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“Lizzie!” I call as I tumble over the threshold.
My voice echoes around an otherwise silent garage. I can practically hear the drips from my clothing hitting the concrete. Rivulets of the stuff are running over my hands and down my spine.
“Lizzie!”
“Hey,”
I spin in the direction of the voice and see Jace’s head poking out of the office door. Upon recognizing me, his brows drop low in confusion.
“Caleb? You okay, man?”
“Is Lizzie here?” I hurry towards him. Now isn’t the time for hellos. All I need to know is if she’s—
“What?” he asks, as if surprised by the question.
“Lizzie!” I repeat. “Is. She. Here?”
“No!” Jace calls back, my agitation tweaking his sense of danger. He hops out of the office and comes to meet me. “She switched shifts to take her friend to the airport. She’s taking my Sunday shift inste—hey!”
I’ve made an immediate U-turn and am headed back for the door. It was all I needed to know. All I needed to hear to have my fears skyrocket and my mind focus on one single fact, I need to get home.
Instead, I’m pulled to a sudden halt by Jace’s grip on my arm.
“Hey, Caleb, you can’t go back out there…”
“I need to.” I violently shrug off his hand but he just grabs a fistful of my shirt.
“I’m not kidding, man. They’ve given a severe weather warning. You need to stay—”
“I need to find Lizzie.”
“I’m sure she’s—”
“No, Jace!” I yell, turning on him. I reach for the front of his overalls and then I’m in his face, my nose an inch from his and our gazes boring into one another. “Don’t say it.” I tell him. “Do not say she’ll be fine. I’ve heard that before and I’m not listening to that shit again, do you hear me?”
Jace swallows. He’s super-calm as he reaches up to pry my fingers from his clothes. He talks to me like I’m a violent animal, like his life depends on keeping me calm.
“Okay.” he says gently. “I hear you, Caleb. Just, let me go and let’s talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I shake my head. “I need to find her. The last time Lizzie and I spoke, we got into a fight and—”
“Got into a fight? How?” Jace is frowning with concern and all I want to do is shake him. Did that matter right now?
But he’s still holding my shirt like a vice, and if explaining myself lets me get going faster, I’ll take it.
“Just stupid crap. It doesn’t matter Jace. The point is, I was an asshole and laid into her about only being here because she’s running away from New York, about how she doesn’t know what it’s like to stick it out and deal with shit like I’m going through with my mom and I—”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah, like I said, I was an ass.” I finally tug my shirt free, and head for the door again when Jace’s tone catches me off guard.
“Dude, you were way more than an ass. Don’t you know about her old man?”
Against my better judgment, my feet still and I turn. The rain is hammering over us like a drumroll of disaster. This is so not the time for this. But again, I can’t seem to escape the traction in Jace’s eyes.
“What? That he died? Yeah, I know. It sucks to go out like that.”
Jace is staring with unsure eyes. He half-winces at me.
