“Obviously it’s something.”
I felt my cheeks turning red, even though I had nothing to be embarrassed about.
“It’s just a note. From a friend.” I shrugged and tried to be all nonchalant.
“A guy friend?” She looked at me with new interest. “You’re here for one day and you already have a guy? Did you know him before you came?”
“No. I mean, I don’t have a guy.” I shook my head. Talking to Rachel was like talking to a tornado.
There was the sound of feet shuffling outside the door, and Rachel’s eyes lit up.
“That might be him!”
She sounded pleased at the idea, and an irrational wave of jealousy flooded through my body. I wanted it to be Justin. But I didn’t want him meeting Rachel.
It wasn’t Justin, though.
It was Dennis, the RA who had confronted us last night in my room.
“Oh,” he said, surprised. “Hi. I didn’t think you’d be awake. I was going to slide this under your door.” He waved a paper around.
“Yeah, join the club,” Rachel said. She leaned against the door and gave Dennis a knowing smile.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” he asked.
“I’m Rachel Flowers.” Apparently the whole Lola thing was over.
“Oh! I’m Dennis, the RA.”
“Oh.” Rachel turned around and headed for the other side of the room. Now that she knew Dennis was just the RA, she was bored with him.
“Anyway, Lindsay, I came to have you sign this.” He held out an official looking form. “It’s for the incident that happened here last night.”
“What incident?” Rachel asked, interested again.
“It was nothing.” I took the paper from Dennis and looked it over. It basically said that I was in violation of rule 11.3 of the student handbook, and that all guests had to sign in. There was a place for me to sign the paper, acknowledging that I’d had the rule explained to me.
“It was certainly something,” Dennis said. “You can’t have hooligans just running around the building, Lindsay.”
“What hooligan?” Rachel was excited. “Is this the guy? JB?”
“JB?” Dennis spit. “That’s his name?” He shook his head. “Sounds like a thug.”
“He’s a thug?” Rachel was practically salivating for the details.
“No, he’s not a thug.” I picked up a pen from the cup on my desk and signed the paper. I just wanted Dennis to get out of there.
“Yes, he was,” Dennis said. He folded the paper neatly into thirds. “And I need to let you know that if you violate the rule again, there will be stricter consequences.” He sighed and shook his head. “I know that the freedom of college can seem overwhelming at times. But we have to be careful to make wise decisions, especially when it comes to the company we keep.”
He squeezed my shoulder, like I was some kind of infant who didn’t know anything. Then he turned around and left.
“Wow,” Rachel said, looking at me in awe. She shook her head. “You’re kind of a badass. I never would have expected that.” She wrinkled up her lips, thinking about it.
“Especially not from a Lindsay.”
JUSTIN
Landscaping wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, not this day, not ever. But I had no choice. Until I started making some decent money fighting, this was the best job with the most flexible hours.
I was sweating, my shirt soaked through, as I hefted the last barrel of cut grass and dumped it into the back of the pickup truck. Edwin, sitting in the driver’s seat, gave me the thumbs up sign. I threw the empty barrel into the back and then hopped in the passenger side.
“You want me to drop you off at the gym?” Edwin said, as he put the truck in gear and started driving.
“Yeah.” I checked my cell. My meeting with my trainer was supposed to happen in about ten minutes, so no matter what, I was going to be late. I contemplated calling or texting him just to let him know, and decided against it. He would be annoyed no matter what I said. Late is late, as far as he was concerned.
We started driving towards the gym. Traffic in Brookline was bad, so it was going to take us awhile to get to Kenmore Square. Meanwhile, little blades of grass were flying off the back of the truck as we drove. Neither Edwin nor I cared much. I kind of hoped that maybe the grass would fly back and stain some of the rich people’s cars.
“I could sure use another coffee,” I said.
“You trying to get your coach pissed or something?”
“Fuck him.” I was in no mood for anyone’s shit today. I’d woken up on the wrong side of the bed, remembering how last night with Lindsay had seemed like it was going well and then suddenly things had just flipped and ended in the worst way.
I didn’t really believe my little note was going to make her feel any better about it, either. She’d probably thrown it in the trash without a second thought.
“I wouldn’t want to spar with you today,” Edwin laughed.
“I can’t spar until this cut heals,” I told him, absentmindedly touching the stitches above my eye.