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Of course, no one actually knew anyone that this had happened to. Nonetheless, the fear around campus was palpable. Spreading like a virus, life began to change. Soon, male students were asked to accompany female students after dark. Life around campus began to look a little different.
For me, things changed for the better. This is how I actually came to know Eve. I waited for her in the library, which meant I was often the one tasked with walking her back to her dorm. She seemed annoyed by the fact that circumstances required a chaperone. But given that none of her friends hung around long into the night, nor did that pesky boyfriend of hers, she was stuck with me, and I could tell she did her best to hide her annoyance.
To my credit, I didn’t try to talk to her on these walks. I did better. I listened. Sometimes, when it was just the two of us left in the library, and she was ready to pack it up and call it a night, I would make her wait, telling her I needed to get in a few more pages. “What are you concentrating so hard on over here?” she asked once, striding up to the table where I was seated.
Grabbing the paper from my hand, a devious smile spread across her face. I tried to take it back, even as her eyes deftly scanned the page. She was quick. She dodged me and ran, making it halfway across the library before I caught up with her. She wasn’t laughing when I grabbed her wrist and then the paper. “What is this?”
She looked fragile, frightened maybe, at the very least caught off guard. “It’s nothing.”
Her brow knitted. “It’s not nothing.”
“It’s my first novel.”
“Hmmm.”
I reached for it, but she held on. “Give it back.”
“Say please.”
“Please.”
Her eyes flickered with a hint of mischief and something else. Something I couldn’t yet name. “Get on your knees.”
“I’m afraid we don’t know each other well enough for that.”
She waited for me to say more. When I stepped forward, my frame towering over her, she reluctantly handed the paper back. “You’re strange.”
I assumed it wasn’t a compliment, so I said nothing. I turned and walked back to my seat.
“Aren’t you going to ask me what I think?”
“No.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, fine then. I’ll tell you anyway.”
“That much I assumed.”
Perching herself on the edge of the table in front of me, she said, “It needs work.”
I didn’t look up at her. I couldn’t.
“But it’s not bad. It’s actually really good.”
“Good to know.” I stared at the ink blurred on the page. She always did make me feel a little like a leaf in a hurricane.
“You know what else?”
This time I couldn’t help it. My eyes met hers. “You’re different.”
You don’t say. “You have no idea.”
A wry smile spread across her face. “I like how cocky you are without even trying.”
“You don’t know me that well,” I replied, like an invitation.
“You said it’s your first novel. And that, George Dawson, tells me everything I need to know.”
Three nights later, Eve and her boyfriend were studying two tables over from mine. Every once in awhile she’d glance up and look over in my dire
