Thoughts of last night kept intruding. Was this what shock felt like? Last night, I’d been so confused on seeing LJ and finding Liv. Now, the realities trickled in until they became a flood.
Fire trucks had lined the street in front of my former apartment building. I could’ve died. A shiver shot through my body. I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my back against the headboard. My throat closed up and I forced the air from my lungs.
The bedroom door opened and LJ walked in balancing a bowl on top of a cup in each hand. “You’re up.” He smiled and the tightness in my throat eased.
“I am.”
“I brought you breakfast.”
My heart triple stepped and I scooted to the edge of the bed. “You didn’t have to.”
“It’s just cereal. I microwaved your milk.” He shuddered, his lips curling in disgust.
“It’s freaking delicious.” I took the bowl balanced on top of my cup Jenga tower and set the bowl in my lap. And one sip from my glass of milk to settle my stomach.
He gagged and held out a spoon, while not directly looking at me.
“Do I even want to know where you were hiding that?” I eyed it warily, given his double-handed cereal delivery.
I slid it out of his grasp.
“You don’t trust me?” he said syrupy-sweet before grabbing his desk chair and wheeling it closer to the bed, resting his feet near my crossed legs. Taking his bowl, he made a puppy dog pouting face, bringing his spoon up to his mouth and adding in a trembling hand for the full effect.
I burst out laughing. “Are you sure you want to play football? You should swing by the drama department.” My perfectly soggy Apple Jacks melted in my mouth and flavored the milk for a bonus treat after all the green and orange loops were gone.
“Ye of little faith. These sweats do have pockets.”
“Oh those were spoons in your pocket. I thought you were just happy to see me.”
He snorted in the same cute way he had since the sixth grade. “Hardly. You snore like you’re a tugboat in a harbor.”
“If I snore, which I don’t, it would be like Tinkerbell whispering sweet nothings to an angel.”
There were so many things to do, so many real-world necessities I had to deal with, and I didn’t want to do any of them.
“We should go to Kart-astrophe.” I set my bowl aside.
“Why?”
“Why not? It’s the weekend and it’s not like I have anywhere to be. Or any laundry to do—except yours because I know it’s piling up. Or any notes to study from.” I shrugged. Go-karting was the perfect way to get my mind off the mortal danger I’d run up against.
“How about we take care of a few things first, like emailing your dean and professors to let them know what happened? My old laptop is in my closet, I can boot it up and wipe it and you can use it.”
“I can use the computer labs.”
“This is not a negotiation. You’ll need a laptop, unless you want to be stuck in those computer labs during finals in a couple weeks. Did you call your mom already?”
“Why would I do that?”
“So she doesn’t worry.”
“She doesn’t know about the fire, and she won’t know.”
“What about your dad?”
I ducked his gaze, checking out the trees outside his window. “What about him?”
“He works here. You think he won’t find out about one of the biggest off-campus housing complexes burning to the ground?”
“Let’s set a timer and see.” I set my imaginary watch.
“Marisa…”
My eyes narrowed at the warning tone in his voice. “Fine, I’ll call him.”
He tossed my phone to me.
Grabbing it with one hand, I stared at the fully charged battery icon and my anger bubbled up. Ron didn’t deserve to get a call to reassure him I was okay. How many years of radio silence had I sat through after he’d left my mom—left me behind? How many missed birthdays? Christmases? And every other holiday in between?
“Later.” I dropped the phone beside me.
LJ shifted his gaze to the ceiling with his arms folded over his chest. The muscles bunched under his t-shirt and the gray sweatpants were unfair. Every other girl on campus got to ogle LJ, but not me. I was the best friend, the partner in crime, but never more than that.
After all this time, I should be used to it. Getting shot down senior year had been rough, but I’d learned to live within the boundaries of our relationship. It didn’t mean I didn’t sometimes want to break free from them.
In less than a year the draft would happen, and then he wouldn’t be my best friend and a member of the Fulton U football team who were treated like campus gods. He’d be a professional athlete, with all the perks that came with it.
Ron hadn’t even been a player or a pro—he’d stuck to college football and then dropped me and my mom for his chance at gridiron glory. I was his own flesh and blood. What were the chances I wouldn’t get left behind once LJ signed the dotted line and got the big fat check?
The only reason LJ went out of his way to drag me back to our friendship whenever I tried to put space between us was because I’d saved his dad’s life. But that magic would wear off eventually. The debt and the gratitude would get old, and he’d leave.
“What are you thinking so hard about?” LJ hopped onto the bed beside me, striking my same crossed-arm look and mirroring my expression.
The corner of my mouth quirked up as I tried to hold back a smile. None of that meant I shouldn’t enjoy my best friend while I still had him. Dropping my head to his shoulder, I sighed and stared at our legs next to one another. Mine were clad in his boxers with thick Christmas socks his mom had bought their whole family two years ago, and his in sweats, with his sock-covered feet resting near mine. If I wanted to screw with him, I could start playing footsie and see how he reacted. “Thinking about all the stuff I need to deal with today.” I rubbed my hands over my face. “This is going to suck. Thank god you talked me into buying renter’s insurance.”
His chest puffed out and I rolled my eyes, jabbing him in the ribs.
“Gloat much?”
He rubbed his side. “I didn’t say a word.”
My head popped up and I glared. “Body language. It was gloating. A skywriter would have been less obvious.”
“Can we jump off the LJ-is-a-pain-in-the-ass train for a minute? Let’s write down everything you need to get done. We’ll divvy up the list and knock it out.”
“How about I go back to bed and pretend I didn’t almost die in a fire last night?” I grabbed for the blankets to pull them back over my head. It was an overwhelming list and I hadn’t even catalogued in my head everything I’d lost. There were so many little things I wouldn’t realize were gone until I searched for them in a couple months or a year. The few things I’d picked up for my trip to Venice in six weeks. My freaking passport! Nope, I wasn’t going to get up today.
He yanked the blankets back. “Nope. Let’s go.” He grabbed me around the waist and plopped me down in the chair like it was nothing, like he’d done back in middle school before wrestling had gotten a lot more awkward.
Spinning the chair around, he pushed me into the desk in front of a notebook and a piece of paper.