by Kate Morris
“What do you mean? Where are you going?”
“Ohio State, scholarship,” he said. “We’re both moving to Columbus.”
“Ha, that’s weird,” she said.
“Why? What’s weird about it?”
She shouldn’t tell him. She wasn’t supposed to tell anyone anything about herself, but Wren wanted to share something about herself with him, anything.
“Oh, just…no reason,” she said and quickly followed it up with a question because he looked like he was about to ask her about it again. “What did you want to tell me?”
“Why do you have a gun?”
She cocked her head to the side losing patience. “Protection. That’s all.”
“Why would you need that kind of protection?”
Damn. She thought saying that would get him off her case. It didn’t work. He was always full of questions.
“You are so much trouble,” she mumbled, thinking out loud and not stopping herself.
“Me? I’m trouble? Girl, you’ve been nothing but trouble since the day I met you.”
“What? That’s totally not true,” she argued. “I keep to myself. I don’t bother anyone.”
“You bother me. You’re a distraction I don’t need right now,” he stated almost angrily.
That felt insulting. She looked at him and frowned. He didn’t look like he meant it to be an insult, and it made her breath hitch in her chest, the intensity of his stare.
Luckily, her phone buzzed, and she took it out of her jeans pocket to check it. She sent Jamie a return text lying to him saying she was home. He wouldn’t like her here with Elijah, even if they were just working out together.
“I should get going,” she said.
“Wait,” he said and touched her hand. “Wren, we do need to talk. I’m sorry we got distracted, but I do want to tell you some stuff.”
“I can’t be out late. My uncle just said he’d be home around ten. If I’m not there, he’ll freak out.”
“Why is he so protective of you?”
“What do you want to tell me?”
He nodded, knowing she wasn’t going to give him any information. Elijah reached out and touched her hair. It was rare that she didn’t have her hoodie up. It felt strange having someone touch her, and she’d never had a boy touch her like that. He was gentle, his facial expression inquisitive, and was staring at her hair as if it interested him.
“Don’t,” she said and swiped his arm away with her hand. She wasn’t rough, but he got the point and stopped.
“I did some research last night,” he said finally and straddled the bench to face her.
Outside, the wind howled. Thunder in the distance rumbled. They were about to get a storm. She wondered what they were like in Ohio. Everywhere she’d lived was different. Some areas where mountains were located, the thunder was especially loud as it rolled through the valleys or canyons. Flatter areas had brilliant electrical shows when the lightning struck. Other areas like the Northwest were just soggy and drizzly all the time it seemed. This was her first storm here.
“What did you find out?”
“Do you have a laptop at your house?” he asked, to which she shook her head. “Yeah, me, neither.”
“I know,” she acknowledged, which made him grin for some reason.
“Well, I watched the twenty-four-hour news but didn’t find a whole lot. They were talking about a rare flu, but none of the doctors gave the symptoms. They were just showing maps where it had spread.”
“Where has it spread?”
“It was vague. You know, world maps. There were colored in areas pretty much everywhere, so it’s hard to tell.”
“Oh,” she expressed her disappointment.
“So, I went over to a talk radio program my dad sometimes used to listen to at night when we were working late on the house reno,” he told her and paused.
His brown eyes became sad momentarily as his statement must’ve brought back memories of his father. She rested her hand on his for a second and didn’t want to move it because he seemed to take comfort in what she had to offer, which wasn’t much. Wren wasn’t a touchy-feely emotional kind of person, hadn’t been able to do that sort of thing for a very long time now. Everything she felt had to be shelved for another day, someday far in the future when things settled down. There wasn’t time for that, but she understood Elijah’s pain, and for some reason, that made her want to comfort him.
“Anyway, they were talking about this flu on the radio program,” he continued.
“What do you mean?”
“The host said that the CDC knows about it and are treating it.”
“I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
“He explained some of the symptoms. It sounded like what we saw in those people…”
“Wait,” she said. “That doesn’t make any sense. Those people didn’t have the flu. That’s bullshit. They were…I don’t know.”
“That’s what I would’ve said, too, but this guy said he’d seen one. It sounded just like the people we saw. They had bloodshot eyes and were violent.”
“Whoa,” she remarked with surprise. “Wait. You’re telling me this is the flu?”
“He said it’s not like a normal flu. It’s some super-bug kinda’ thing.”
“Super-bug?”
“I guess,” he said. “I want to find out more. I just don’t have access to much other than my phone, and my brother and I are on a limited data plan because of our tight budget.”
“Oh, yeah, that sucks,” she said.
“What about your phone?” he asked. “You’ve got a smartphone…”
“No!” she said with force and tried to soften her tone. “Um, I’m not supposed to go on the internet. It’s not internet capable. As a matter of fact, my uncle disabled it. The internet doesn’t work from my phone at all.”
“Because of your porn addiction?” he teased.
Wren rolled her eyes.
He suggested. “Hey, we could go in the school.”
“It’s closed,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, but there’s an underground maintenance tunnel downstairs. It leads to the school. It’s for the gas lines and water lines to the pool and all that, but I’ve been down there before. My swipe card would get us in.”
“I think that sounds illegal. Like we’d be trespassing or something.”
“Says the girl who split the scene of a crime and didn’t talk to the cops. And carries an awfully big, damn gun.”
“Touché.”
“We’ve got quite a while before you need to be home. I’m going over there. Want to come with me?”
He stood and held out his hand. Wren felt like it was decision time. This choice could and probably would change her life. For some reason she couldn’t quite grasp yet, she knew Elijah Brannon had wandered into her life for a reason. Whether it was for good or evil, or wrong or right, he was in her life. She ignored his hand but stood anyway.
Chapter Eleven
He had her wait outside the men’s locker room while he changed quickly into jeans, the same tank top, a flannel shirt, and his team jacket, which was warm since it was chilly out tonight. He already took his shower before she got to the gym but was just killing time with a few extra reps waiting for her. When he emerged from the locker room, she was waiting with her back against the opposite wall looking left and right nervously.
“Everything okay?”
She looked at him and quickly back toward the pool room at the end of the hall. “Yeah, fine.”
“You sure?” he asked, recognizing the expression on her face. It was the same nervous one she had the other night when things started kicking off. She’d also expressed that when the gun had fallen out of her jacket. She was on edge.
“Huh?” she asked, her eyes still on the pool room. “Yeah, yeah. Ready?”
“Yes,” he answered and glanced toward the pool. He could see the dark water through the glass doors leading into that area. There were
also wide slabs of glass flanking either side of the doors. The water looked like it was moving, a slight ripple skimming across the otherwise smooth surface, but he was pretty sure it was a trick of the moonlight coming through the windows. It still made him frown. “Let’s go.”
She nodded and walked beside him to the door leading to the stairs. Upstairs were offices mostly and the therapy rooms where they’d soak in tubs of ice or do physical therapy, massage or cupping with the team docs and therapists. He swiped his pass card and went through the door leading downstairs, though.
“I can’t believe I’m about to break the law,” she remarked as they went through. The clank of the door shutting behind them seemed deafening.
“It’s not technically breaking the law if I have a swipe card,” he said.
“Yeah, but we’re not technically supposed to be in the school after it’s closed. I’m sure there’s a rule somewhere about it.”
“It’s better to ask forgiveness than to get permission,” he joked with a grin.
She hit him with a frown, “Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.”
He chuckled. “Good one, Foster.”
They arrived at the lower level where Elijah had to swipe again to enter the maintenance area. She followed him through and scowled as the door shut behind them.
“It’s dark,” she said.
“Yeah, let’s find a switch,” he said but felt her hand on his arm.
“Let’s not. We don’t want anyone to know we’re down here.”
“True. Let me use the flashlight on my phone,” he said, noting that she hadn’t let go of his forearm.
Once the phone’s white, silvery light lit the space, Elijah felt a little better. He wasn’t necessarily scared but fumbling around in the dark unknown wasn’t too smart.
“What about the janitor? Won’t he be in the school at this time?”
“No, they work a midnight shift,” he answered. “They don’t come in until eleven-thirty.”
“Oh,” she said softly and consulted the time on her phone and then leaned it in his direction so he could see, too. It was only six-thirty.
“Just stay together,” he said. “If we get separated, you won’t be able to see.”
“I know,” she remarked, her accent on full display.
“So, you never did answer me earlier,” he said. “What’s a wristy?”
“You’re a smart boy,” she quipped. “You’ll figure it out.”
He chuckled at her sarcasm and kept going. They passed through the winding tunnel system without much effort. They were probably about fifty yards into it when she jumped.
Wren whispered, “What was that?”
He paused and glanced behind them, shining his light that way. Emergency lighting was on, but they were more like night-lights in the dark tunnels. It just made the place spookier.
“Did you hear it?” she asked in a whisper.
“Yeah, probably just all this ductwork expanding and shrinking. See this?” he asked, reaching overhead and touching the metal sheeting covering the ceiling and all the pipe works and mechanicals underneath. She nodded. “There’s warm air being blown through. When the big boilers kick on, the ducts probably make noise when the hot air blows through, causing them to expand and contract.”
“Oh,” she said.
He hoped it was the truth. It probably was. The noise sounded like a soft metallic clinking. It was just the ductwork, right?
“Come on,” he said and tried not to acknowledge that his step had increased in speed.
They made it to the school in the span of about five minutes. He didn’t need a swipe card to go up the stairs into the actual school building through the maintenance door, but he knew he’d need one to get back in.
One of the teachers down the hall must’ve left their lights on in their classroom because light spilled into the hall. That was normal. They did stuff like that. Just because they were their teachers and adults didn’t make them superhumans who never forgot something or made mistakes. The rest of the school was running on nighttime lighting, however. The EXIT signs at either end of the hallway were still on. Above other doors were small nightlights behind plastic casing that offered dim, yellowy light, so he switched off his phone’s flashlight mode.
“The computers are upstairs in the tech lounge,” he told her.
“Right. Let’s go,” she said, looking behind them at the maintenance door.
“A wombat, huh?” he asked with curiosity.
“What?”
He walked up the stairs side by side with her and had to stop himself from trying to hold her hand. He really wanted to, but Wren certainly didn’t seem like she was into him. Sitting on his lap had been to shut him up. Hanging out at his house last weekend was only to ascertain her injuries at the festival. He was only fooling himself to think otherwise because she really never put off a vibe that she was into him. Plus, he was pretty sure she thought of him as a dumb jock and a player when it came to picking up girls. And he needed to keep focused right now anyway.
“Are you from…Australia?” he asked, causing her to miss her footing and trip on the last step before the landing. Elijah caught her from falling onto her hands by grabbing her arm. “You okay?”
“Yeah, it’s dark. I just tripped.”
It wasn’t that dark. Each door they passed had a nightlight above it, and every twenty feet or so there was a tiny dot of light in the baseboards. It wasn’t exactly daylight, but it wasn’t as dark as the tunnel system.
“Yeah,” he said, getting an idea, one that didn’t need additional encouragement. “It is pretty dark. Here,” he reached for her hand and clenched it in his, “hold my hand so you don’t get hurt.”
She didn’t pull away, but Wren did look up at him with suspicious aqua eyes framed by thick, black brows and lashes. And more of that black eyeliner stuff. Her cheeks looked pinker than usual. Maybe it was the dim lighting. Or maybe she was blushing. He found himself hoping it was that.
“Let’s keep going, Australia,” he teased and got his jacket yanked hard to halt him.
“Hey!” she said with force. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that. Especially around any of the other people in school. Don’t call me that.”
He looked down at her and realized that she was not only pissed but genuinely upset, maybe even worried. “Wren, I told you I’d never tell anyone about you. You don’t have to worry about that. I was just messin’ with you. Okay?”
She nodded but still looked concerned. Her eyes almost glowed in this dim lighting. “You just…you just can’t say that, okay?”
“Is that where you’re from? Is that why it upset you?”
She swallowed hard, and a frown line marred between her thick brows. She looked one step away from bolting. Her eyes kept darting to the stairs.
“Hey, it’s cool. You don’t have to tell me. No more teasing, okay?”
She looked up at Elijah, and he felt a sudden protectiveness sweep over him because he realized it wasn’t worry or anger he’d seen in her stare. It was fear.
“Sorry,” he apologized and pulled her shirt to get her closer. “Don’t worry. What’s between us stays between us. And no more asking about where you’re from. Besides,” he said, trying to lighten the mood and appear so much cooler and more confident than he normally felt around her, “you’ll tell me someday.”
She huffed. “No, I won’t.”
“You will. You aren’t gonna shake me, Foster. I’m going to be around whether you want me to be or not.”
“What?” she asked on a sharp inhale of disbelief.
He grinned and turned to go, enticing her along after him, “Yep, I just decided that. You and I have a future. We’re gonna have a history, too. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I am. You’re forgetting that, Golden Boy.”
“Hey, no more of the Golden Boy stuff or I’ll go back to calling you Australia.” He wasn’t even sure why he was saying any of this. He’d just resigned
himself to not getting involved with her, and now he just told her they would be in each other’s lives. What was wrong with him?
She glared up at him. Elijah only smiled down at her. Then he cocked an eyebrow in challenge.
“Fine,” she relented through angrily gritted teeth. “But I am leaving. I already told you that.”
“We’ll see.”
She groaned at him. Or maybe it was a full-blown growl. Either way, it was actually cute.
When they got to the tech lab, Elijah locked the door behind them. For some reason lately, he had the urge to lock doors after he was through them. A bird squawked loudly across the hall, making her jump.
“Just Mr. Herman’s parrots. He has two in the biology lab across the hall.”
“Oh,” she said with embarrassment.
He had biology last year with Mr. Herman, who also had a few snakes and a huge tank of tropical fish in his class. He was a pretty cool teacher, an interesting character. Elijah had aced his class because he made it fun. His birds knew how to say a lot of words, too. They were Yellow-headed Amazons, both of them, Beno and Vinnie. Mr. Herman called them his Italian mob family. They even said funny phrases and a few swear words that Elijah figured the kids had taught them over the years.
“Over here, Wren,” he said and pulled out a chair and sat down in the one beside it. “We’ll work back here where we’re far away from the door in case anyone happens to come up here.”
“I thought you said the school was empty.”
“It is, but you never know. Could be teachers come in once in a while to work on grading papers or something.”
He sneaked into the school at night once this summer with Jeremy just to see if they could get away with it. What they’d thought would be daring and fun had really just been lame. That’s how he knew about it, but he wasn’t going to tell Wren. He didn’t want her to look at him like some sort of delinquent or a dork. Besides, they’d only done it once. He didn’t want to jeopardize his college ride or his position on the team by performing a string of stupid acts because he knew he was no mastermind criminal type. He’d be that one idiot who always got caught.
“Okay,” she said unsurely and looked over her shoulder.