50
FIFTY
COOPER
She paces toward my bathroom before spinning around, grabbing a sweatshirt littered on the floor and her sneakers. Out my bedroom door, I hear her quickly sprinting down the stairs.
“Sutton. Stop.” I chase after her blindly, hopping from one foot then the other putting my shoes back on. I miss a step and slide down the last four stairs.
All of my roommates are in the living room. They’re all lounging on the couch playing video games. Dawson thumb points at the front door over his shoulder.
I curse under my breath.
Sutton’s car wasn’t in our driveway or parked on the street when we got back. Peach skies turning gray with an oncoming spring shower. It was sprinkling then, pouring now.
The sidewalk is barely visible through the droplets pounding the pavement.
I turn my head left and right to determine which direction she went. I can’t see her, but I trust my gut and run in the direction of her apartment.
Drenched, I pick up my pace, pushing my exhausted body—physically and mentally.
I shouldn’t have let her leave.
I shouldn’t have kept secrets.
I shouldn’t have loved her from afar. This mess would be a lot easier to clean—or avoidable, my inner voice is sarcastic today—if I hadn’t lied to protect her.
A car drives by, hitting a puddle and spraying me with water.
My sweats are heavy. Head and heart heavier.
I make it to her apartment complex and huddle under the awning of the main doors.
Reaching into my pockets, there’s nothing.
In my haste, I didn’t grab my phone, student ID, or keys.
Earlier this month Sutton fibbed, said she lost her key fob, and the University made her another, which is now on my key ring.
I pound on the glass. Someone will have to hear me or walk by.
My prayers are answered several minutes later when none other than Elliot walks out of the elevator.
“Cooper?” She opens the door to the lobby.
“Is Sutton upstairs?”
“No. I thought she was at your place…” Her words come out slowly.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, then run a hand through my wet hair. “We got—I messed up, and she left. I figured she’d come back here.”
“She didn’t. Car keys are up there too.”
“She said she needs to breathe. Does she…where does she go when she needs to breathe?”
Elliot thinks, using seconds I don’t have.
“Come on, Elliot. Think.”
“I’m thin—Oh! There is a hidden dock on the lake she goes to.”
“How do I get to it?” I ask frantically.
She shrugs, uncertainty tightening her features. “I’ve never been, but let me track her.”
Elliot locates Sutton, and I take off without a goodbye.
There’s a path at the back of her complex connecting to another that loops around the circumference of Lake Bensen. I follow it in the direction of her dot on Elliot’s phone. Stretching my memory, I go south.
Keeping my eyes peeled, I’m searching for an opening. Anything not paved or marked. There’s nothing in the trees that line this portion of the lake.
Found it.
A small opening, barely the width of a person, is carved into the vegetation. It takes maybe twenty steps before it opens up to a dock that stretches out into the water. Across the water, the sky hasn’t been overthrown by the clouds swarming us. At least the rain is letting up.
Sutton’s here. Sitting on the edge.
I try to be quiet, but all it takes is one gentle step for the old dock to creak. Sutton turns over her shoulder, gaze a magnet to mine. The hand playing with her hair halts.
“It was Izzy. Wasn’t it?”
I meet her at the edge, kneeling to sit beside her. Sutton turns back to peer out at the water before looking at me again. “Yes.”