Collide, page 12
More?
His touch withdraws, and I hear the rustle of a packet as he opens a condom and rolls it on.
He leans over and whispers in my ear. “You’re unreal like this. On your knees, wet and ready, grinding against my hand even as you arch back, searching for my cock. Do you know which part I like best?”
“No,” I manage.
“Me either.”
I know how big he feels in my pussy, and the thought of him there with the stimulation on my clit nearly breaks me.
His fingers keep up their torment and his cock bumps against my soaking slit.
The heat of it consumes me. I’m throbbing, my body shaking with anticipation.
“Get ready, sweetheart.”
The tip of his cock slides into my opening. I moan.
Loud.
He reaches for the apple on the bed, reaching to hold it in front of my lips.
“Do you trust me?”
Do I?
“Yes.”
“Open and bite into this. Wider.”
I do as he says and my teeth sink into the apple, my lips pressed against its flesh.
Saliva floods my mouth at the intrusion. But when I try to make a noise, it’s muffled against the gag.
Sawyer grips my shoulder, pulling me down on his cock until every inch of him fills me.
I scream but nothing comes out.
“Fuck.” His voice drips with pleasure and need.
I twist my face and catch sight of us in the floor length mirror in the corner. He’s too hot. We’re too hot. I’m an inferno, melting down from the inside out.
Our gazes connect, his mouth parted, eyes hooded.
But the second I swear I can’t handle it, he reassures me with his eyes and hands and body.
We’re riding this edge together.
He starts off slow, but it doesn’t last. The moment I start to relax he knows. He fucks me with deep, sure thrusts.
I fight the pressure against my clit as every nerve inside me is on fire.
He bites my neck and my body goes rigid, my orgasm exploding.
He rides me through my release, grinding in and out of me, and then when I feel him coming, his cock jerks.
His body shakes with his own release and I slump to the carpet.
I’m boneless.
Floating.
A woman reborn in skin that’s too thin and new.
But at the same time, I know unequivocally that I was made for this.
Sawyer leans over me, all dark satisfaction with a hint of concern as he reaches for the apple and helps work it out of my mouth. I start to rub my jaw, but he moves my hand away and does it for me.
“You okay?”
“Better than okay.”
He helps me up to standing. I’m sore and used and delicious, but I wouldn’t take it back.
Not for anything.
I reach for my underwear and leggings and tug them up. My phone is on the bed somehow, and when I grab it, I spot the half dozen messages.
“Shit. I’m so late.”
Sawyer straightens his clothes, chuckling.
He drags my face up to his and kisses me, long and deep.
“That’s for crashing my party.” Sawyer’s thumb brushes my lower lip, as if he’s tracing the path of his mouth. “I missed you tonight, too.”
My heart kicks in my chest, because the confession feels like so much more.
“You want to stay for a drink?”
“Just had one,” I say.
His mouth curves. “You know what I mean.”
But I can’t. We both know it.
I need to go back to my world and he needs to stay here in his.
He walks me downstairs and I take the telescope.
“We used to look at the stars with that,” Sawyer says.
My chest aches. “Really? I can’t—”
“Take it.” He pushes it into my grip, closes my hands around it. “Build something amazing.”
When I get back out to my team, Adam’s on his phone and Madison’s pacing.
“What the hell took so long?” Royce demands.
I cut a look at Madison, but she’s facing away—on purpose or by accident, I’m not sure.
“We found something else we needed.” Adam holds up a rake.
“Where’d you get that?”
“Across the street.”
I look over toward Daniel’s house. “That one?”
“Yup.”
Crap.
“Did he—they,” I amend, “see you?”
Adam smirks. “Nah, we’ve got mad skills, Liv.”
The front door opens, and Daniel’s there.
“What are you…”
He spots the rake in our hands.
Then pulls on shoes and comes after us.
“Do something!” Madison hisses.
“You do something!” I retort, because he’ll recognize me.
Madison flashes him.
I can’t believe it.
We’re laughing the entire way to my car.
“Thanks to you, we’re way behind,” Madison says, breathless, when she catches up. “We have an hour to get back to campus.”
The sixty minutes are a strange kind of bliss.
We drive around town, grabbing whatever we can, being young and alive.
It’s a different kind of freedom than I felt with Sawyer. With him, I still felt safe to explore because I knew he had me.
Here, it’s only us.
When I notice the time, I grab Madison’s arm. “We have fifteen minutes to get back!”
“We can’t get the last item.”
“Yes, we can.”
I run back to the car, and Adam’s in the driver’s seat.
“Get in,” he hollers.
We do, Madison and Royce piling into the back and me leaping into the passenger seat. I’m still grabbing for my seat belt when Adam peels out of our spot, racing down the street.
“Glad you came?” he demands.
“Only if we get back in time to build our tower.”
“Better than being yelled at about basketball.”
“By your coach or your dad?”
“Both. Coach wants more of my time. Dad wants me to quit.”
Empathy rises up, and I shift in my seat.
I kick something in the passenger side and bend to pick it up.
It’s a bottle of liquor.
Numbness washes over me. “Adam? What the fuck is this?”
“Slow down!” Madison yelps.
I brace against the glove compartment with one hand, still fishing for the seat belt with the other.
Two tiny glowing orbs light up the road in front of us.
A cat? A dog?
My throat tightens. “Adam! Look out!”
He swerves, his hands jerking on the wheel.
Too late.
Tires screech.
Lights blind me from my window.
The crunch of metal and plastic sounds like it’s coming from inside my head.
The world slams into me.
Everything goes black.
17
Sawyer
“They’re interested in putting in an offer,” the realtor murmurs at my back.
“A productive evening.”
The soft hand on my arm has me looking up from where I’m staring out the front window, watching the last of the people leave.
“You disappeared for a long time after you told me not to let anyone upstairs.”
“Had to attend to something.”
A young woman in black leggings sucking me off from her knees.
I made sure no one was going to interrupt us, but didn’t need Olivia to know that.
“Tonight doesn’t have to be over.” The realtor eyes me appreciatively.
“You’re clearly very good at your job, and you’re an attractive woman, but there’s someone in my life.”
“Is it serious?”
She made me promise no feelings.
Promises are made to be broken.
Especially after what went down an hour ago.
“Yeah.”
The realtor sighs. “I figured. It’s too bad she couldn’t come tonight.”
She did.
The other woman nods to the bowl of apples on the foyer table. “Can I take one for the road?”
“Help yourself.”
All I can think about is the girl who came in here tonight like a punk.
Until she arrived, it was a boring evening with boring people. I actually imagined her here with me more than once.
When she appeared, face flushed with guilt and longing, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I never got anything I wished for before.
I needed her to admit she couldn’t stay away from me, either.
She should’ve been at my side downstairs, making comments under her breath and straightening out-of-place decor and blushing every time she looked at those apples.
“So is she moving to New York with you when you go?”
The question throws me.
I never let myself hope for more, but now…
She’s not a kid. She’s an adult, and not only because of what we did upstairs.
Olivia helped me prepare for tonight. She’s mature enough to make her own choices.
My phone rings and I grab for it when I see the name on the screen. “Hello? Olivia?”
The realtor’s eyebrows rise.
“Sawyer.” Her voice is panting. “We were driving back to campus and it happened so fast.”
Every muscle in me tightens. “Are you hurt? What happened? Where are you?”
She gives me an intersection. “The ambulance is here. Adam was driving. He was…I think he was drinking.”
Fuck.
I watch my words when I hang up. “I have to go.”
Jaw set, I head outside and get into the car.
A ten-minute drive never passed this slowly. My knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.
When I arrive at the scene, they’re loading her car onto a tow truck. Not one but two police cars and an ambulance are there, sirens blinking.
I wrench the car to the side of the road and leap out, leaving the door open.
I spot Olivia first, her hair a mess and eyes round with shock.
“What the hell…” I start.
I want to drag her into my arms but I have to shake myself. I can’t. Not here in front of Madison and Royce, hanging their heads by the curb.
“What’s going on?” I demand of the officer nearby.
“They were street racing,” he replies.
Not drinking and driving.
I see a breathalyzer apparatus in one of his hands. They must have checked Adam and he must have passed. I feel an ounce of relief, but nowhere near enough.
I might be reckless, but this is inexcusable.
“Where is Adam?”
She nods to the ambulance. “He hurt his arm on impact.”
Sure enough, I can see paramedics working on someone in the bright lights of the vehicle.
“Something ran in front of the car. A deer, I think.”
“How fast were you going?”
Olivia turns away but Madison answers.
“Pretty fast. We hit another car. Everyone in it was okay.”
I turn back to the officer.
“They weren’t street racing,” I force myself to say. “It was an engineering event.”
“And you are?”
“Sawyer Redmond. Professor Sawyer Redmond. These are my students.”
“This was a school initiative?”
My throat is tight with disgust. “An unsanctioned one.”
The officer pulls up his belt. “We need to finish our investigation. There may be criminal charges pending.”
“They’re kids. They were stupid and careless.”
In the corner of my eye, Olivia pulls her knees tighter into her chest.
“Just a moment,” the officer says, departing to speak with a colleague standing at the flashing cruiser.
“What were you thinking?” I hiss at all of them, but my gaze is locked on Olivia.
Madison is the one who answers, her voice shaky. “We were going to miss getting back to campus by the deadline.”
I rub a hand over my face, catching sight of Olivia’s wrecked Audi being loaded onto a tow truck bed.
Unbelievable.
They could have been hurt, or worse.
I could have lost her over some idiot prank.
I never got any handouts in my life. These students have had everything they could want—money, opportunity.
This is a lesson they need to learn.
Royce’s face is downcast, his fingers drumming on his knee shakily. Madison rocks back and forth. And Olivia’s got a blanket around her shoulders.
I start to turn away, but see a dark splotch on Madison’s temple in the streetlight.
“Are you hurt?” I grab her chin and tilt her head.
“It’s a scrape.”
“Anyone else? Olivia?” I turn to her.
She shakes her head slowly, but when she moves to re-wrap the blanket around her shoulders, I spot a rip in the side of her shirt—the one I hung onto a few hours ago.
When the officer returns, I wave him over. “They need medical attention.”
“Medics are finishing up with the other kid, said everyone was okay—”
“Then why is there blood on them?” My voice rises.
Adam appears, his arm bound in a sling as he shuffles over. His face has scratches, possibly from the impact of the airbag deploying.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I grit out. “You let them go home—all of them. You need any more statements, you can get them in the morning.”
“We’d rather take them tonight.”
“They’ll sleep in their beds tonight. They’ve had the living shit scared out of them, and by the looks of them, worse than that. You think I’m up your ass, you have no idea what kind of a stink their parents are going to cause.”
We head to my car without waiting for an answer.
We’re halfway there when Royce blows out a breath. “Professor Redmond, that was—”
“Shut up.”
“Wait.” Olivia cranes her neck to see the tow truck starting up. “I need to get stuff from my car.”
“Leave it,” I say, exasperated, but Olivia runs back in that direction, speaking to the driver.
The other students follow her and she passes out the items they borrowed for the event. They pile into my car, along with half a dozen tools, toys, and my dad’s telescope. Olivia shifts into the back between Madison and Royce. Adam takes the front, sliding in gingerly to avoid hitting his arm.
“Doesn’t look like you’ll be playing basketball for a while.”
He doesn’t answer.
We drive in silence. I sneak a look in the rearview mirror; the streetlights run over their faces in the dark.
Olivia looks shaken and guilty and too damn young, her arms wrapped around the telescope.
I focus back on the road. “That rake looks like the one my neighbor Daniel has.”
Madison shifts lower in her seat.
Olivia’s gaze flicks toward her, the first sign of life. Adam coughs and Royce grumbles.
I did all I could by coming down here to get them.
It doesn’t feel like enough.
Why the fuck doesn’t it feel like enough?
My hands clench and relax on the steering wheel.
“When I did Black Build, we came in last, even though we had the tallest tower.”
Someone in the back seat shifts.
“Why?” Royce asks.
“We weren’t allowed to use anything...borrowed.”
“But now you’re encouraged to. There’s no way to get full marks if you don’t.”
Madison this time.
“You could’ve taken the stolen stuff out.”
Olivia’s voice is barely more than a whisper, but the knot in my chest releases a degree.
“That wasn’t the point.”
Streetlights pass, illuminating rows of tidy, expensive houses that line the streets bordering campus.
“Build it anyway,” I hear myself say.
Royce straightens. “It won’t count.”
“You’re engineers. You don’t build things because someone offered you points to do it. Build it anyway.”
They exchange looks.
“We have all the stuff,” Royce concedes.
Olivia nods. “We’d just have to stash it somewhere for the night otherwise. What do you think?” She reaches for the good shoulder of the kid sitting numb and silent in the seat next to me.
He doesn’t acknowledge for a long time.
But finally he nods.
18
Sawyer
“Why is my rake in the middle of a statue?” Daniel demands during our run through campus early Monday morning.
I lift my phone to take a picture. “You’re part of history, my friend.”
I send the image to Olivia.
* * *
Sawyer: Looks good in the light of day.
* * *
Cherry: Better than me.
* * *
Sawyer: How are you feeling?
* * *
Cherry: Like I was in a car accident.
* * *
Fucking Adam. But she had to file reports and is waiting on the insurance company’s valuation of the damage.
Still, being there for them was the right thing to do.
I was pissed at all of them for being reckless. Was that what my father felt like with me?
I hated that I couldn’t grab her by the arms and shake her, tell her she was insane.
Kiss her to make sure she was all right.
* * *
Sawyer: Stop by after your midterm.
* * *
I haven’t seen her since I dropped them off here Saturday night to work on their tower. I need to see for myself that she’s unharmed.
* * *
Cherry: You’ll see me in class.
* * *
Sawyer: Insufficient, Miss Barclay. I’ll get lunch. With chips. We’ll eat in my office.
His touch withdraws, and I hear the rustle of a packet as he opens a condom and rolls it on.
He leans over and whispers in my ear. “You’re unreal like this. On your knees, wet and ready, grinding against my hand even as you arch back, searching for my cock. Do you know which part I like best?”
“No,” I manage.
“Me either.”
I know how big he feels in my pussy, and the thought of him there with the stimulation on my clit nearly breaks me.
His fingers keep up their torment and his cock bumps against my soaking slit.
The heat of it consumes me. I’m throbbing, my body shaking with anticipation.
“Get ready, sweetheart.”
The tip of his cock slides into my opening. I moan.
Loud.
He reaches for the apple on the bed, reaching to hold it in front of my lips.
“Do you trust me?”
Do I?
“Yes.”
“Open and bite into this. Wider.”
I do as he says and my teeth sink into the apple, my lips pressed against its flesh.
Saliva floods my mouth at the intrusion. But when I try to make a noise, it’s muffled against the gag.
Sawyer grips my shoulder, pulling me down on his cock until every inch of him fills me.
I scream but nothing comes out.
“Fuck.” His voice drips with pleasure and need.
I twist my face and catch sight of us in the floor length mirror in the corner. He’s too hot. We’re too hot. I’m an inferno, melting down from the inside out.
Our gazes connect, his mouth parted, eyes hooded.
But the second I swear I can’t handle it, he reassures me with his eyes and hands and body.
We’re riding this edge together.
He starts off slow, but it doesn’t last. The moment I start to relax he knows. He fucks me with deep, sure thrusts.
I fight the pressure against my clit as every nerve inside me is on fire.
He bites my neck and my body goes rigid, my orgasm exploding.
He rides me through my release, grinding in and out of me, and then when I feel him coming, his cock jerks.
His body shakes with his own release and I slump to the carpet.
I’m boneless.
Floating.
A woman reborn in skin that’s too thin and new.
But at the same time, I know unequivocally that I was made for this.
Sawyer leans over me, all dark satisfaction with a hint of concern as he reaches for the apple and helps work it out of my mouth. I start to rub my jaw, but he moves my hand away and does it for me.
“You okay?”
“Better than okay.”
He helps me up to standing. I’m sore and used and delicious, but I wouldn’t take it back.
Not for anything.
I reach for my underwear and leggings and tug them up. My phone is on the bed somehow, and when I grab it, I spot the half dozen messages.
“Shit. I’m so late.”
Sawyer straightens his clothes, chuckling.
He drags my face up to his and kisses me, long and deep.
“That’s for crashing my party.” Sawyer’s thumb brushes my lower lip, as if he’s tracing the path of his mouth. “I missed you tonight, too.”
My heart kicks in my chest, because the confession feels like so much more.
“You want to stay for a drink?”
“Just had one,” I say.
His mouth curves. “You know what I mean.”
But I can’t. We both know it.
I need to go back to my world and he needs to stay here in his.
He walks me downstairs and I take the telescope.
“We used to look at the stars with that,” Sawyer says.
My chest aches. “Really? I can’t—”
“Take it.” He pushes it into my grip, closes my hands around it. “Build something amazing.”
When I get back out to my team, Adam’s on his phone and Madison’s pacing.
“What the hell took so long?” Royce demands.
I cut a look at Madison, but she’s facing away—on purpose or by accident, I’m not sure.
“We found something else we needed.” Adam holds up a rake.
“Where’d you get that?”
“Across the street.”
I look over toward Daniel’s house. “That one?”
“Yup.”
Crap.
“Did he—they,” I amend, “see you?”
Adam smirks. “Nah, we’ve got mad skills, Liv.”
The front door opens, and Daniel’s there.
“What are you…”
He spots the rake in our hands.
Then pulls on shoes and comes after us.
“Do something!” Madison hisses.
“You do something!” I retort, because he’ll recognize me.
Madison flashes him.
I can’t believe it.
We’re laughing the entire way to my car.
“Thanks to you, we’re way behind,” Madison says, breathless, when she catches up. “We have an hour to get back to campus.”
The sixty minutes are a strange kind of bliss.
We drive around town, grabbing whatever we can, being young and alive.
It’s a different kind of freedom than I felt with Sawyer. With him, I still felt safe to explore because I knew he had me.
Here, it’s only us.
When I notice the time, I grab Madison’s arm. “We have fifteen minutes to get back!”
“We can’t get the last item.”
“Yes, we can.”
I run back to the car, and Adam’s in the driver’s seat.
“Get in,” he hollers.
We do, Madison and Royce piling into the back and me leaping into the passenger seat. I’m still grabbing for my seat belt when Adam peels out of our spot, racing down the street.
“Glad you came?” he demands.
“Only if we get back in time to build our tower.”
“Better than being yelled at about basketball.”
“By your coach or your dad?”
“Both. Coach wants more of my time. Dad wants me to quit.”
Empathy rises up, and I shift in my seat.
I kick something in the passenger side and bend to pick it up.
It’s a bottle of liquor.
Numbness washes over me. “Adam? What the fuck is this?”
“Slow down!” Madison yelps.
I brace against the glove compartment with one hand, still fishing for the seat belt with the other.
Two tiny glowing orbs light up the road in front of us.
A cat? A dog?
My throat tightens. “Adam! Look out!”
He swerves, his hands jerking on the wheel.
Too late.
Tires screech.
Lights blind me from my window.
The crunch of metal and plastic sounds like it’s coming from inside my head.
The world slams into me.
Everything goes black.
17
Sawyer
“They’re interested in putting in an offer,” the realtor murmurs at my back.
“A productive evening.”
The soft hand on my arm has me looking up from where I’m staring out the front window, watching the last of the people leave.
“You disappeared for a long time after you told me not to let anyone upstairs.”
“Had to attend to something.”
A young woman in black leggings sucking me off from her knees.
I made sure no one was going to interrupt us, but didn’t need Olivia to know that.
“Tonight doesn’t have to be over.” The realtor eyes me appreciatively.
“You’re clearly very good at your job, and you’re an attractive woman, but there’s someone in my life.”
“Is it serious?”
She made me promise no feelings.
Promises are made to be broken.
Especially after what went down an hour ago.
“Yeah.”
The realtor sighs. “I figured. It’s too bad she couldn’t come tonight.”
She did.
The other woman nods to the bowl of apples on the foyer table. “Can I take one for the road?”
“Help yourself.”
All I can think about is the girl who came in here tonight like a punk.
Until she arrived, it was a boring evening with boring people. I actually imagined her here with me more than once.
When she appeared, face flushed with guilt and longing, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I never got anything I wished for before.
I needed her to admit she couldn’t stay away from me, either.
She should’ve been at my side downstairs, making comments under her breath and straightening out-of-place decor and blushing every time she looked at those apples.
“So is she moving to New York with you when you go?”
The question throws me.
I never let myself hope for more, but now…
She’s not a kid. She’s an adult, and not only because of what we did upstairs.
Olivia helped me prepare for tonight. She’s mature enough to make her own choices.
My phone rings and I grab for it when I see the name on the screen. “Hello? Olivia?”
The realtor’s eyebrows rise.
“Sawyer.” Her voice is panting. “We were driving back to campus and it happened so fast.”
Every muscle in me tightens. “Are you hurt? What happened? Where are you?”
She gives me an intersection. “The ambulance is here. Adam was driving. He was…I think he was drinking.”
Fuck.
I watch my words when I hang up. “I have to go.”
Jaw set, I head outside and get into the car.
A ten-minute drive never passed this slowly. My knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.
When I arrive at the scene, they’re loading her car onto a tow truck. Not one but two police cars and an ambulance are there, sirens blinking.
I wrench the car to the side of the road and leap out, leaving the door open.
I spot Olivia first, her hair a mess and eyes round with shock.
“What the hell…” I start.
I want to drag her into my arms but I have to shake myself. I can’t. Not here in front of Madison and Royce, hanging their heads by the curb.
“What’s going on?” I demand of the officer nearby.
“They were street racing,” he replies.
Not drinking and driving.
I see a breathalyzer apparatus in one of his hands. They must have checked Adam and he must have passed. I feel an ounce of relief, but nowhere near enough.
I might be reckless, but this is inexcusable.
“Where is Adam?”
She nods to the ambulance. “He hurt his arm on impact.”
Sure enough, I can see paramedics working on someone in the bright lights of the vehicle.
“Something ran in front of the car. A deer, I think.”
“How fast were you going?”
Olivia turns away but Madison answers.
“Pretty fast. We hit another car. Everyone in it was okay.”
I turn back to the officer.
“They weren’t street racing,” I force myself to say. “It was an engineering event.”
“And you are?”
“Sawyer Redmond. Professor Sawyer Redmond. These are my students.”
“This was a school initiative?”
My throat is tight with disgust. “An unsanctioned one.”
The officer pulls up his belt. “We need to finish our investigation. There may be criminal charges pending.”
“They’re kids. They were stupid and careless.”
In the corner of my eye, Olivia pulls her knees tighter into her chest.
“Just a moment,” the officer says, departing to speak with a colleague standing at the flashing cruiser.
“What were you thinking?” I hiss at all of them, but my gaze is locked on Olivia.
Madison is the one who answers, her voice shaky. “We were going to miss getting back to campus by the deadline.”
I rub a hand over my face, catching sight of Olivia’s wrecked Audi being loaded onto a tow truck bed.
Unbelievable.
They could have been hurt, or worse.
I could have lost her over some idiot prank.
I never got any handouts in my life. These students have had everything they could want—money, opportunity.
This is a lesson they need to learn.
Royce’s face is downcast, his fingers drumming on his knee shakily. Madison rocks back and forth. And Olivia’s got a blanket around her shoulders.
I start to turn away, but see a dark splotch on Madison’s temple in the streetlight.
“Are you hurt?” I grab her chin and tilt her head.
“It’s a scrape.”
“Anyone else? Olivia?” I turn to her.
She shakes her head slowly, but when she moves to re-wrap the blanket around her shoulders, I spot a rip in the side of her shirt—the one I hung onto a few hours ago.
When the officer returns, I wave him over. “They need medical attention.”
“Medics are finishing up with the other kid, said everyone was okay—”
“Then why is there blood on them?” My voice rises.
Adam appears, his arm bound in a sling as he shuffles over. His face has scratches, possibly from the impact of the airbag deploying.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I grit out. “You let them go home—all of them. You need any more statements, you can get them in the morning.”
“We’d rather take them tonight.”
“They’ll sleep in their beds tonight. They’ve had the living shit scared out of them, and by the looks of them, worse than that. You think I’m up your ass, you have no idea what kind of a stink their parents are going to cause.”
We head to my car without waiting for an answer.
We’re halfway there when Royce blows out a breath. “Professor Redmond, that was—”
“Shut up.”
“Wait.” Olivia cranes her neck to see the tow truck starting up. “I need to get stuff from my car.”
“Leave it,” I say, exasperated, but Olivia runs back in that direction, speaking to the driver.
The other students follow her and she passes out the items they borrowed for the event. They pile into my car, along with half a dozen tools, toys, and my dad’s telescope. Olivia shifts into the back between Madison and Royce. Adam takes the front, sliding in gingerly to avoid hitting his arm.
“Doesn’t look like you’ll be playing basketball for a while.”
He doesn’t answer.
We drive in silence. I sneak a look in the rearview mirror; the streetlights run over their faces in the dark.
Olivia looks shaken and guilty and too damn young, her arms wrapped around the telescope.
I focus back on the road. “That rake looks like the one my neighbor Daniel has.”
Madison shifts lower in her seat.
Olivia’s gaze flicks toward her, the first sign of life. Adam coughs and Royce grumbles.
I did all I could by coming down here to get them.
It doesn’t feel like enough.
Why the fuck doesn’t it feel like enough?
My hands clench and relax on the steering wheel.
“When I did Black Build, we came in last, even though we had the tallest tower.”
Someone in the back seat shifts.
“Why?” Royce asks.
“We weren’t allowed to use anything...borrowed.”
“But now you’re encouraged to. There’s no way to get full marks if you don’t.”
Madison this time.
“You could’ve taken the stolen stuff out.”
Olivia’s voice is barely more than a whisper, but the knot in my chest releases a degree.
“That wasn’t the point.”
Streetlights pass, illuminating rows of tidy, expensive houses that line the streets bordering campus.
“Build it anyway,” I hear myself say.
Royce straightens. “It won’t count.”
“You’re engineers. You don’t build things because someone offered you points to do it. Build it anyway.”
They exchange looks.
“We have all the stuff,” Royce concedes.
Olivia nods. “We’d just have to stash it somewhere for the night otherwise. What do you think?” She reaches for the good shoulder of the kid sitting numb and silent in the seat next to me.
He doesn’t acknowledge for a long time.
But finally he nods.
18
Sawyer
“Why is my rake in the middle of a statue?” Daniel demands during our run through campus early Monday morning.
I lift my phone to take a picture. “You’re part of history, my friend.”
I send the image to Olivia.
* * *
Sawyer: Looks good in the light of day.
* * *
Cherry: Better than me.
* * *
Sawyer: How are you feeling?
* * *
Cherry: Like I was in a car accident.
* * *
Fucking Adam. But she had to file reports and is waiting on the insurance company’s valuation of the damage.
Still, being there for them was the right thing to do.
I was pissed at all of them for being reckless. Was that what my father felt like with me?
I hated that I couldn’t grab her by the arms and shake her, tell her she was insane.
Kiss her to make sure she was all right.
* * *
Sawyer: Stop by after your midterm.
* * *
I haven’t seen her since I dropped them off here Saturday night to work on their tower. I need to see for myself that she’s unharmed.
* * *
Cherry: You’ll see me in class.
* * *
Sawyer: Insufficient, Miss Barclay. I’ll get lunch. With chips. We’ll eat in my office.
