Hanging by a Moment (Keeping Score #2)

by Tawdra Kandle

  Zelda lifted one slim shoulder. “Never heard of it.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s pretty well-known for its English and creative writing majors. And it’s one of the few schools left that still offers a decent journalism program.”

  “Ah, that’s your deal, huh? You’re a writer?”

  “It’s what I want to be.” I turned the suitcase onto the bed, dumping out my clothes.

  “No, you’re already a wonderful writer.” Gia reached down, picked up one of my T-shirts from the pile and began folding it. “College is just a formality.”

  I snorted. “Well, four years is a hell of a formality.” I caught Zelda’s eye. “What’s your major? Or don’t you know?”

  For the first time since we’d come into the room, she seemed a little less sure of herself. “Ah, I’m studying plant sciences.”

  “That sounds interesting.” I cocked my head. “What do you plan to do with that after graduation?”

  Zelda smiled. “Hopefully, I’ll get to join a team working on reclaiming ecosystems that have been destroyed, either by man or by nature turning on itself. But we’ll see. There are a ton of different opportunities in the field.”

  “Very cool. How did you—” My phone buzzed in the back pocket of my shorts, and I pulled it out, scanning the screen. “Oh, Nate’s downstairs. He wants us to go over to lunch with him. Gia, could you grab those other two bags from the backseat of my car? I need to get the yogurt in the fridge before we go.” I glanced over my shoulder. “We do have a fridge, right? I ordered one of the minis.”

  “Yeah, it’s under the window.” Zelda pointed. “I put some bottles of water in it. I hope that’s okay.”

  “It’s fine. I figured we’d share it.” I opened a drawer of the wood-veneer dresser and dropped a pile of T-shirts into it.

  “I’ll get the perishables and tell Nate we’ll be right down.” Gia held out her hands for my car keys, which I dug out of my pocket.

  “Thanks, G.” I waited until she had disappeared through the open door and down the hallway before I spoke again, in a lower voice. “Sorry. She means well. She’s kind of become my personal cheerleader the last few months.”

  Zelda raised one eyebrow. “Yeah, she was fast to leap to your defense. She’s very . . . loyal.”

  “Gia’s protective of me.” I zipped the suitcase again and pressed it flat. I focused on the bag and tried to keep my voice matter-of-fact. “My dad died two months ago. It was very sudden. So all of my friends kind of watch out for me now.”

  “Oh, my God.” The shocked sympathy was the part I hated the most. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Thanks.” I still didn’t quite understand why I responded that way. Thanks for apologizing that my father was dead? Social convention was so odd. “Anyway, that’s why I’m here instead of at Evans. I live in Eatonboro, and this way, I can still be close to my mom.”

  “Why aren’t you living at home? I mean, not that I don’t want you for a roommate, but Eatonboro is practically walking distance, right? I passed it on my way here.”

  “This was a compromise.” I smiled. “My mother didn’t want me giving up the college experience, but I didn’t want to be three hours away from her. So this way, we both feel better.”

  “And that’s how you got saddled with me, huh? Why didn’t you try to share a room with your friend? Gia, right?”

  “Yes, Gia.” I closed the drawer and leaned against it. “We had to kind of pull some strings for me to get in here, as it was. I’d turned them down, and then I had to schmooze a lot of people to switch that around. My mom says we played the dead daddy card, and she’s right.”

  Zelda winced a little. “That’s kind of cynical, isn’t it?”

  “I guess. My parents and I have always been a little, um, irreverent. Sorry if it comes off . . . flippant. It’s not that I look at it that way.” I stared out the window, not seeing the bright green leaves on the oak just beyond the glass. “I miss my dad more than I can tell you. Every day, I wake up and for a few minutes, I can pretend he’s still alive. I can fool myself that the accident never happened. But it did, and my mother says life has to go on for us. So sometimes we border on the inappropriate, but it’s just our way of coping.” I drew in a deep breath and let it out. “Anyway, we had some connections in admissions here, and I’d already gotten into Birch as a back-up college. I was grateful they let me in so late in the game, though, and I didn’t want to push my luck by demanding my choice of roommate, too, you know? Plus, I think it’s good to expand my horizons. Gia’s two floors up from us, and that’s probably close enough.”

  “Got it.” Zelda grinned, and I was struck again by how gorgeous she was. “So who’s this Nate? If he’s not your boyfriend, is he fair game for me? And is he hot?”

  I hesitated, biting the corner of my lip. “Nate’s my best friend. He’s wonderful, but he doesn’t have much experience with women.”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Ooooh, an innocent for me to corrupt?”

  “No.” There was a little more emphasis in my voice than I meant there to be. “It’s not like that. He . . .” I wasn’t sure how to explain Nate to someone like Zelda, but I had to say something before she met him. “He was sick a lot as we were growing up. He’s got a degenerative muscle disease, and he’s—he’s different.”

  Zelda studied me. “So you’re saying hands off.”

  “Well, no. I’m just saying—don’t come on too strong, okay? Nate doesn’t have a real radar when it comes to girls, and it takes him a long time to make new friends. He’s known Gia for over a year, and he’s only now starting to trust her. Maybe don’t steamroll him.”

  She laughed. “Wow, I really made a first impression on you, didn’t I? Don’t worry, doll. I know how to play it cool. And trust me, if someone I respect tells me to keep away, I do it.”

  Gia came in with two canvas bags over her shoulders. “Here we go. I don’t think it all has to go in the fridge, does it?”

  I unhooked one bag from her arm. “No, just the yogurt and the cheese.” I smiled at Zelda. “I’m addicted to crackers and cheese. It’s my go-to snack.”

  “As addictions go, there are worse.” She slid her hands into the pockets of her shorts, watching me.

  “Nate’s waiting for us. I told him we’d be right down.” Gia set the other bag on top of the mini-fridge.

  “I’m ready.” I closed the refrigerator door and turned to Zelda. “Want to come with? You can meet Nate.”

  She met my gaze steadily. “You sure you want me?”

  I didn’t hesitate. “Of course. Isn’t that how roommates get to know each other?”

  “Okay.” She spread her hands in front of her. “Let’s mambo.”

  As we closed the door behind us, locking it with the key on the cord I’d looped around my wrist, I slid Zelda a sideways glance. “You said you’d listen if someone you respected asked you to stay away from a guy. Do you respect me?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know you yet, but for the time being, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.”

  “Thanks for that.” I sighed and nudged Gia with my elbow. “Okay, let’s go.”

  Nate was sprawled on a bench outside the front door of our dorm. As we approached him, I tried to see my friend as a stranger might: a typical college guy, long legs stretched out on the pavement, his brown hair a little too long over his eyes. He wasn’t muscled or broad the way some of the boys passing us were, and unlike most of them, Nate wore jeans. He was self-conscious about the way his legs looked in shorts and never went out in public with them on.

  He flipped up his sunglasses when I was within a few feet of him, and the practiced, almost-cool move took me by surprise. Sometimes I forgot that Nate wasn’t still the awkward kid I’d known all my life. A knot of girls passing us stared in his direction, and one of them giggled, her eyes going wide. Yeah, Nate was definitely going to have his share of admirers at college.

  He didn’t give them any attention at all, though. His gaz
e was on me, his eyes searching, checking to make sure I was okay, the same way he’d been doing for the last few months. I knew it was because he cared for me, but I was suddenly tired of being the one who worried everyone.

  “How’s the room?” He glanced at Zelda, but again, he didn’t react to her.

  “It’s good so far.” I forced a smile. “Basic dorm. You know. Oh, and this is Zelda. She’s the lucky girl who gets to share a room with me for the very first time in my life.”

  “Hey, it’s a reciprocal deal. You’re my first, too.” She winked at me and held out a hand. “Nate, right? Nice to meet you.”

  He hesitated only a beat before he took the offered hand. “Yeah. Good to meet you, too.”

  I plopped down on the wooden bench next to him. “So how about yours? How’s the roommate?”

  Nate straightened. “Uh, so far, so good.” He fiddled with some chipping paint on the seat. “He’s actually a football player.”

  “Seriously?” I frowned. “I thought you were in a, uh . . .” I paused. “Like, an accessible room.” I didn’t use the word handicap, but it hung out there anyway.

  “I am.” Nate’s voice was mild, as it always was. There were things he was sensitive about, like the way his legs looked or when he was awkward getting up or down. Things I was used to ignoring or pretending didn’t exist. But accommodations made for his limitations had never fazed him. “I should’ve said he used to be a football player. I guess he played for Franklin Township. He was a year ahead of us, but he took a bad hit on the field during a game when he was a senior. Like, a seriously-bad, life-threatening hit.”

  “Oh, God, I think I remember that.” Gia leaned on the back of the bench. “It happened early in the season, before we played them. I heard it was horrible. Like, people on the sidelines could hear . . .” She trailed off, biting her lip as she glanced at me. “Anyway.”

  “He’s paralyzed, in a wheel chair. He’s not real talkative, but he was civil.” Nate exhaled. “I think maybe he was a little surprised that I could walk. The housing people told him he’d be rooming with someone like him.”

  “What’s his name?” I’d always gone to our high school football games, but I hadn’t paid much attention to players on the other teams, at least not until I’d started dating Leo.

  “Eli. Eli Tucker, but he said everyone calls him Tuck.”

  Zelda was standing next to me, and I think I was the only one who heard her sharp intake of breath. I swiveled my head to look up at her, but her face had frozen into inexpression.

  “Eli Tucker? From Franklin Township?” She tilted her head and spoke with measured indifference. “Huh. I think I met him once.”

  When I raised an eyebrow, she added, “A long time ago, though. I doubt he’d remember me.” She straightened a little, as though stiffening her spine, and rubbed her stomach. “Are we going to eat or what? I’m starving.”

  “Sure.” I pushed up off the bench and began heading for the brick path I was pretty sure led toward the student life center. “Let’s go.”

  I motioned for Zelda to walk with me, as Gia joined us, giving Nate the privacy to maneuver to his feet. We didn’t move very fast, and within a few minutes, he came up alongside me.

  “So . . . Zelda and Quinn. I guess you two ended up rooming together because you’ve both got weird names at the end of the alphabet?” Nate cocked his head at me, smiling.

  I cast Gia a warning look. I wasn’t going to share the more colorful parts of my new roommate’s story with Nate. Not yet, anyway. As protective of me as he was, he’d flip out for sure.

  “I don’t know.” Zelda answered before I could. “I’m thinking it was because we’re both hot chicks who aren’t going to take shit from anyone.” She smirked at me, bumping her shoulder against mine, and I grinned in return.

  “I think I like your reasoning.”

  Nate rolled his eyes. “It’s going to be an interesting year.”

  Freshman Year

  September

  One of the first things I’d discovered about college was that locker rooms were pretty much the same. Oh, the lockers were a little nicer at Carolina, sure—but the smell and the noises were both exactly the same. So was the vibe, the mood and attitudes.

  “Hey, Taylor. Looked great out there tonight.” Thom Wilkens, the QB and team captain, paused behind me and punched me in the arm. “Keep up the good work, and you might see more play time during the games.”

  “Thanks.” I grinned. “I know I’ve got a lot to live up to.”

  Thom shrugged. “Yeah, I hear that. Being the quarterback who comes in after Drake Stamos, the guy who led us to a national championship? Not fun. I’m constantly feeling like those shoes are way too fucking big. We’re a young team, and we’re all figuring this shit out. So you need anything, you come to me, yeah?”

  “Got it.” I nodded as Thom made his way toward his own locker, stopping here and there to drop encouragement to other players. Dude was new to leadership, but he was doing a terrific job.

  “Fucking asshole.” Next to me, Matt slammed his locker and fisted his towel. “He acts like such a big fucking deal. Who the hell does he think he is?”

  “Shut up.” I glanced over his shoulder, hoping Thom hadn’t heard him. “What the hell’s your problem?”

  Matt scowled. “It’s not my problem, dude. It’s that guy, who thinks he’s some fucking bigshot because everyone says he’s the second coming. He’s a fucking sophomore. A year older than us. Why does that make him so amazing?”

  “Matt.” I grabbed his arm. “You’ve got to keep your voice down. I don’t know what Thom did to you, but—”

  “Oh, he’s Thom now, is he? Your new buddy? Yeah, you’d like him, because he’s stroking your dick, huh? And you’re sucking up so you get to play in another game.”

  I bit down the anger rising up in my chest. “You’re a fucking idiot, you know that, Lampert? You’ve been acting like a jerk for the last month. What’s wrong with you?”

  “Guess I’m just not a team player.” Matt pivoted and stalked off toward the showers without giving me so much as a backward look.

  “Someone didn’t take his happy pills today.” Tate came over to the bench, drying off his hair. “What’s going on?”

  “Wish I knew.” I closed my locker. “I don’t have the time or energy to deal with his shit right now, though. I’ve got to hit the showers.”

  “Yeah?” Tate raised one eyebrow. “You got plans tonight?”

  I grinned at him. “Oh, yeah. My girl’s gonna be here in about an hour. I got plans on top of plans.”

  “Hey, that’s great. You haven’t seen her since you came down, have you?”

  “Nope.” I hadn’t let myself think about this weekend too much today, since I’d had a full schedule of classes and then practice to get through. But now, with all that behind me, a kind of jubilee made me want to dance or shout or something. I couldn’t wait to see Quinn, to hold her . . . to talk to her in person.

  “So what’s on the agenda?” Tate pulled on his jeans.

  I shot him a look full of meaning, and he rolled his eyes. “Okay, bro, I get it. But seriously, you’ve got to get out of the sack at some point, right? I mean, you’re planning to show up for the game Saturday, right?”

  “Yeah, of course. And I can’t do anything too wild tomorrow night, since we’ve got curfew, but we’re going to get some dinner tonight, and I don’t have class tomorrow, so I figured I’d show them around the campus.”

  “Them? You got more than one woman coming down?”

  “Actually, I do. Quinn’s friend Gia rode with her, so she didn’t have to make the trip on her own.” I studied Tate, my eyes narrowing. “So what’re you doing tonight, Durham? Want to come along?” Since that awful day when Tate had driven me home from the shore, we’d kept in touch and even hung out a little over the summer. We’d driven down to Carolina together and gotten to be friends in the past month. I liked Tate; he was steady and even-tempere
d, likable and friendly. He didn’t have the same hair-trigger hot temper that Matt did. He also wasn’t a partier, and it was gratifying to have a friend like him, who understood that I didn’t want to get wasted every weekend. That I had different priorities now.

  He considered as he shook out a Henley and slid his arms into the sleeves. “You’re not setting me up with the extra chick, right? I mean, thanks, but I’m really not looking to date. Or for a relationship. I’m not in a place where I feel like I can commit to that.” His expression was serious, and I knew he was speaking the truth. Tons of girls had offered themselves to him since we’d been here, but he’d explained to me that he needed to focus on classes and football right now. Girls were a distraction he couldn’t afford.

  “No, I just figured it might be fun. And maybe Gia wouldn’t feel like a third wheel.”

  Tate nodded. “Okay, I guess I’m in.”

  “Awesome. I’m thinking Moonie’s at seven.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Be where?” Matt was back, shaking his wet hair like a dog just out of the bath.

  “Yo! Watch it.” I shoved his shoulder. “That was a really fast shower. Did you even use soap, Matt? Do I need to start checking behind your ears, like your grandma?”

  “Bite me, Taylor. I shower faster than you because I don’t shave my legs and pits like the ladies and you do.”

  “Yeah, whatever. You’re just jealous because I’m so much prettier than you.”

  “In your dreams, boy. In your dreams. So where are you going with Durham?”

  Tate shot me an apologetic glance and waved. “See you tonight, Leo. Later, Matt.”

  I sighed and wrapped the towel around my waist. “I need to hit the showers, bro.”

  “Sure. Fine. After you tell me what’s going on and why you’re hiding something from me.”

  “I’m not hiding anything from you.” That wasn’t exactly a lie. I just hadn’t gone out of my way to let Matt know what was going on. “You know Quinn’s coming down this weekend. Remember? You promised to make yourself scarce tonight and Saturday night.”