“I’m sorry?”
“What class. You said we had a class together,” he asks, devouring his burger before my eyes.
“Oh, oral communication.”
His phone that sits on the table vibrates with a message.
He nods. “Cool. So how old is your son?” he asks, still ignoring his phone.
My eyes do a sweep of the room, and I wonder if Randy actually knows how many people look his way.
“He’s four; his name is Sam.”
“You must’ve been young when you had him?”
“Yeah, I was seventeen when I had him,” I say between bites, wiping away sauce from the corner of my mouth.
“So, you’re twenty-one now?”
I nod my head, my mouth full and I’m unable to speak.
“Me too. So, you’re a junior, as well?” he asks as his phone vibrates again.
“No, sophomore. I missed a year of school.”
He nods his head in understanding.
I watch him take the last bite of his burger and finally check his phone. I can see that he has several text messages on his screen.
“Oh shit. I have to go!” he says as he crams the last of his fries into his mouth. “Come on, you can come with me. I’ll drive you home after,” he says, downing the last of his soda.
“What’s the rush?” I ask as I open my wallet.
“Grab your burger,” he says in response as he throws down some bills onto the table. “I got it.”
I quickly wrap my burger in a napkin as he stands, reaching for my hand. He helps me out of the booth and keeps hold of my hand as we rush to the door, shouting thanks to the guys behind the counter. We jog to the car, burger in hand. Once we’re back on the main road, I turn to him a little flustered and breathless. “So, what’s the rush?”
He looks at me with a look of anticipation. “It’s game night! The fifth game, the decider, and I need to beat her.”
I smile because I know exactly what he is talking about, the whole campus does. The postponed Call of Duty game. Put on hold after the abduction and shooting, it’s back on tonight, the finale, and well, let’s face it…there are high stakes involved.
3
Rachel
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”
I sit on the couch beside a guy named Walsh, while Seth—another well-known Raptor star, claims the recliner to my left. The serious expression he’s worn the past half hour finally gives way to a faint smile.
“Fuck!” Randy says again as he sits on the floor in front of me. “I think she beat me.”
I watch as he pulls off his headset and sets the controller down beside him. His hands rise to the top of his head, fingers laced, as he stretches and stares at the screen waiting for the stats to make it official. We all lean forward as the screen changes.
“Noooo!” Randy yells, dragging both hands over his face before dropping them to his lap, head hanging in defeat. “No way. No freaking way.”
To my startled surprise, Seth and Walsh both stand in unison, high fiving each other.
“Ha! Man, shefuckingsmashed you, this is the best day of my life.” Walsh laughs from my right, doubling over as he slaps a hand down on Randy’s shoulder.
