Chapter 11

 

Spencer

 

“Alright, that takes care of the east side of campus,” I said, dusting my hands off before climbing down the ladder.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead, and squinted as the sun hit my eyes. I asked Elliot to pick up my schedule earlier but he hasn’t sent me a text about it yet.

I packed the empty boxes of cameras back into my backpack before anyone noticed. I didn’t want to have to think up some bogus explanation on the off-chance someone comes by and sees them.

The hairs on the back of my head stood up as I heard footsteps approaching, and I quickly folded up the ladder and stashed it behind the nearby bushes. I slung my bag around my shoulders and turned to look towards the noise, when I saw Tyler come around the corner and waived.

I raised one eyebrow at him in acknowledgment, my distrust in him having intensified due from what happened to George and his ‘friend’.

“Hey, Spencer. What’s up?” he asked, putting his hands inside his pockets.

“What do you want?” I asked snidely. I didn’t have time for making small talk.

“I just wanted to tell you that Ross has been kicked out of our fraternity,” he said morosely. I straightened up, listening now. “What he did to your girl was unacceptable, and I came here to tell you I’m going to give my own accounts to the Dean to make sure Ross gets what he deserves.”

I blinked multiple times in disbelief while he kept his head down, refusing to look me in the eye. Finally, I spoke.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said, and he looked up with a determined and severe visage.

“No, I had to,” he insisted. “What he did was disgusting, and not to mention despicable. It broke the very foundation of our fraternity, and someone like him would’ve become the poison that tears the brotherhood apart.”

I didn’t have any words to say to that, so I just nodded. Tyler sighed.

“I just feel really bad about what happened to your girl, man. I can’t help but feel responsible for it, as Ross was a member of my fraternity,” I interrupted him with both hands raised and my eyes wide as tennis balls.

“Hey, hey, hey. Hold up, man. What are you talking about?” I asked. “Who’s my girl?”

“That girl Ross drugged. The one with a guy’s name,” Tyler answered.

“What the fuck? Dude, she’s not my girl, man!” I cried. “She’s not my anything!”

“But I saw you take her home, and you beat the shit out of Ross, too,” he said, furrowing his brows in confusion.

“Yeah, but that didn’t mean anything, dude,” I said, shaking my head adamantly. “I just carried her home because she fainted. No big deal,” I said.

He looked at me sideways with an amused smirk, obvious he was thinking about something else.

“What?” I asked, a little paranoid.

“Funny,” he said. “It kind of sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself more than me,” he observed.

“You’re insane,” I told him. He really was. 100% certifiable.

“Anyways, I just came to tell you that, and if you need our help, PGA’s got your back,” Tyler said, nodding.

“Uh, yeah. Thanks, Tyler,” I replied.

He gave me a two-fingered salute before walking away, and I just stood there staring after him like an idiot. Huh. I guess Tyler was a nice bloke, after all.

My heart was beating so fast that I felt like I had just run a marathon. I placed my hand on top of my chest, right above my heart, as I took a deep breath and expelled slowly so I could calm down.

“I thought I might find you here,” I jumped at the sound of George’s voice before I turned around.

She looked a little different today, and I couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason why. Her clothes were simple enough, a white t-shirt paired with a black vest and pleated black skirt, her legs covered up by long black stockings and clad in black doll shoes, making her look like a fancy school girl. Her red hair was combed down her back and clipped at the side, showing off her ear. The sun was also hitting her in just the right angle to make her skin look radiant.

She was a vision in black and white, and the sight of her sent my heart into overtime.

“Earth to Spence,” she said, waving her hand in front of my face. Damn, even the way she says my nickname sends shockwaves straight to my groin. “Are you alright?” she asked.

“Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, snapping out of it.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you’ve been gawking at me for five minutes without saying a word?” she said.

I scowled and walked back towards campus, not bothering to check if she was following me, because I already knew. My stomach growled painfully, making me realize I had gotten up at the break of dawn to install these cameras, and still hadn’t eaten breakfast. George must’ve heard my stomach’s cry of hunger because she sidled up next to me and smiled.

“I’m starving. Want to have breakfast?” she asked. I raised an eyebrow at her.

“How do you know I haven’t eaten yet?” I asked back. “Are you stalking me?” I teased. She gaped at me in outrage.

“I most certainly did not!” she cried. “And if you had eaten anything, then your tummy wouldn’t have made a sound.”

“I could have had a light meal,” I told her.

“Are you going to accept my offer or not?” she asked, her eyebrows scrunched together as she stomped her foot impatiently.

I looked over at the lake, thinking it over. Breakfast sounded nice, but for some reason, I wanted to do something more than just eat together. But what else could we do on campus?

A wooden boat—or was it a gondola?—caught my eye and I smirked, an idea forming in my head. I turned around and she stared at me curiously.

“Why don’t we go order some takeout and do something else?”

 

***

 

“Oh my God, I didn’t know there were gondola rides here on campus!” George shrieked excitedly. She was clapping her hands in earnest, her toes tapping on the floor while I handled the oars.

We decided on buying some sandwiches from Subway before coming back towards the lake where the boats are. She almost had a mental breakdown when I kept pushing her to ride one of the boats, asking whether she was going to survive if she fell in. Thank God she was able to calm down once she was seated, although she could’ve been more helpful and help me row the boat. Sheesh.

She leaned over to the side of the gondola so she could wade her hand into the water, making me grimace in disgust. The water could very well be unsanitary, and I had half a mind to tell her so when she sighed happily and spoke.

“You know, I’ve experienced more in just two days of college than I ever did in my whole life,” she stated. I scoffed.

“That can’t be,” I told her. She widened her eyes and shook her head.

“No, it’s true!” she cried. “I’ve lived under my parents’ roof and never, not once, have they ever had me try something fun if it involved leaving the house.”

“Why? That’s kind of a peculiar thing for them to do,” I replied. “Were you sickly when you were little? Maybe they were worried you’d get sick or exhaust yourself, or something,”

“Nope! My brother said I was healthy as a horse.” She sighed again, only this time, the sound wasn’t of an excited young woman, but more like a a bird with its wings plucked off.

“I’ve tried to ask them why they went to the extremes of sheltering me, keeping me locked up at home, but they never gave me a straight answer. I wish I knew so I could understand, and so that I wouldn’t feel they were horrible parents, but I do.”

Her shoulders slumped, and her eyes downcast, lost in thought and looking utterly defeated. I had hoped to use this opportunity to get to know George better, and I didn’t realize she was a girl who carried such heavy amounts of emotional baggage.

“Your sandwich is getting cold,” I said, hoping to sway the conversation somewhere simpler. She smiled apologetically, almost like she knew what I was thinking about, but she chose to pick up her sandwich and begin to unwrap it.

“You know, you shouldn’t get too mad at your parents for trying to lock you up in the house,” he said. She took a bite out of her food and looked at me curiously. “I’m just saying. Parents don’t do things without any reason. Maybe it’s something scarier or traumatizing than you realize, for you and for them, so they couldn’t bring it upon themselves to tell you,” I explained.

“You might be right,” she murmured, staring off into space again.

“I’m always right,” I teased her. She rolled her eyes and suddenly stood up on the boat, startling me as she began to wobble. “Hey, what are you—you’re going to fall over!” I yelled.

Her eyes were wide as she waved her hands wildly, trying to find her balance in an increasingly precarious gondola. I stood up and pulled her down, spinning around at the last moment so that I would hit the wood instead of her. Pain shot through my back as soon as I banged on the uneven floor but all of my focus was on the girl on top of me, her eyes squeezed shut, and her fingers clutching at my shirt like a lifeline.

We stayed there staring into each other’s eyes, not saying a word. I couldn’t take my eyes away. Time passed by, and what was really just a few seconds felt like a lifetime. My heart was beating loudly in my chest, crashing against my ribcage with an almost painful force.

She snapped back into her senses first, blinking her eyes rapidly, and then pushing herself off of me. I winced as I planted my elbows on the wooden planks and raised myself up.

“One of these days, I’m going to have to charge you for saving your life,” I said, half-serious. I was truly contemplating whether this girl had some sort of Death Mark on her, or something else from the number of times I’ve had to save her so far.

“W-What are you talking about?” she scoffed, looking anywhere but at me.

“Seriously, I think you’re in some Final Destination type of shit,” I joked, and she rolled her eyes at me again.

“One moment you’re decent, and the next you’re kind of a jerk,” she said, making me chuckle. “Which one is the real you, really?” she asked, but her innocent question sobered me up more than it should.

Why was I doing this? She’s just another job, and my job doesn’t require pretending to be her friend. What she asked had no correct answer, because neither one of them are the real me.

And she was never going to find out.