by Hazel Kelly
He stumbled to the ground clutching his side.
I bent down and pulled his hair between my fingers. "Listen to me carefully, Mike. I've got all kinds of ideas for how I could ruin your life."
A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
"My favorite so far is I tell the cops I caught you trying to rape her-"
"But I wasn't- you wouldn't-"
"I would," I said, pulling his hair harder. "And then I'd make it my business to tell everyone on this campus about you, and I’d take great pleasure in watching you fail to shed that reputation."
"What the fuck is your problem?"
"You being near her, Mike." I scoffed. "Don't you get it? I’ll do anything to protect her. And that certainly extends to fucking over a piece of shit like you."
He stuck his tongue out and tasted his own blood.
"So I'm going to give you one last chance to do the right thing and disappear before I make you disappear." I let his head go a little too hard against the ground and stood up, deciding he didn't require any more physical attention.
But as soon as I took a step back, Andi swung her pointed boot straight into his crotch.
Mike cried out and curled towards the wall in the fetal position.
I raised my eyebrows at her.
"The cops are on their way," she said, turning up the stairs. "Let's go."
"Remind me to never piss you off," I said, falling in line behind her.
She turned at the top of the stairs. "Hey Shane."
"What?"
"Don't piss me off."
Chapter 29: Andi
"What the hell happened?" Shane asked as soon as I'd locked the door behind us.
"You saw what happened," I said. "Mike went apeshit again."
He furrowed his brow. "Did he ambush you on the stairs?"
"Yeah," I said. "Right before you did, stalker."
He put his hands up. "Hey. I was just out for a walk and minding my own business when I realized you probably should've texted me already."
"Bullshit," I said, heading to the kitchen. "You followed me home."
"More like supervised."
I pulled two bottles of beer from the fridge and popped the caps off, letting them roll along the counter. "Well, thanks," I said, handing him one. "I'd really liked to be pissed, but under the circumstances, I suppose you saved my ass."
He rubbed his jaw.
I grabbed some frozen vegetables from the freezer. “Here,” I said. "To keep the swelling down."
"It's nothing."
I raised my eyebrows. "Don't piss me off."
He shoved the bag of veg against his jaw.
"I'm sorry, by the way."
He furrowed his brow. "You have nothing to be sorry about."
"If I hadn't-"
"Andi. None of this is your fault."
I walked over to the couch, sat down, and pulled my boots off.
Shane followed and took a seat beside me. "What exactly set him off?"
I shrugged. "Who knows? The first thing he commented on was how late it was, and then when he grabbed my phone and saw that I was texting you, he lost it."
He smiled. "So you were going to text me?"
"Of course. I promised, didn't I?"
"It was probably easy to remember after thinking about me all the way home."
One corner of my mouth curled up. "You might've crossed my mind once or twice."
He took a swig of beer and sank back against the pillows.
The clock in the kitchen ticked loudly, reminding me of how late it was. I knew I should ask him to stay, especially after he came to my rescue. "Did you mean what you said back there?"
He raised his eyebrows.
"When you said you'd do anything to protect me?"
"Of course," he said. "I don't say stuff I don't mean."
I folded my legs underneath me and angled my body towards him. "Would you bury a body for me?"
"Can I finish my beer first?"
I rolled my eyes. "It's a hypothetical question."
"Which I believe I answered."
"Would you jump in front of a train for me?"
"No question."
I squinted at him. "Lie under oath?"
"No."
I cocked my head.
"I'm joking. I was trying to convey how easy it would be for me to do that."
"So you would lie under oath?"
He nodded. "Like I said. I would do anything to protect you."
"Hmmm." I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling. "Would you get your body reinforced with metal like Wolverine?"
His face dropped. "I did that last summer. Jeez. You could at least pretend you noticed."
I laughed. "Oh right, sorry. I forgot."
He smiled at me, causing his cheek to crush against the veg.
I took a sip of beer and felt a warm wave of affection wash over me.
A second later, we both turned our heads towards the sound of a key in the door and watched Steph step inside quietly.
Her whole body relaxed when she saw us. "Oh. You're up. Back." She closed the door. "How was the barn dance?"
Shane looked at me.
"It was great. Really fun," I said. "What's with the backpack?"
She let it slide down one arm to the floor. "I was at the library."
I furrowed my brow. "Since when?"
“Since after dinner," she said, leaning against the wall.
"It's almost three."
"Which explains why I woke up face down in my book twenty minutes ago."
I craned my neck forward. "It's Friday night."
"More like Saturday morning," she said. "Which means in twenty four hours I have to dissect a dead pig, and I really don't want to desecrate it any more than I have to."
Shane and I nodded.
"Anyway, enough about me and my semi-conscious state of anxiety. I'll leave you guys to it."
"Not at all," Shane said, dropping his hand full of veg. "I was just-"
"What happened to you?" Steph asked, as if she hadn't noticed the vegetables until they moved.
"Andi can tell you all about it," he said, making his way towards the kitchen. "But you should see the other guy."
"Mike," I mouthed after Shane disappeared around the corner.
"You're kidding me," Steph said.
I shook my head and set my beer on the nearest coaster. "I wish I were." I stood up as Shane was coming out of the kitchen. "Are you sure you don't want to stay?" I blurted.
"I'll just be- uhh-" Steph's footsteps fell down the hallway.
I kept my eyes on Shane.
He stepped up to me. "No, thanks. I shouldn't be here anyway."
I rolled up on my toes. "Have I mentioned how glad I am that you are? That you were?"
He tilted my chin up and looked back and forth between my eyes. "Goodnight, Andi."
My lips parted just before his pressed against mine, and my insides twisted as he pulled my lower back against him.
When I needed to catch my breath, I held his neck and pressed my forehead against his. "That just gets better and better,” I whispered, his warm breath still on my lips.
"Promise me something," he said.
I looked at him and slid my hand down his chest. "What?"
"Promise me you'll never give me a kiss on the cheek again."
"You didn't like that?"
"It's not that," he said. "It's just that I can think of a few places I like better."
"Don't be a hornball."
"Don't get me so hard right before you send me home alone."
"I'm not. I said you could-"
He kissed me again- this time with an urgency that perfectly explained why he couldn't stay.
I leaned my whole body against him, as if I could make an imprint of my shape against his chest.
"Trust me," he said. "If I thought I could behave myself, I'd take you up on your offer. But if I don't leave right now, no one in this apartment is going to ge
t any sleep tonight."
I sank down on my heels. "So this isn't over?"
"Far from it, shorty," he said, pulling one of my pigtails.
I raised my eyebrows. "Text me when you get home?"
"Anything in particular you want? Maybe a photo of-"
"Words will be sufficient, thanks."
"Will do."
I walked him to the door and watched him make his way to the stairwell. "Shane."
He looked back over his shoulder.
"You know I want to follow you home, right?"
He smiled. "Get some sleep."
I closed the door and sighed as I dropped my forehead against it.
"You need to wash your mind out with soap, young lady."
I rolled my head towards Steph, who was standing in the hallway in her pink kitty pajamas.
"More like bleach," I said. "I am so fucked."
Flashback: Andi
During the three weeks of budget gift giving, it was hard to tell who had me for Secret Santa.
At the end of the first week, I got movie ticket vouchers. That made me think Izzy had me because there were four movies out at the time that we wanted to see.
At the end of the second week, I got a Santa snow scraper. That made me think it was probably Steven because he was practical that way. Plus, he'd caught me scraping ice off my windshield with my history book a few days earlier.
The third week, though, I got a book of coupons for Dairy Queen chocolate dipped cones. That was when it first occurred to me that Shane might be my Secret Santa since he knew my ice cream preferences better than anyone.
However, he could’ve just been helping someone try to throw me off the scent.
But on the last day of gift giving, I figured out that he had me by process of elimination.
"Oooh," Izzy squealed. "Only one present left! I wonder who it could be from?"
"Yeah, I wonder," I said, shooting Shane a look as I pulled my flashing reindeer sweater down over my red velvet leggings and walked over to the tree.
I bent down and picked up the two attached boxes.
Shane patted the ottoman he was sitting on.
I sat down beside him and undid the ribbon. "Please tell your mom she did a really nice job with the wrapping paper."
He knocked his shoulder into mine. "Will do, smart ass."
I opened the smaller box first, and I could feel everyone’s eyes on me as they looked over their warm mugs of Mrs. Jennings’ weak ass mulled wine.
When I pulled the lid off, my face fell.
"If you don't like them," he said. "I kept the gift receip-"
"I love them," I said, pulling one of the sparkling snowflake earrings from the box. "But you weren't supposed to spend more than-"
"That rule only exists so you don't have to break the bank if you get someone boring like Steven."
"What the hell, man?!" Steven said.
"Besides, my only other idea was a Bath and Body Works gift set, and you smell good enough as it is."
I felt my cheeks blush and hoped people would think it was the wine. "Well, thank you. You shouldn't have, but I really like them." It was only then that I noticed the little sticker that said they were 14 carat white gold. My eyes grew wide and bounced back to him.
"You're welcome," he said, as if he could read my mind.
"Open the other one already!" Izzy said.
I sighed and looked at him with disapproval, trying to hide the sheer joy I felt that he would pick out something so pretty and delicate for me, that he would break the rules for me.
He shrugged. “Okay, so I had more than one idea."
I tore through the paper, revealing a framed photo that was taken the previous summer.
I remembered the day vividly.
Izzy had spent the afternoon reading a stack of People magazines on a blanket in the grass at the top of the driveway while Shane tried to teach me how to do a proper layup. Finally, after two hours of laughing until my sides hurt and chasing the ball around, I managed one.
Shane was even more pumped about it than I was, and he scooped me up on his back and ran around the driveway saying all this crazy made up stuff about the crowd going wild and my game winning shot.
And at one point, we must've been charging right at Izzy cause the photo completely captured the moment. We looked sweaty and young and our smiles were splitting our faces.
"You okay?" Shane asked.
"Yeah," I said, blinking away the tears that might give away how much it meant to me. "Thanks. I love it."
"Don't get mushy now before you see what's taped on the back," he said, lifting his chin at the photo.
"There's more?" I flipped the picture over, revealing an envelope with my name on it. I glanced at him. "What is it?"
He nodded, urging me to continue.
I pulled out a thick piece of paper. "Season tickets to Six Flags?"
"What do you say?" he asked.
The blood drained from my face. "I say I'm terrified of roller coasters and you know that."
"That's why I got season tickets. So we can take all the time we need getting you used to the idea."
"But-"
"It'll be just like the layup," he said. "You'll surprise yourself."
I pursed my lips, not wanting to ruin the moment for everyone by giving away how horrified I was.
"There's a first time for everything," he said, putting a hand on my knee. "You'll thank me. I promise."
And he was right.
I had five months to wrap my head around the idea, to research the odds of me puking on myself or falling to an early death.
And it took that same five months to convince my parents that roller coasters were actually less dangerous than trampolines and go carts (both of which they did everything to keep out of my sight and mind).
Then, when summer rolled around, Shane kept his word.
The first time we went, we didn't even go on any rides.
We just ate funnel cakes and watched the other smiling customers wander from one coaster to another, including a lot of kids which I found as motivating as I did frustrating.
But by the end of the summer, I'd gone on every ride tons of times, and my favorite turned out to be the Giant Drop- the last one I ever would’ve dreamed I'd have the guts to try.
And every time I got nervous, he'd hold my hand, look me in the eye, and tell me it was okay to scream.
And I loved him for helping me face my fears, for letting me squeeze his hand so hard, and for never being the first to let go.
Chapter 30: Shane
My face was still smushed into my pillow when I heard the door swing open and bang against the wall.
Please don't jump on me. Please don't jump on me.
"Who the fuck is she?"
Chloe. I blinked my eyes open and yawned.
"Well?" she asked, ripping the covers on the other side of the bed down.
I groaned and rolled over. "There's no one here."
"That doesn't answer my question?" She was in a short blue jumpsuit with her hands on her hips.
I forced myself to sit up. "Sorry. What was your question again?"
"Who is she?"
"Who is who? What are you doing here?" I rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock. It wasn’t even ten.
"The girl you took to the barn dance."
I reached for my boxers on the floor. "She's a friend. Chill out." I turned sideways and pulled them on.
"The kind of friend you disappear for hours with? And then I heard she had hay in her hair when you got back to the-"
"Why do you even know that?"
She picked up a pillow from the other side of the bed and threw it at me. "Because you were supposed to take me, asshole! So obviously all the girls in my house noticed when you showed up with some nobody-"