“Ooooh, feisty girl! I like it!” His big arm shakes my shoulder and I giggle.
“So where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
He leads us through the lighted paths between campus department buildings and up a back hill to the most modern building at Matthews. “Welcome to Architecture 101. Have you been here?”
I shake my head. “It looks cool, but we can’t go in, right? It’s kind of closed.”
“We’re not goingin. We’re goingon.” As he pulls down the fire escape from the side of the building, the noise seems to echo across the entire campus. “Up we go.”
“Sabin!” But he is already starting to climb the ladder. “Sabin!” I yell again.
How I am going to manage this shaky fire escape in Estelle’s crazy shoes is beyond me. I look up. Sabin has already reached the roof.Shit.I’m not much of a rule breaker, but this is only a minor infraction, so I’m not about to wimp out because of sexy shoes. Tentatively, I start up the first few rungs.
“Need a hand?”
I don’t have to look down to know who it is. His voice is unmistakable, because of the sound and because of how my pulse goes fucking crazy.
“I’m perfectly fine,” I say and continue up.
I hear Chris and the others talking below, their voices fading as I near the top. Sabin is leaning over the concrete ledge that looks across campus.
He raises the bottle as if toasting me. “You made it, feisty girl!”
I kick a foot out in front of me. “Barely. No thanks to Estelle’s shoes.” I stand next to him now and take in the view. The campus looks pretty spectacular at night.
“Hey, about before,” Sabin starts as he puts his arm around me again, “I really am sorry about your parents. That absolutely sucks.”
“Thank you. And I’m sorry you lost your mom. You were really little, huh?”
Sabin nods. “We were.”
“I’m glad you’ve had your father.”
He laughs. “You shouldn’t be.”
“Why? You don’t get along?”
Sabin glances behind us. Chris is holding his hand out and helping Estelle up over the edge of the last ladder rung.
“My father’s kind of an asshole. Chris makes him out to be worse than he is, but it’s just easier not to deal with Dad’s crap.”
“Oh. Then I’m doubly sorry.”
“Not a big deal. We pretty much stay away from him, so it’s not much of an issue anymore. We’re all good now.” He brings the bottle in front of us. “Unscrew, please, madam. I’m not ready to let you go. Chris might snatch you away from me.”
I practically snort. “Yeah, right. Hardly.” I unscrew the cap on the tequila.
“Don’t be so sure.” Sabin looks behind us as Chris and Estelle head our way. “Where are Eric and Zach?”
“You know how he feels about being up so high,” Estelle says. “I mean, hello, Sabin. How long have you known him?”
“Oh Jesus, what is wrong with me? I totally forgot.” Sabin looks solemn for a moment. “I’m an asshole. I’ll go after him.”
“Don’t worry,” Chris said. “You know Eric. He doesn’t really like big crowds.”
Sabin turns to me. “Eric is more of a one-on-one kind of a guy, just so you know. He’s the quiet one.”
