Maddison’s school felt different… colder, cleaner.
The halls were lit only by emergency strips, casting long shadows like something out of a horror film. I counted doors—201… 203… 205… 207. Keene, A.
I fished a credit card from my back pocket. Two tries. Click.
Rows of desks stretched like a battlefield. The overhead projector cord dangled like a noose.
Maddison’s folder went on the corner of the desk, top of the stack labeled FINAL PROJECTS.
And then I heard it.
Footsteps in the hall. Heavy. Uneven. The janitor.
I ducked behind the teacher’s desk, heart pounding like a bass drum. The door creaked open. A flashlight beam swept across the desks and lingered on the submission pile.
Keys jingled. Shoes squeaked. For a full ten seconds, he just stood there.
I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
Finally, the light snapped off. The door clicked shut.
I waited five more seconds before bolting and sprinting out the way I’d come in and toward the parking lot.
I yanked open the car door.
Maddison jolted in her seat. “Success?”
“Top of the pile,” I said, lungs burning.
She squealed, launched over the console, and kissed me like I’d just saved the world. “Drive.”
Drive we did. Trees blurred as we passed.
The windows fogged up from her breath and the rush of it all.
“Pull over.”
I eased onto a gravel shoulder overlooking the river, headlights catching the silver ripples. Before I could shift to park, she climbed into my lap, knees on either side of me.
She smelled like lilac shampoo; she tasted like addiction.
“I love you, Nathan,” she whispered like a sacred vow.
I froze for half a beat. Then looked her in the eyes.
“I love you too,” I said quietly. “I’d break into a thousand schools for you.”
She smiled. And then she kissed me again, slow, certain, and infinite. Clothes came off, kisses became more urgent until nothing separated us, until it was just her skin and mine. For one brief moment, it felt like the universe would give us a chance, like we were winning together.
It was over too soon.
Breath ragged, sweat cooling against my skin, Maddison tucked herself against me, her tangled mess of hair tickling my chest. The world no longer existed. Just fogged windows and reckless abandonment.
I reached for my jeans when a sudden glow cut through the glass.
My head snapped toward the rearview mirror. Police lights flooded the car, slicing through the dark and spilling over Maddison’s startled face.
“Shit,” I whispered, heart slamming.
