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19
People are starting to leave the stadium, rowdy from the win. Mollie and Lauren have plans to meet up with Mollie’s brother, who’s visiting with some friends for the weekend. They’re here somewhere, down in the stands.
“Come with us.” Mollie’s eyes are bright. “We’re going into town to get some dinner.”
“We would but we already have plans,” Isla tells them. “But we’ll see you back at the dorm later on.”
“What plans do we have?” But my question is drowned out by the noise of the crowd and Mollie’s distraction as she answers a call from her brother. They hug us, then disappear into the massive crowd.
I let Isla lead me down the steps toward the back entrance of the stadium. “What plans do we have tonight, roomie, and why are you being so cagey about it?”
Her smirk is just a little bit guilty. “It’s a surprise.”
We’re shuffled through the crowd, which is noisy and pushy, so it’s a few minutes before I can question her. “What kind of surprise?”
“I’m not allowed to tell you. You’ll just have to wait and see.”
We’re out the door now and I can guess what she’s up to. “Isla—”
“Here it is. This must be our car.”
There’s a nondescript black sedan with tinted windows waiting by the curb. It looks like the kind of car people get kidnapped in, except that the guy leaning against it, waiting for us, is a fully decked-out Wildcats fan. Maybe a senior or a grad student. “Are you Isla?” he asks.
“Yes.”
He opens the back door for us and Isla slides into the back seat, pulling me along with her.
“What is this, some kind of heist or something?” I’m confused. “Have we joined the mafia?”
“Not exactly.”
“Where are we going?”
Our driver closes the door. There’s a tinted window between the back and front seats so we can’t see him as he gets into the driver’s seat, but it’s only moments before we’re pulling away from the curb, slowly making our way through the traffic. The radio is turned up in the front seat, blaring football commentary, but the sound is muted back here.
“I want you to know this wasn’t my idea,” Isla tells me. “They really felt like the two of you need to talk.”
“They? Who’s they?”
“Gabriel and Jake. And West. They wanted to make sure you got delivered to the back door, so no one knows about it and there’s no hassle.”
“So this is about Elias.” I’ve kind of figured that out by now.
“Of course it’s about Elias. He knew you wouldn’t come unless we roped you into it.”
“We? You’re in on this?”
“I’m sorry. But they were very convincing, Zara. He’s going crazy. He tried to scale the walls of our dorm last night. They got to him before security arrived, but it was a close call. They had to take shifts last night keeping an eye on him so he wouldn’t leave the house without them knowing about it.”
“It’s a bad idea.”
She eyes me and I appreciate that she’s genuine with her question. “You really don’t want to see him?”
“I mean, of course I want to. But I can’t, Isla. It’s…” It’s hard to explain.
“You two can just talk to each other and maybe it’ll help him calm down a little. That’s what they’re hoping.”
It’s very unlikely Elias and I can just calmly talk to each other. I vividly remember how entirely…irresistible he is. How his crazy man-effect turned me from a shy, reclusive virgin into the kind of girl who thinks she knows how to…swallow. We went from zero to sixty so fast it made my head spin. In fact it’s still spinning.
