Stick was looking me up and down, and I wished I hadn’t taken any extra time with my appearance. The knowing grin that spread across his face said he knew whom I was expecting to show up for Andy.
“Lucas is tied up right now,” he said. “I’m getting Andy for him. Right, kid?”
Andy nodded and moved away from me, to Stick’s (Stick? Seriously?) side.
I probably should have asked more questions, taken Stick’s license number down or something, but I didn’t. I just let Andy go with Stick.
There were no questions from Stick to Andy about how it went, or what to work on. Stick was pulling his phone out and doing something on it as they walked away from me.
Andy had been the last kid to be picked up, so all the other parents and instructors were gone, or back in the locker room.
This wave of…panic…came over me, and I raced down the hall. “Just one second,” I yelled, and Stick and Andy stopped and turned to me. “I…I forgot to give Andy his assignment for next week,” I said, though I had already talked about it with Andy while we’d been waiting.
Stick made an impatient wave with his hand, then kept texting, while I pulled Andy to the side, away from Stick.
I knelt down to Andy’s six-year-old size and said very quietly, “Andy, were you expecting Stick to pick you up? Did your mother tell you you’d be going home with him? Or was it a surprise?”
“No. My mom didn’t tell me Stick would be here,” he said, and I felt another wave of panic. Crap, what the hell was I supposed to do now? Call the cops? Demand we all wait until Andy’s mom could be notified?
A tiny bit of irritation crept in that I was being put in this position. I was a college freshman, alone for the first time. I was supposed to be the irresponsible one, out whooping it up.
And here I was wondering if I was caught up in a child abduction case.
“Lucas told me Stick would pick me up,” Andy said. “Not my mom. My mom is…she’s…gone away.”
I didn’t know what that meant in this kid’s vernacular. Heaven? Prison? With the kind of life these kids lived, it could be either.
“But she’s coming back,” he added with vehemence. “She’s coming back,” he said more quietly, as if convincing himself.
“I’m sure she is,” I said, though I wasn’t sure at all. “So, Lucas told you Stick would be picking you up? You’re sure?” He nodded, his wet hair sticking up in the back. I used my hand to tame the wild spot at the back of his head. “Okay, then, let’s get you back to Stick.”
Andy didn’t seem to remember that I had said I wanted to give him instructions, and Stick was still texting away. “All set,” I said to Stick as Andy started leading the way. Stick started following Andy, then turned back and looked over his shoulder at me.
“Thanks, Lily,” Stick said, then continued to follow Andy down the hall.
“No problem,” I said, though they were now beyond hearing range.
I turned back toward the locker room. As I was walking I realized that neither I nor Andy had mentioned my name to Stick, and yet he knew it.
That thought sent a small, sick thrill through me.
Chapter4
I swam hard,cutting through the water like it was silk, feeling my muscles stretch and burn, but in a good way.
And I took a long time in the steam room, savoring every moment, knowing it might be the last time I used it for several weeks.
Then I left the room. Okay, yes, I wrapped my towel very loosely around me. And yes, there were some strategic parts that I let the towel…accidentally…uncover. I left the room and turned to find…not Lucas. But somebody else.
“Jane? What are you doing here?”
She shrugged, like she hung out in locker rooms all the time, when I was willing to bet good money Jane had found a way to ace gym in high school without ever once seeing the inside of a locker room.
“I was on this side of campus and thought you might want to walk home together.”
I eyed her suspiciously. “What were you doing on this side of campus at night?” I made my way to my row and down to my locker, throwing my wet suit onto the bench in front of it.
Jane sat on the bench a few lockers down, looking around, almost in fascination. (Yeah, this girl had never been in a locker room, for sure.)
