Breaking Down Sydney (Sydney West #2)

by Brittney Coon

  My hearing faded away. For some reason, I couldn’t make out any sound no matter how hard I tried. On the plus side, I could still see. Well, if watching strange shapes pass by in dim light was a plus.

  It felt like my soul was tearing itself from my body to prepare itself for the shock of being shot. To make sure I was still alive, I slowly moved my hand toward Jason’s neck. I wanted to feel his pulse. I needed to feel life.

  Jason’s hand stopped mine and gave it a firm squeeze. It was a warning within a caring gesture. We were both still alive. It became harder to breathe, like all the air was being sucked out of the room by a huge vacuum. It was the longest wait of my life, the wait of knowing if we’d die or not.

  In the distance, I heard a gunshot and shouting. Someone said something like, “We got him!” I wasn’t sure, so I wasn’t moving.

  There was a voice. It sounded like a woman’s. “Anyone in here?”

  We froze, unsure if it was safe to respond. For all we knew, she was a trap.

  My heartbeat pounded in my ears. I thought I’d have a heart attack before it was all over. A silhouette of the woman appeared by the table we were hiding under. Jason jumped, making me jump.

  “It’s okay, he’s down. You’re safe now,” the woman said.

  I looked up from Jason. She was older than I thought with long gray hair. There was a badge on her chest. She was a cop. Her smile was contagious, making me give her one back.

  “He’s gone?” I asked, double checking.

  “Yes. He drew on the police and lost.”

  “Thank God,” I mumbled.

  “You okay?” Jason whispered, looking straight into my eyes.

  I nodded. He got up and helped me to my feet. The sun was blinding as we stepped outside. A few yards away, there was a white sheet over what I thought was the gunman.

  The female officer pointed to the ambulance. “Please check in over there for safety,” she said, walking away to a group of cops standing near the body covered by a sheet.

  I clung to Jason as we walked to the medic. A man asked us how we were and checked us for injuries. We passed with flying colors, mainly because we weren’t bleeding or babbling strange phrases.

  “Hello again. I forgot to tell you my name. I’m Officer Jenkins. I need to ask you a few routine questions before you can leave,” the female officer said.

  “Okay,” Jason replied, wrapping his arm around my waist.

  “Follow me so we can be out of the way.” She nodded us along. We walked a few feet away, standing next to a palm tree.

  “What are your names?” Officer Jenkins asked, holding a small notebook before her. Due to the shows I watched, I knew she needed our report because we were witnesses.

  Jason rubbed his jaw and said, “I’m Jason King and this is my girlfriend, Sydney West.”

  “Okay,” she said. Her pen scratched the paper as she wrote our names down. “What were you doing before it started?”

  He shrugged. “I was in the library checking out a book and Sydney came to meet me.”

  “Why? For a project?” she asked, not looking up from her notebook.

  I frowned. “No, we were going to get lunch together.”

  She nodded, taking more notes. “Then what?”

  Jason continued. “We were about to leave when a man came and told us to get down. By the look of his uniform, I guessed he was campus police.”

  “He was. Go on.”

  “I told Sydney to crawl to the corner we were in. We heard gunshots and stayed low and quiet. We didn’t see anything, but heard footsteps, gunfire, and shouting. The first person we saw after that cop was you.”

  “You agree?” She looked at me.

  My body was uncontrollably shaking. “Yeah. That’s what happened.”

  “Okay, thank you. You’re free to go.”

  We drifted away from the scene. Helicopters made all the trees sway as they hovered over the grounds like vultures. Everywhere I looked, there was a cop. Our campus had been taken over by the police like a picnic infected by a line of ants. Beyond the police tape were all the local news stations trying to rope someone into doing an interview as the school was evacuated of students and staff.

  Jason raked his hands through his hair. He looked as tired as I felt. Curious about the time, I got my cell phone out of my purse only to find I had two missed calls and a text from Amelia.

  “My mom has already called twice. She’s probably freaking out while watching the news. I’m going to call her back,” I told Jason, hitting redial.

  He nodded. “I should do the same,” he replied, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

  Jason stood over by the mouth of an alley and calmed his mother down when she answered. I sat down on a bus bench and waited for my mom to pick up.

  “Sydney!” she shouted into the phone.

  “Yes, I’m—”

  “Thank God! I was about to go down to that school of yours and find you myself.”

  I could picture her yelling at the police, scaring them to their cores with those mean shark eyes of hers.

  “No need. I’m fine.”

  “Were you in it?” Her breath hitched. “It looked awful on the news.”

  She wanted me to assure her I was nowhere near the crime scene, that I was safely tucked away miles from the hot zone. It would’ve been a simple lie, but I didn’t like to hide things from my mom, not anymore.

  “I was near the—”

  “What? No, not my baby…” She rambled on as if I wasn’t Sydney, only someone telling her that her daughter was in a terrible accident.

  “Mom! Mother!” I said her name louder, drawing a few curious eyes of people walking by. “I’m okay, truly I am.”

  “What about Jason?”

  I smiled, looking over at him as he ran a hand through his hair. He was probably convincing his own mother he was fine. “That’s why I’m okay. Jason saved me, Mom. I don’t have one scratch.”

  “He saved your life?” She was speechless. I looked up only to find Jason watching me. He threw me a grin and went back to talking on the phone.

  “Yes.”

  “I knew I liked that boy!”

  “Yeah, he’s something.” Butterflies attacked my stomach. I swallowed and continued. “But I’m alive, so don’t worry about me. Okay?”

  “I love you, baby. Stay safe. Do you need a place to stay or are you allowed in your dorm?”

  “Not sure. I’ll have to call you when I know more.”

  “Okay, baby. Remember you can come stay with me, and Jason is welcome too.”

  My heart did a flip at the knowledge that my mom loved the idea of Jason and me. “Thanks, that means a lot. I’ll be sure to tell him.”

  “Thank you for calling me. I was worried about you, baby.”

  “I love you, Mom. You can take a deep breath, it’s all over.”

  She paused, probably taking that suggested breath. “I love you more than you’ll ever know.”

  “Good-bye, Mom. Get some rest, all right?”

  “Okay, sweetheart. Give Jason a kiss for me. Bye.”

  She was gone. I was left staring at my cell phone. Jason cleared his throat. I looked up to meet those silver eyes.

  “So?” he asked with a smile. It was like he knew what she’d said.

  “My mom says hi.”

  “That’s it? Did you tell her I saved your life?”

  I slid on a poker face. “Yes, I did. She also said thanks…you know, for saving me.” My mask cracked a little bit.

  He gave me a heated look, telling me he knew there was more. I crossed my legs to ease the buzzing between my thighs.

  “She said if I can’t stay at my dorm to come over and you’re invited too. She also wanted me to…” I trailed off, blushing.

  “She wanted you to what?” he pressed, leaning in closer.

  To regain my strength, I stood up and straightened my spine. “She wanted me to give you a kiss, a kind of thank you I suppose,” I replied, giving
him a kiss on the cheek.

  His lips curled into a perfect smile. “I knew I liked that woman.”

  My eyebrows knotted together in confusion. That was what my mother said about him, now he was saying the same thing? What was going on? It was like I was missing an important piece to the puzzle.

  “Yeah…wonderful…” I said, unsure how to go about Jason and my mom getting along. They already had a shared conversation, and now this?

  “My mom took the news kinda well, besides her bursting into tears.” He shrugged and continued. “My sister was able to soothe her. I also sent a text to Hunter.” Jason hooked his arm with mine as we walked down the street together. “Want to get some food, or do you need to call anyone else?”

  “Oh, I need to text Amelia.” I clicked on her text and typed back.

  Me: Hey, I’m fine. No need 2 worry.

  She texted back within a minute.

  Amelia: I thought u were dead! U need 2 text faster when it comes 2 things like this!

  Me: Sorry. Had 2 get out of there & call my mom. U know how she is.

  Amelia: Yeah, she okay?

  Me: After hearing my voice, she’s fine.

  Amelia: Good. Were u in that mess?

  Me: Yeah, it was scary, but Jason saved me.

  Amelia: He saved u?!

  Me: Hard 2 explain, but he made sure I’d make it.

  Amelia: How romantic! U can never go back to not believing in love after him!

  I stared at her message. I didn’t know how to reply. Jason wasn’t paying attention to me. He was too involved in the game he was playing on his cell phone. The wrinkles that formed between his eyebrows as he concentrated made me want to kiss his lips and run my nails down his back.

  Me: Yeah, he’s doing a number on me. Where were u when everything happened?

  Amelia: I was at the campus downtown. I’m still here, these computers are slow! Wish this lab was on our campus.

  I thought of a response when my phone received another message.

  Amelia: R u with Jason now?

  Me: Yes.

  Amelia: I’ll let u go then. Be safe! LYLAS.

  Me: I’ll be safe, u 2! LYLAS.

  “Okay, the world is right again,” I said, trailing a finger down Jason’s cheek.

  He looked up at me. “According to Facespace, the shooter is a former student with a grudge. How sad is that? We almost died due to some bad blood.” He shook his head.

  “It’s always something, isn’t it?” I pushed his phone down and brushed his nose with mine. “I don’t want to think of that right now. Let’s just get food and be with each other.”

  “Sounds perfect,” Jason said, pressing his lips against mine. We linked arms again and walked to a quiet restaurant down the road.

  While eating our burgers, a quote by Francois de La Rochefoucald came to me.

  True love is like ghosts, which everyone talk about and few have seen.

  For the longest time, I thought love wasn’t true, that it was something made up. I knew my mom loved me, but it was something in her brain to tell her to love her child. It didn’t seem like love between a man and woman could last. At least to me, love never seemed to last for anyone. That was until Jason shattered my belief system in California and then shattered it again today, when he shielded me from the horrors in the library.

  He’d rather die saving me than leave me unprotected. If that wasn’t love, I didn’t know what was.

  I wished there was a way to repay him. It took me a long time to believe in love and understand it deep down into my bones, to the bottom of my heart. I prayed one day I’d find a way to thank him and show him how much he taught me about loving someone.

  ***

  We both got a text from the college warning service informing us classes were cancelled today and the rest of the week. After lunch, Jason and I moved to happy hour. The drinks numbed my fried nerves. It didn’t hit me until my fifth drink, and it hit me hard.

  “I don’t watch you for ten minutes and you get yourself fucked up. Oh, Sydney.” Jason helped me to a booth. He thought I’d be better off far from the bar.

  “I…I’m fine. You need…to loosen up. We almost died. I th-think we earned this.” My voice sounded strange to me.

  “Near death experiences are supposed to make you value life. It should open your eyes and make you notice that you shouldn’t take anything for granted. Drinking and partying is a foolish way to celebrate being alive.”

  He had an excellent point. The part of his speech about taking nothing for granted cut me a little. It was like he was telling me to appreciate his love because in the blink of an eye everything could change. People could die and shatter lives at any moment. I was afraid to admit he was correct. I didn’t want to picture a world that we weren’t both in. Instead I cracked an asinine joke.

  “That, or we could hit the casinos. With Lady Luck on our side, I’m sure we’ll win some money at the poker or black jack tables. Could even take our chances at the roulette wheel or craps.” I rambled on due to nervousness. The subject I picked was atrocious, and I knew it.

  Jason got up, looking around the restaurant. For a moment I wondered if he was trying to locate the exit to ditch my sorry ass.

  “Jason, I’m—”

  He pressed his finger to my lips. “No, it’s fine. I know it’s the alcohol talking and not you. I’m going to get you a glass of water.”

  All I could do was watch Jason fade into the bar’s crowd. The place became popular during the happy hour, or hours. I never understood why happy hour lasted hours, yet was called happy hour instead of happy hours. Perhaps I was more wasted than I thought.

  The lights were too bright. My leather seat was too clingy. A headache pounded between my eyes from the raunchy music. What I needed was to go home and fade away into dreamland. What I wanted was an escape from the pains of everyday life. I didn’t think I was scared to die until today. I feared death when that gunman entered the library, but it was more about how I’d die. It didn’t sound pleasant to bleed to death from a gunshot, but to die in Jason’s arms, I could deal with that.

  For a moment in time, I wondered if my father witnessed the situation today. In life, he never showed how much he loved me. He’d only said the words, but actions speak louder. Could he be watching over me as some kind of guardian angel? I laughed the thought away. Of course he wasn’t.

  Jason sat back down, setting a glass of water in front of me. “Sip this, it will help.”

  I nodded, doing as he said. The water helped my throat, but it did nothing for my headache.

  Jason watched me over his glass of beer. “Better?”

  I gave him a smile. “A little.”

  He moved next to me and patted his left shoulder. “Lay down and rest for a bit.”

  “O-kay,” I drawled, giving in and falling asleep on him despite the noise.

  Sometime later, Jason sneezed and woke me up. I blinked my eyes and took in the chaos of people dancing with drinks in the air. “How long was I out?”

  He put his phone down on the table. “About twenty minutes. You feel okay?”

  My head hurt, but the drinks weren’t messing with me so much anymore. “Yeah.”

  “Do you want to go? I’m not sure where. The police are still all over campus. They might not let us in.”

  I licked salt from my lips from one too many drinks. “It will be fine. Hundreds of students live there.” I drummed my fingers on the table and added, “Didn’t you say he’s a former student? So it’s not like they need to search for his dorm.”

  “Let me see if there’s more info,” he told me, picking up his phone again.

  A couple giggled in the corner of the bar as the guy ran his hand down her neck. She leaned into him, eyes on her man. I used to mock girls like that, and now I was one of those kinds of girls. It was nice to have someone there who cared about me and loved me for who I am.

  “Says the gunman was George Franks. He’s twenty-six and has a crimina
l past with drugs and assault. He assaulted someone with a deadly weapon.”

  “Damn, why was he out?” I asked, running my fingers over the dew on my glass of ice water.

  “Who knows? But there’s another story saying classes are cancelled but the campus remains open, including the dorms.” He glanced up at me. “You wanna head back?”

  “Sure, but I have a feeling we’re going to get hounded by the media.” I sighed, taking one last sip of water.

  I stood and ran my hand down my shirt, fixing the wrinkles. Jason threw down some money. As we moved to leave, he grabbed a piece of my hair, twirling it around his fingers. “I’m glad you’re safe,” he breathed against my lips. He pulled on my hair a little tighter, forcing my head to tilt. He moved his mouth down to my exposed throat and nibbled.

  My breath hitched. I had to bite my lip to keep from moaning. His chest brushed mine, making my nipples buzz. They wished for the attention of his beautiful lips too. He ran his tongue along my left collarbone, and the coil in my stomach came undone. My panties were soaked, and I was ready to take him into the bathroom so he could satisfy the pain building down south.

  “Amelia is at the downtown campus. Let’s go see about a bed,” I murmured, dragging my nails down his back.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Campus was turned into a war zone. There was still tape around the library and police wandered the grounds. I wasn’t sure if they were looking for more clues or wanted to make the rest of us feel safe with their presence. In reality, seeing half the police department in one place made me nervous. At least the police cars had dwindled. The fire trucks and ambulances were long gone.