Chapter 23
I finish the last problem on the Calculus quiz with confidence. Professor Hill likes to save the fun for the end of the class. However, as I pack up my bag and slip on a jacket, my nervousness about my grade sets in. The professor will hand back last week’s test when I hand in the quiz. Tests are worth fifty percent of our grade. If I didn’t do well, my college career will start out in a slump. Taking a deep breath of courage in, I march past the last two people still quizzing and plop my quiz on the pile with the others.
Professor Hill looks at me through thick glasses. “Riley Middleton, right?” he asks lowly. After my nod, he shuffles through the papers and hands me the test.
“Thanks,” I mutter, turning away and lifting the stapled mass of paper up. The score on the top has me rushing into the hall to find Romeo.
He waits near the door to the outside entrance. Unsurprisingly, two girls are talking to him. As I get closer, I am surprised when one of them turns her head in a giggle. Kendra obviously is still hoping for a fuck fest. Ah yeah, over my dead body.
I shake my head at Romeo as he tries to break away from his stalkers.
He seems to get my point because he stays put. Yet when I pass, he yells out, “Hey Riley, you said you’d give me a ride to…the mall.”
To the mall? That was lame. I stop and force a confused look. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” That was even lamer. In fact, this whole secret thing is lame every time it comes up.
Kendra turns toward me. “Hey Riley.” Her wide eyes make a gesturing roll at Romeo. “We should meet you at the mall.”
My hand tightens on the strap of my bag. “Ah…”
Romeo steps between the two girls. “We should, but we’ll have to do it another time. We have a… quick band errand to run.”
Kendra visibly deflates. Her tall, pretty friend, who I‘ve never met, stares at Romeo as he sides up to me.
We step away and Kendra yells, “Call me later, Riley.”
I quickly slip out the doors to cut off a possible answer.
A few steps into the brisk wind of the day, I glance at Romeo as we walk along the sidewalk that leads to the parking lot. “She asked you about a girlfriend didn’t she? And you told her you didn’t have one.”
His head snaps up. “I thought we were hush, hush.”
“She was asking about April.” That he thinks I’m referring to me is a bit scary.
“You told her I was dating April?” he asks as his winged brows meet.
“I thought you were when she didn’t understand your flirting then quick departure.”
He nods slowly. “Guess I do need to tone it down.”
I give him a look. There is no way in hell I’m going to watch girls hang all over him now.
“Like to an almost non-existent level.”
“Ah, I knew you were smart.” Stopping at the curb, I lift my test up. “Look at this.”
“A ninety,” he says with a lopsided grin that threatens to steal my breath. “I think I deserve a kiss for that.”
I grin back. “I think you do too. But not here.”
His eyes roams over me slowly. Slow enough that I can feel the heat of his gaze in the brisk wind. “We should celebrate.”
“Thought you had work.”
“I have two training sessions tonight but not until seven.”
The temptation wanes as I think of the time. “I have to pick up my sister.” My mother usually picks Jamie up on Monday’s since it’s her other day off, but today she has a counseling appointment at the Child and Family Center. I had to nag and beg, but she finally made the appointment.
“We could pick her up and take her with us. You’d just have to bring me back by six thirty.”
Temptation becomes sweet reality. “Okay, but we’re not going to the mall.”
“How about pizza at your house?”
I grin at him. “Pizza and my house would be perfect.”
On the way to pick up my sister, about two miles from the university, Romeo reaches across me at a four way stop and puts the car into park. Confused, I turn to him.
He grins. “Time for my tutoring reward.”
I’m grinning too. At least for a quick second.
He wraps a hand around the back of my neck. Strong fingers press me closer. His lips first suck on mine then he sweeps his tongue in for a thorough kiss.
A horn sounds behind us but his kiss has me prisoner.
He lets me go.
The horn blares again.
My eyes flutter open and stare into those nearly ebony eyes. “That was nice.” I touch my lips. “As in sizzling.”
He sits back, a smug expression on his face. “Maybe you should drive.”
I shift the car out of park.
The person behind us holds the horn down.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m driving,” I say and wave behind me.
On the rest of the way to my sister’s school, he looks through my iPod and randomly makes comments about drummers and their limited song choices. All loud banging and fast beats. And here I thought my music selection was eclectic.
We wait for Jamie until the long line in front of the sprawling elementary school is reduced to a handful of cars. Since she usually comes out with the first wave of students, her absence has me worried.
Romeo waits in the driver’s side while I go into the school. The halls are nearly empty and she’s not at her locker. Her classroom’s empty of students too but when her teacher sees me she smiles. “I figured you’d show up, Riley.” Every time I come to school I like Mrs. Hess more. She wowed me with her politeness at the open house—my mother couldn’t attend—but right now she’s confusing me.
She reaches for a stack of papers and books on her desk. “Here’s the work. Depending on how she’s feeling, she may not be able to get all of it done. Math and reading are the most important.”
I meet her half-way across the room and take the pile. “Jamie didn’t come to school today?”
She shakes her head. “Your mother must have called. The computer had her marked as an illness.”
“Oh,” I simply say because Jamie was watching TV and bouncing around the living room when I left this morning. I tighten my grip on the stack of books. “Okay, I’ll make sure she gets most of it done.”
In the hallway, I’m on the phone with my mother in seconds. Her sigh is loud and irritating, as I demand to know why Jamie didn’t go to school.
“I overslept, alright.”
“Why didn’t you bring her in late at least?” I ask, exiting the building.
“I only get one day off with her, Riley.”
There’s a long pause between us. I never missed school unless I was extremely sick—like deathbed sick. My mother drilled the importance of attendance into me for thirteen years—six of which I received an award for perfect attendance. But my mother’s newfound irresponsibility isn’t the biggest issue. “So you missed your counseling appointment.”
She sighs again. “I can reschedule.”
I wander to the lawn on the edge of the sidewalk and kick leaves. “So you haven’t yet. What exactly did you do all day?”
“I think you’re forgetting who the parent is.”
“Well it’s kind of easy when you don’t act like one,” I snap.
She hangs up on me.
I get in the passenger seat, toss Jamie’s books, and my phone in the backseat.
One look at my furious expression has Romeo saying, “I’m guessing the celebration has been canceled.”
I yank at the seatbelt.
His fingers turn the ignition. “And I’m guessing I’ll be driving back to the dorms.”
The seat belt buckle snaps loudly into place. “I don’t know who my mother is anymore.”
He glances at me with a sad look but stays silent and drives.
I sink down in my seat and push my tennis shoes against the glove box. “I used to wake up to bacon and pancakes. Now she doesn’t get up. Holiday’s used to inspire a decorating frenzy. For Halloween, she put one plastic pumpkin on the coffee table this year. Until I was in high school, she went over my homework with a fine toothed comb. Now she’s letting Jamie stay home on a whim.”
Romeo keeps his gaze on the road but his mouth turns down. “Things like divorce or the death of a loved one are stressful and can change people, Riley. Is your mom going to counseling yet?”
My fingers rub my temples as I shake my head. “She was supposed to go today, but the not big effing surprise is that she didn’t. I knew she’d find a way to weasel out of it.”
“Sounds like she’s afraid to go.”
“No shit.”
“You need to be patient with her.”
“I am but for how long? How long does Jamie have to live with half or less of a mother?”
He gives me a pained glance before turning onto the highway.
“And I’m not her. I’m not Jamie’s mother. I try to do what I can for both of them. But it’s obviously not working! Everything is just getting worse!”
Suddenly, Romeo pulls off to the side of the road. He reaches for me and I fall into the warmth of his body with a shudder. Even with the console between us and the sound of cars whizzing by, I’m encased in tranquility. I breathe in his clean scent, press my face farther into his chest, and tighten my hold on his back. The world stops spinning as I let his embrace strengthen me. The highway disappears and there’s nothing but Romeo and me.
Sometime later, the earth rotates again when Romeo pulls a few inches away and tilts my chin up with a finger. “Better?”
I nod and fall back against the seat. He finds a song with a somewhat slower drum beat before merging back on the highway. My fingers play the song on the dashboard as he drives to the dorm. He rolls his eyes at my playing, but it calms me.
Romeo doesn’t turn off the car when we pull in front of us building. He watches a few students coming and going before turning. “Will you call me if you need to talk?”
I nod slowly.
With his grip on the door handle, he asks, “You’re coming to practice tomorrow?”
I reach for the passenger handle. “Of course, playing keep me sane.”
He smiles weakly and shakes his head. “And people say I’m obsessed. Can we do something after?”
At the thought of being alone with him, I can’t help a wide smile. “Yes. I’d like that.”