"She's not alone. She's with her friend. Maybe—given the circumstances—we should just let her drink with her friend and leave her alone for a minute."
Nolan's eyes widen with concern. "With a head injury?"
Dax shrugs. "It's not like she blacked out or anything, right? She'll be fine. I'll go get her later."
"I don't think she'll go with you," Nolan says.
Dax laughs a little. "Don't worry about whatever she said. Saige just says things like that sometimes because she thinks she has to. She doesn't mean it."
I hold back laughter. There's a lot of irony in that statement.
"I'm going to follow her friend now, and I'll send her a DM in a few hours."
Fuck a few hours. "What's her username?" I ask.
"Um…it's dont.stalk.kira.d," Dax says. "With a period between everything."
I type it in, and when her profile pops up, I click follow and then send her a message.
Tell Saige she needs to text me or come home now.
Seconds later, she starts typing a reply.
Saige said you can go fuck yourself. Leave us alone. BYYEEEEEE!
So, her friend is just as mouthy as she is. That's a match made in fucking hell.
A few seconds later, I get a notification that she's tagged me in a story. Even before I open it, I can tell it's a picture of her flipping off the camera.
I shake my head and read the text.Hey, @elias.thorpe7 and @itsdaxluckyyou: It doesn't surprise me that your reading comprehension is shit, but the username is actually DON'T stalk Kira. So don't. Fucking. Stalk me.
She ends it with a peace sign emoji followed by a few more middle fingers.
"I don't think I like this friend," Dax grumbles. "She seems like a bad influence. I mean, I get it with you. You're kind of a dick, but I'm handsome and super nice. I wasn't even going to say anything about the fact that they went to the liquor store with my credit card."
"I don't think we should say anything else at all," I tell him. "We're not going to be able to use her to find Saige if she blocks us."
"Wow, did hell just freeze over?"
"What do you mean?"
"I thought for sure I was going to have to talk you out of going over there and burning the whole dorm down."
"I don't really care what her little friend thinks. And I think you're right—we know where she is, and we can go get her.We'll give her some semblance of freedom; that will make her feel better, and then we'll be able to either drag her or scare her ass back here."
I doubt it'll even be that difficult. I think she's making up half of this stalker shit because shedoesn't wantto leave.
It's the only thing that makes sense.
"I just can't believe I hurt her," Nolan says, his voice breaking. He leans forward again, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, raking his fingers through his hair. "What the fuck is wrong with me?"
"Saige has that effect on people."
"That's not fucking funny, Elias," he snaps. "It's not helpful, either. This isn't a joke to me."
I shrug. "Sorry."
Dax rubs his back. "Nothing is wrong with you," he assures him. "It was a mistake. And I told her that not smoking was mandatory if she was going to stay here."
