Page 43 of Campus Heat

“Tell me you have yours,” I said hopefully.

She held up her empty hands and gave me a disappointed look. Damn… that made two of us.

I let out a short, sharp laugh. “Unbelievable.”

“Okay,” Elizabeth said, and I could basically see the gears turning in her head. “Every company has a phone. This gas station will be no different. All we’ve got to do is call someone and tell them what happened.”

“Great plan,” I said sarcastically. “Who are we going to call?”

She hesitated, and it told me everything I needed to know.

“You don’t know anyone’s number,” I said.

She shook her head. “Not by heart. How about you?”

The silence that settled between us was overwhelming. I tried my absolute best to pull up a mental picture of my contact list, and that part worked well. I saw the names clearly: Coach Harris, backup quarterback, Mom… The problem was that the numbers were nothing but static. I shook my head as my disappointment reached the next level.

“This is just great,” I muttered. “We must be the biggest idiots on the planet.”

She ignored my comment completely. “Okay. Think. They’ll notice eventually.”

“When?” I cut in. “When they’re halfway to Fitchburg and it’s too late to do anything?”

Her jaw tightened slightly, and for just a moment I saw the demon she released when she confronted the bullies on the bleachers.

“They’ll turn around,” she said.

“No, they won’t,” I replied with a bitter chuckle.

“They have to.”

“They’ll assume we’re in the back. It’s loud on the bus, and no one will do a head count until they get close to the destination. It’s how things always worked, and it won’t change now.”

Even though it sounded incredibly cruel, I knew I was right, and the truth of our situation hit harder than a freight train. My chest tightened, and I realized we were in a far worse position than I wanted to believe.

“I’m the starting quarterback,” I mumbled, staring down the empty stretch of road. “I can’t miss this game.”

Her expression softened. “We won’t miss it.”

“We already are.” I sank down on the sidewalk.

“The only way we’re missing this game is if it’s parading over my dead body.”

That was very sweet, and I desperately wanted to believe her. But I also had to be realistic and understand that we were stuck in the middle of fucking nowhere.

“It’s over an hour’s drive away. If they turn around right now—”

“There’s time,” she added.

“We’d still be late.”

A car roared past us, sending a gust of wind slamming into my back. That same gust also reached Elizabeth, and it blew her hair back in the most beautiful way. It made her look more vicious, too. I dragged a shaky hand through my hair as I tried to regain control of my thoughts.

“This was already going to be bad,” I said. “Now it’s going to be a disaster.”

Her head snapped toward me. “Don’t you dare start with that bullshit.”

“It’s Fitchburg.” I couldn’t look at her. “They’re stacked, and we barely scraped by last week. We need to face the facts.”