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“Early developmental psychology. I’m going to be a child psychologist.” Glad for this change of topic, my voice fills with its usual passion when asked about what I want to do. “My long-term goal is to help underprivileged and underserved kids. Nobody ever seems to look out for them from a mental health standpoint, and it breaks my heart. I want to help all those kids who fall through the cracks."
He nods and looks impressed. “That’s a noble goal.”
“I don’t know that I’d call it noble. Ambitious maybe, but not noble.”
“It’s ambitious and noble,” he replies. “And you’re right, there are a whole hell of a lot of kids who fall through the cracks. You’ve got a good heart, Devon Kirkpatrick.”
I feel the warmth creep into my cheeks and am suddenly glad it’s dark outside so he can’t see how red my face must be. I’m not a girl who handles praise all that well. And when it’s being given by a man I find as attractive as Dawson Davis, it just makes it all the more awkward.
“Thanks,” I say quietly.
We round a bend in the path, and I can see my dorm up ahead. There’s part of me that doesn’t want the night to end. That wants to hang out with Dawson for a while. It’s so easy to talk to him, and I feel more myself than with anyone else.
As we draw closer to the dorm, I stop in my tracks and feel the blood in my veins turn to ice.
“Oh my god.”
“What is it?” he asks.
Dawson follows my gaze, and I feel him tense up when he sees the man standing outside the front doors of my dorm.
“Is that him?” Dawson asks. “The guy who was harassing you at the bar?’
I nod, feeling numb. “Yeah, that’s him. That’s Zack.”
“And who exactly is this guy to you?”
I shake my head. “Just a guy I know from class. I mean, I was friendly with him, but I wouldn’t call us friends. But then he just started getting all weirdly possessive.”
“Okay, let me take care of this. I promise he’ll never bother you again.”
As he starts forward, I grab his hand and hold him back. The moment our skin touches, my body jerks and it’s like I grabbed hold of a live wire. He must feel it too because he turns to me with wide eyes and a look of surprise on his face.
We stand there, eyes locked, not speaking or moving for a couple of moments. I quickly pull my hand away, breaking whatever spell we were caught in, and laugh awkwardly, my cheeks burning furiously.
“Sorry,” I mumble.
“No, it’s all right.”
“I just… I’d rather you not go beat the snot out of him. Even though he creeps me out, I don’t want to see him get hurt.”
Dawson gives me a small smile. “There’s that good heart of yours in action again.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“So? What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know,” I say as my stomach roils.
I look around, trying to figure out what I’m going to do. It’s not like I have many friends outside the dorms, and to get to any of them, I’m going to have to pass Zack. And I rather not see him at all. I rather he not know I’m in my room because I’m afraid he’ll just keep bothering me all night until he gets what he wants. Goosebumps crawl across my skin as a tremor of fear passes through me.
“You don’t have anywhere else to go, do you?”
I shake my head. “I don’t.”
“Come on then,” he says. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“Where are we going?”
