Page 5

Five

T exts all day every day. Evening chats over coffee until the café closed. Walks around campus, her fingers entwined with his. Jeremy always felt warm as a fever.

He treated her to a few dinners at the mall food court one town over. He wanted to take her somewhere fancy, but for the moment Lucy said no to that. He was a twenty-one-year-old student who worked part-time behind the counter of a gas station. That he was broke went without saying, though the age of his pickup truck came out and said it. Food court tacos made for a satisfying meal as long as he was eating them too, his big hands able to hold a shell together with ease, his eyes sparkling blue when he teased her and deep blue when he listened.

Five weeks passed like five days. On Thursdays they both finished their last class by 4:00, and soon it was habit to walk over to the science building and wait for him to exit his Earth Science elective. Why the man was so into identifying rocks and knowing how they were formed, Lucy couldn’t figure out. She’d asked if he collected rocks as a kid or something.

“Nah, I just saw it on the class list and thought it looked cool.”

She paced the sidewalk a few minutes, then stood still when his class poured out the propped-open door. No Jeremy. Weird.

One of the last to leave was her old roommate, and she hurried over. “Hey, Jodi, was Jeremy in class?”

“Nope,” Jodi said with a shrug. “Whenever you see him, let him know there was a pop quiz. First time he’s ditched.”

That felt…off. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Did you hear about the excitement earlier?”

“Um, no?”

“Oh. I was hoping you could fill in the details for me…. I guess somebody got cut on some broken glass in A and P. Had to get stitches. No clue who or how. I mean, what glass? How did it break?”

“Sorry, I couldn’t tell you.” And didn’t really care right now. The mystery she wanted solved was where her maybe-boyfriend had skipped off to. She pulled out her phone to text him.

Before she could, Jodi said, “How’ve you been at your new place?”

“Really good.”

“I’m glad.” Her smile warmed her eyes, sincere in a way a lot of Lucy’s female classmates hadn’t been when they wished her well on her departure from the dorm.

A deep breath filled Lucy, and then words poured out. “It wasn’t you. You were a great roommate. I just needed somewhere new, somewhere Liam hadn’t ever been. I should’ve told you this months ago, and instead every time I run into you I’ve just been trying to look fine and be fine, and…and I’m sorry.”

Jodi walked right up and hugged her. Lucy dropped her book bag and returned the hug.

“That guy took you for granted, Luce,” Jodi said. “I’m glad you dumped his entitled butt. I miss you like crazy, but I get it.”

They stepped apart. Lucy blinked away a few tears. “You knew why I moved out?”

“Well.” Jodi shrugged. “I wasn’t totally sure. I knew he was the main problem. Vampires, right? Thinking they’re too gorgeous for us mortals. But I always wanted to ask if I’d maybe done something to make it all worse, like…if maybe I was the last straw.”

“You didn’t do anything. Not anything. Look, will you come over to my new place? We could make pizzas and catch up.”

They made a date for that coming Wednesday, then hugged again.

“Thanks for not being mad,” Lucy said.

“I was never mad. A little sad, but I’m not anymore. And I can’t wait to see your very own studio apartment.”

“All thanks to the parents.” She gave a little laugh. “Couldn’t manage it alone right now.”

“I hear that.”

Jodi nodded at Lucy’s phone, dormant in her hand for the last several minutes, and grinned. “I guess you’re itching to find out why Jeremy ditched. Go ahead. I’ll see you Wednesday if not before. And hey, I want all the details on this guy while we fix dinner.”

“For sure.” A blush seeped into her cheeks. “He’s…well, he’s sort of great.”

“He must be. Remember when we were packing up your design stuff—your portfolio and your pencils and everything—and you were like, ‘men are so overrated’?”

“Um, I might have been a little unfair, broad-brushing every single male on the planet.”

“You might have.” Jodi cocked an eyebrow as though it were equally possible Lucy hadn’t been unfair at all.

Lucy laughed. “Jeremy’s not overrated. Details to come.”

As Jodi strolled away a few minutes later, Lucy began typing a text message.

Hey, you weren’t in class. Anything wrong?

A distant blast of a French horn. That was Jeremy’s text notification, unique and unmistakable. He’d been here and dropped his phone? Where was it? How had he not noticed? She headed in the direction she thought it had come from, around the back of the science building. She tapped out another message.

Testing.

The sound came again. Nearer, maybe. And then there was another sound. A gulping, whimpering sound, and then…a sort-of canine whine. Lucy scanned the back of the science building, the ground at the base of the building, and texted the same word again as she headed toward the inclined sidewalk. The notification sound was close now. As was that strange faint whining.

He sat against a tree wearing a yellow T-shirt and jeans, his arms around his knees, about thirty feet from the walkway. His head was bowed, but those hulking shoulders made him easily distinguished from any other male on campus. Lucy’s pulse sped up. She sprinted to him and dropped to her knees in front of him.

“Jeremy? What happened? Are you hurt? Are you sick?”

Another little whine came…from him. She set her hand on his arm, and he looked up at her, his eyes glassy.

“Lucy,” he whispered.

“Hey, I’m here. Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

“I can’t get—get away from the—the scent, it’s so—so much—so much blood.”

The choppy echo in his speech sent her adrenaline up another notch. Must be a panic attack. She drew a deep breath and smelled nothing but sweet blossoms in the flower beds across the way. And him, gamey with notes of sage and sweat.

“I don’t smell blood.” She rubbed his arm, took his hand in hers.

“I can’t—I can’t—I can’t get away from it—and no peppermint.”

“Um, what?” She shook her head. “Never mind. Let’s stand up and walk away from the science building, in case somehow you’re actually smelling blood from when somebody got cut earlier.”

“Got—got cut?”

He turned gray. She’d said the wrong thing. Shoot, if he passed out, she’d have to leave him to get help. She had to calm him somehow.

She scooted closer and wrapped him in her arms. “Can we stand up and go for a walk? Can you do that?”

“Is the person—is okay—that got cut?”

“Yes. Completely. Just a little scratch. Come on, babe.”

She helped him up, no small feat of balance and lifting with her legs. Jeremy Freeman was a colossus of solid muscle. He shuddered as he leaned on her. Once they were upright, she took a portion of his weight. She shepherded him to the sidewalk, then set out toward the assembly hall and the campus commuter lot.

The farther they shuffled from the science building, the deeper his breaths became. At last he stopped walking, blinked a few times, and stepped back from her support.

“I’m okay,” he said.

A long sigh left her. Now that he no longer trembled, her own knees weakened. She sat down in the grass next to the walkway, and he joined her.

“You okay?” he said.

“Yeah, just…I was worried for you.”

“Sorry you saw that.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Wow, this sucks. No one was supposed to see it, much less…”

“Much less me?”

His words were like a pin poking her chest. Maybe the closeness she felt budding between them was all in her head. Maybe Jeremy was one of those serial daters who kept a girl no longer than one semester. That’s not how they felt together, not at all, and she wasn’t usually so far off at reading people.…

He was nodding though.

“Oh,” she said. “Well…why? Because we’re just casual?”

Two candles snuffed in his eyes. He looked down. “I guess so.”

“So we’re casual?”

A glance up as his brows crinkled together. “You just said we are.”

“I said it because that’s what I thought you were trying to say.”

“Wait, what?”

She couldn’t have both conversations at the same time, and he’d just come out of some kind of phobic something. That had to take precedence. “You said you needed to get away from the scent of blood.”

Jeremy covered his face. “I can’t believe you saw that.”

Right. Back to where they’d started. “So you’re afraid of blood? Like a fear of heights or water?”

“Why don’t we just…pretend you didn’t see it.”

“What? Absolutely not.”

He gave a long loud sigh and kept his hands over his face for a minute. Then he lowered them and met her eyes. His mouth was pressed into a grimace. “Okay…um…yeah. Like a fear of heights. Except blood. The sight of it and the scent of it.”

“You must have an unbelievable sense of smell.”

“I do.”

She mulled as she studied him. Despite his height and build and typically unfazed attitude, he wasn’t invincible. She knew that, of course, but he made it easy to forget. He did seem okay now, though, only tired.

“What did you mean about peppermint?”

“Oh…um…one of the things that helps is smearing diluted peppermint oil under my nose. To overpower the other scent.”

That made sense. But wow, his sense of smell must be several levels beyond unbelievable . Something familiar, forgotten tugged at her brain. Something she might know but couldn’t catch at the moment. It must have shaken her more than she knew, seeing her brawny blue-eyed maybe-boyfriend frozen in panic, hearing him whine like a puppy.

Weird. She almost had hold of the nebulous knowledge in her head. Then it slipped away again.

Never mind. This moment mattered more—Jeremy breathing easily now, standing and helping her up.

“Thanks, Lucy.”

“I didn’t do much, but I’m glad I found you.”

“Me too, I guess.” He shook his head. Maybe not so glad. “Dinner?”

She checked her phone. Not five yet, but she could eat early. “Sure.”

He bumped her arm with his. “I’m fine now, really.”

“Okay.” But were they fine? Were they casual? Were they anything?