Facepalm.
River doesn’t remark on what happened, so perhaps he didn’t see me.
We spend the next ten minutes stretching and lightly chatting. Once we’re good and stretched, River takes another sip of his water then asks, “You ready to do this?” He’s on the brink of actually appearing happy.
“Yep.” I adjust my hair into a ponytail. “What should we do with our stuff?”
“Just leave it here.”
“Won’t it get stolen?”
He shakes his head. “Even if someone wanted to steal something here, there are cameras all over the place.”
“Right.” And why would anyone steal anything when everyone who attends here has everything they could need?
He nods his head as he exits through the gated area. “Come on. I promise your stuff will be safe.”
“Yeah, I get that now.” I follow him. “On northside, our stuff would be gone the moment we walked out of here. And even if there was a camera nearby, it would more than likely be busted.”
We start to jog down a path that stretches across the campus yard.
“I’ve only been in that area a few times, but I kind of got that vibe from it,” he explains. “Someone once stole the tires off of Finn’s car while it was parked in this parking garage down on the farthest side of that area.”
“He’s lucky they didn’t steal the car.”
“It has an excellent alarm system.”
“A lot of people know how to disable those. The thief must have been an amateur.” We reach the end of the sidewalk and head toward the path that leads off campus. “What was he doing down there?”
He presses his lips together and stares out at the parking lot area. “I can’t tell you.”
“Dude, you’re so sketchy,” I say, mostly joking. “You keep mentioning you’ve been in northside—and I know you’ve been arrested there—and yet you won’t tell me why.”
He tosses me a look. “You won’t tell me why you were in jail.”
“Hmm …” I debate whether or not to tell him. I could, then perhaps he’ll tell me. “If I tell you, will you tell me why you were?”
He considers what I said, his interest piqued. “Only if you promise not to ask questions.”
I deliberate. “The same has to go for you, too.”
He sticks out his hand. “Deal.”
We shake on it, and I fight back a laugh. But I’m sure we look funny, running down the road, shaking hands.
“I got jumped by this group of people and was fighting back,” I tell him, swatting a bug away from my face.
“You got arrested for that?”
“Yep. It’s pretty ridiculous and isn’t the first time something like that has happened.”
He appears taken aback, his face creased. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“But it’s not the stupidest thing that’s happened there. Trust me.”
His eyes are wide as he absorbs this in.
“Now you go,” I say as we round the corner and head downhill.
