“We saw Brooke at her Christmas party last month.” Simon took a seat at the table.
Jeremiah and Adam followed suit.
This was the first time Brooke had been out with anyone other than Mindy Sue after returning to school. She’d been too lost in her grief to want to do anything more than drag her ass to her classes each day, then back to her dorm room to wallow in hernest of blankets and pillows, avoiding her feelings about Cody and her stalker.
This morning she hadn’t felt well, but whatever bug caught her didn’t last, and she was feeling better this evening. Well enough to go out at Mindy Sue’s insistence that she couldn’t spend her senior year as a hermit.
“What brought you guys here tonight?” Mindy Sue had a strange look in her eyes when she studied the three guys.
Jeremiah answered for them. “Adam and I were studying in the library when Simon texted that he was hungry.”
“I’m always hungry.”
Jeremiah rolled his eyes. “We know. Anyway, we met up at the quad and headed over here.”
“Do you guys eat here often?” Mindy Sue asked.
“It’s one of my favorites,” Jeremiah said.
“Me, too,” Brooke agreed. “They have the best fried chicken salad.”
Jeremiah scrunched his nose. “I like the French dip sandwich. They also have the best fries in town.”
“Totally,” Adam and Simon said at the same time.
The waitress arrived and took their drink and food order.
“How are all your classes going?” she asked the guys, trying to keep the conversation going.
They all took a turn complaining about their classes, sprinkled with a few things they liked about them, too. All of them were as anxious as her to graduate.
She couldn’t wait to be on her own and be her own boss. She was excited to get started on the building. In just a couple of months, she’d own it.
And since Cody and Kristi would be living in the ranch house, she’d set herself up in one of the apartments on the third floor. She’d decorate it with bright colors and soft furnishings.
It would be a new start.
“Did you guys hear about the dude on campus who’s running around flashing girls?” Julie scrunched her lips. “Yuck. Like we want to see a dude’s junk while walking to class.”
Adam cringed. “That’s weird.”
Simon leaned in. “I have a friend who goes to UT Austin. Three girls have been attacked by some guy while they’re walking home from local bars.”
“That’s so fucked up.” Mindy Sue shook her head. “Did any of the women ID him?”
“Nope. Dude hits them on the head, knocks them out, then does stuff to them.” Simon cringed.
Brooke shivered with revulsion and the same chill that ran up her spine every time she thought about her stalker. She didn’t say anything to the group about him, because all of these guys had been to her house multiple times. They’d hung out on campus while Mindy Sue was seeing Marco even before the picnic. “Let’s talk about something else.”
Mindy Sue must have been thinking along the lines Brooke’s mind had gone because she stared at the three guys, wondering like her.
No. No way.
It couldn’t be one of them. They were so nice. And they spent time together. They had plenty of opportunity to ask her out.
The waitress brought their food and distributed it to the table and everyone eagerly dug in. Brooke was the last to be served. The second the smell of the fried chicken in her salad hit her nose, her mouth watered and her stomach turned.
She leaped up and ran to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before she threw up what little she had in her stomach.
