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Fuck Owen. I’m not going to let him scare me into relinquishing any part of my college experience.
I might as well make the most of the shit show my life has become, right?
My entire body flinches when the gate slams closed behind us.
I force myself not to look back as I take the stairs. The first winding is fine, but by the second turn, I’m all too aware of how high we already are. I hold onto the railing as I ascend, my stomach tightening, my breaths coming short and fast. Far above, there’s a wooden ceiling and a small landing with a door.
About halfway up, I realize that Owen can probably see straight up my skirt. I grab the hem, pinching it tight around my thighs as my cheeks burn.
Owen lets out a dark chuckle behind me, and I give him the finger without looking back.
I cling to the top railing when I finally reach the landing, and dare to peek over the edge. My heart kicks me in the ribs when I see how far down it is, and I swoon back, pressing my back to the rough wooden door.
“You’ve come this far,” Owen says as he steps up to join me on the landing. “Don’t you want to go all the way?”
My jaw clenches. “With you? Never.”
He chuckles again, a tiny gleam in his steel eyes as he opens the door. I find it strange that it would be unlocked, but I guess you’d have to have a keycard to get past the gate below. Maybe the school doesn’t think locking this door would serve a purpose other than annoying the janitor who has to come up here to clean.
“Oh.” It’s a stupid thing to say, but it’s all I can summon when I step inside the tower.
It’snota clock tower at all. This space is open to the elements, barring a low wall that runs all the way around, and a handful of pillars keeping the steep spire of the roof in place. Most of the structural things—my dad would be cringing if I ever said that out loud to him—are centered around the enormous bronze bell hanging from thick chains and ropes.
My eyes barely land on the bell before my gaze is dragged to the view beyond.
“Shit. That’s…”
“Breathtaking?”
I don’t even flinch when I realize how close he’s standing to me. There isn’t all that much room up here anyway, so I can’t exactly expect him to keep his distance.
Now that I’ve had a chance to take it all in, I realize there’s a fine mesh fitted to the openings along all sides of the towers. Some of those edges are peeling away from the brickwork, but most of it is still sturdy enough.
When I realizewhyit’s there, my heart drops all the way to the fucking ground. “People have tried to jump off here?” I whisper.
Owen’s body brushes mine as he comes to stand beside the window. “They didn’t try. They succeeded.”
My stomach turns over, and I give a hard swallow. “Wow. That’s…”
Owen turns, grabs my sleeve, and tugs me close. If terror hadn’t clamped a great big hand over my throat, I’d have screamed. But Owen isn’t planning to rip away that mesh and toss me outto plummet to the quad below.
He tucks me in beside him and points. “See how the building is shaped like a hollow rectangle?”
I nod, trying to work spit back into my mouth. He’s so warm, so solid. It’s difficult to feel nervous about heights when it’s so obvious that he’d never let me fall.
Huh. Never? Not even if you slapped him again?
“That section there? Those are the classrooms, the labs, and the two main lecture halls. The bigger rooms are on the ground level, the smaller classrooms on the second story.”
I have to admit—if grudgingly—that he’s right. Seeing everything from up here makes it seem silly that I’d gotten myself lost. All those long hallways? I should just have carried on with them until I reached a corner. Every corner would take me into a new section of the campus.
“Those are the girls’ dorms, and there are the guys’. That other side is where the cafeteria and administration offices are.”
My eyes skip ahead, to the forest and the white-topped mountains far in the distance. A breeze finds its way through the mesh, and I fill my lungs with the fresh country air.
It’s amazing how quickly things change. A few minutes ago, I was furious with my father for sending me out here to the middle of nowhere. Now I’m wondering if maybe, just maybe, I was overreacting. On the surface, Pinecrest is a magnificent place. If I can find a way to live alongside the townies, then maybe happiness wouldn’t be a dirty word anymore.
“If you’re ever lost, look out a window and find that oak tree. You can use it to get your bearings. Do you see it?”
