Axel
Seven YearsEarlier…
Halloween night should be spentat a frat house, or better yet, at a sorority house finding chicks, getting laid, not meandering the center of campus wondering how I got so whipped over a girl who I will most likely never see again. It’s been two months since my run-in with the queen of mean, and I haven’t been the same since. Case in point, wandering aimlessly on the most hormonal night of theyear.
Crap.
I look to the sky, rich with its stars, and hold my arms out at the expansive nothingness. “Is anybody out there?” I shout and listen as the echo of my own voice comes back to me. Whitney Briggs is a ghost town ironically. The campus is drained of its student body as every single person holed up in those dorms bleeds out to The Row where the frats and the sororities sit across the street from each other. It’s just me, my shattered ego, and wounded heart. Hard to imagine that a girl I knew for less than ten minutes could do so much damage. I wish she came with a warning label. Hell, I probably wouldn’t have listenedanyway.
“Should I wait for her?” I don’t pack the same punch as I did the last time. “I think she’s the one.” My voice grows small and my neck hurts at this pitch as I gaze out into darkness. “Anyway, if you could spare a moment, I’d appreciate a sign.” My voice dwindles to a whisper. I doubt anyone is listeninganyway.
The peachy glow of Hallowed Grounds beckons to me, and I head on over. It’s either that or head back to my apartment. At least this way I’ll get a cup of something hot and maybe a donut out ofit.
I head in and the thick scent of coffee bowls over my senses as if trying desperately to heal me with its hypnotic roasted beans. A smattering of people litter the place, a couple of girls dressed as French maids, a dude done up like Dracula works the line. Just as I’m about to step up to the counter, I spot a lion’s mane of dark cherry red hair, and my heart booms once as if threatening to cut outearly.
“No way,” I whisper as I stagger on over. Her back is toward me, head bent over, fingers gliding over a laptop, and not until I make the full radius around the table do I quantify that indeed it’sher.
Someone heard. God himself has taken a moment from his busy night to give my destiny anod.
I don’t bother asking permission. Instead, I help myself to aseat.
She looks up, her eyes ten times brighter than I remember, her face a thousand times more beautiful than my memory would allow—a young Scarlett Johansson meets Megan Fox. And holy wow, Lex Ximena Maxfield is a fox—just as wily as one,too.
“Oh, it’s just you.” She gets back to work without missing abeat.
“You’re hard to find. You know that?” I knock my knuckles over the table two times fast, but I can’t help but smile. Damn, she’sbeautiful.
She takes a bite out of a donut, and it’s only then that I note four different pastries surroundingher.
“Comfort foodnight?”
“Homework,” she says through a mouthful as if painfully pointing out the fact she’s not out to impressme.
“For that nutrition thing youmentioned?”
She glances up before washing down her mouthful with a swig from her coffee. “Are you always this annoying, or is this something special just for me?” She slips her laptop into an oversized purse and picks up her coffee along with the glazed donut she just took a healthy chunk out of and starts to headout.
“Whoa.” I scoot alongside of her. “Look, you don’t have to take off on my account. Go back and finish yourfeast.”
“Please, that carbohydratefest? Any food critic worth her salt knows that you don’t down every last calorie. I’d be a cow that couldn’t navigate a pasture if I licked every plate clean that was ever set in front ofme.”
The Hollow Brook night air cleanses us as we move swiftly under a crisp autumn moon. She’s headed for the parking lot so I’m guessing she’s takingoff.
“Food critic,huh?”
“That’s right. I’m double majoring in journalism and nutrition. I figure I’d meld my love of writing and my love of eating and eventually turn a profit. Probably not a big one, but I don’t really care about much beyond thebasics.”
“Wow, I’m floored for two reasons. One, you’re far more verbose than you were the first night we met. And two, you’re about the only girl I know who is at all interested in thebasics.”
She belts out a short-lived laugh, and even that sounds like a threat. And God, how I have missed her threats. I’ve missed everything abouther.
“So why no social media? How are you successful at being a ghost every day of the year? Any reason why you’re so hard to trackdown?”
“To keep guys like you from stalking me.” She heads down the brick walk leading to the parking garage, and I jump in front of her, doing my best tostall.
“How about that walk you promisedme?”
Lex takes a moment to lean in and glare. “What’s your majoragain?”
