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“What’s up, pretty girl? Haven’t seen you around in a while.” Malia-Tarni stares at me blankly and there’s an awkward pause that lasts a beat too long.
Once the prof left and didn’t return after a couple of days, we had to come up with a plan of action without him. As the second eldest, Reef stepped up as leader. Before he left, the prof told Reef that time moves differently in our world, which is why the prof wouldn’t be back as soon as initially expected.
So it was decided that in his absence we should keep an eye on Malia-Tarni. The best way to do that is in person. As the one previously closest to her, and probably least likely to piss her off, Reef sent me over to her dorm this morning.
Only, the welcome I’m getting is the polar opposite of when I last saw her and we were making out under the stars at Iron-Bound Cove.
Just thinking of that night brings up feelings of guilt for the poor girl who was attacked and almost lost her life…and everything that followed after.
I’d nearly lost my mind when her agonised screams cut through the speaker on my phone as I played back her panicked voicemail. We all raced over to her dorm in the prof’s car – he deemed it enough of an emergency to warrant using it – and my stomach was churning with dread over what we would find when we got there. I could already tell we were too late to save Malia, I just wasn’t sure what the damage would be. Please don’t be Shikari, I kept saying over and over again in my head. I couldn’t handle seeing…that done to her body.
“She’s gone,” Reef said, pulling me from my mind-prison of what if’s. “What? What do you mean?” I demanded, looking around the room for a body.
“She’s not here. There’s no body. It almost looks like there was no intrusion at all.”
“Almost?”
He was right. The room looked pristine. There were no signs of a struggle other than the comforter on her bed being unstraightened, and what college student makes their bed immaculately every day?
Malia. That’s who.
“Look again. We must be missing something,” I insisted. The lock on her door was broken, the plaster behind damaged like the handle hit it wall with force.
Some toiletries were on the floor, like they’d rolled off the top of the dresser when it was banged into. Maybe.
There wasn’t any blood.
Thank god.
“Do I know you?” Malia frowns at me and uses her body to shield the small gap that would lead to her room if she were to move out of the way.
I guess we’re back to playing hard to get then.
I laugh but she doesn’t crack a smile.
‘Erm yeah, I’m Cove. We went out a couple of times, surfed together…ring any bells?” I tease but it’s met with stone.
“I don’t surf. I hate the ocean. You must have me confused with somebody else.”
“I don’t think so, Mai-Tai. I think I’d remember the girl I’ve been thinking about non-stop since we kissed.”
“That definitely wasn’t me. I don’t kiss strangers. I don’t kiss anyone. And that’s not my name.” She looks mildly pissed off now, and it dawns on me that she might not be joking.
I pull out my phone and quickly text her, and as soon as I hit send her phone beeps. I watch her intently as she pulls it out and opens the link to the playlist I just sent her. She scowls when Dean Lewis’ ‘Seven Days’ begins to play, and she quickly hits pause. Bummer, it’s a great song and I’ve been looking forward to sharing my new playlist with her for weeks.
“I don’t know where you got my number from, but please delete it.”
“Wait!” I cry as she begins to close the door against me, and I feel a kind of desperation slipping through my fingers like sand. “At least listen to the songs, yeah?”
“I hate music.”
My jaw slackens, and without giving me a backward glance, she slams the door right in my face.
She really doesn’t know who I am. Fuck.
I dial Reef and don’t bother with pleasantries when he answers. “Put me on speakerphone, we have a problem.”
“Shoot.”
