Trevor stands up. “We’re not doing this in front of her,” he says to Fallon, and I want to know which her he is referring to, Liz or Meredith. “See you tomorrow, Wildcat.”
Fallon jumps out of his chair, the noise from it toppling over onto the floor is enough to get us an audience. Awesome. That’s all we need. Fallon is slipping into a dark space quickly and things are about to get real bad, real quick. I feel its energy crackling around us. It’s the same energy I feel when I fight.
“Don’t you fucking call her Wildcat. Stay away from her, Trevor. I mean it.”
Ryder and Julien return to our table wondering what the hell is going on.
“What does that mean?” Liz asks Fallon.
“Trevor, why don’t you walk me to class? Come on.” Meredith nudges him. He doesn’t move.
“I apologize for my little brother’s behavior. As you can see, we clearly can’t stand one another.” Like a gentleman, Trevor helps Meredith out of her chair and prepares to leave. “Talk to you later,Wildcat,” he says to Liz knowing he’s poking the caged lion, and Fallon lunges at him. Ryder is quick to pull him back and check him as Trevor walks away, Meredith rushing after him.
“Calm down,” Ry tells Fallon then turns him and pushes Fallon toward the side doors, I assume for them to go off and talk in private. I wonder if Ry knew about Trevor. Julien and I had never met the guy before. I didn’t even know Fallon had a brother.
Julien slides Liz’s food over to her. “I’m guessing I missed something important?”
Liz is texting on her phone.
“Turns out that guy, Trevor, is Fallon’s brother,” I tell him.
“No shit. Really? Didn’t know he had a brother.”
“Seems so. They hate each other.”
“That’s too bad,” Julien says and tears into a plain piece of grilled chicken.
I think back to my argument with Julien at the beach. Julien and I may fight, we may say some stupid, hurtful shit, but we still love each other. He’ll be my brother to the end. Nothing will change that. I wonder if that’s what Ryder is for Fallon. A replacement brother for the older one he clearly despises. One thing’s for sure, there’s more to the story. Like why did Fallon tell Trevor to stay away from Liz? That alone will have me keeping a closer eye on him. No one messes with my girl.
“So, that was fun.” Liz looks up from her phone.
I change the subject. “When’s Daniel arriving today?”
Liz’s eyes brighten with happiness. “He arrived this morning. I saw him before I came to campus. He’s staying at the dean’s house. They’re old college buddies or something. After chem, he’s meeting me at my place for dinner.”
“When are we meeting him?”
“He’s only here for a few days and will be leaving on Friday morning, so how about I arrange something for Thursday evening? I have study group tomorrow and Wednesday night. We have to finish up a major project for Lit class.”
“That’s the study group you do with Meredith and Trevor, right?”
“That’s the one.”
Julien pouts. “No running buddy all week? That sucks.”
“No, this week you get two. Daniel runs every day too. I’m sure he would love to join us, if that’s okay? Just no breakfasts after.”
“As long as I don’t have to promise him bad karaoke.”
Liz’s roll of laughter shoots sparks through my blood. I’m trying to be good and give her the space and the time she asked for. But goddamn, it’s hard to do. I just have to trust in what I told Julien this weekend - that her memory will return and I will get my woman, my love, back.
Ry and Fallon don’t return by the time Liz and Jules have to leave for organic chem. The two classes I have today are evening classes, so I’ll go somewhere for an hour and meet them after. My first stop is to see a girl I know in the student records office. She comes to all the underground fights and has had her eye on me for months. I think I can flirt my way into finding out more about Trevor if I can convince her to access his student file.
Chapter 22
Elizabeth
“How was your day, sweetheart?” Daniel asks me as he cuts up the grilled chicken into thin slices. Drew is joining us on screen from my phone which I have propped up on a stand and set on the counter island.
