We hauled the drunk and drugged Howard out of his chair and half-carried, half-dragged him out of the bar. Gray handed me a pair of plastic gloves, and I snapped them on. “Jesus, what size did you get? Extra small? The rubber is cutting off my circulation.”
“You want to touch him or complain about the plastic gloves, Bo Peep?”
I shut up. Worried that Howard would get sick, Gray ran in and paid the bartender for a roll of plastic wrap. We lined his car and laid Howard in the backseat. Howard stayed unconscious even after we wrestled him out of the car and onto the porch of his house.
The next morning, someone texted me several photos of Howard, still passed out with his hand on the business end of a wooden steer. I didn’t know if it was a sorority girl’s revenge or the work of someone in the theater arts program, as the steer looked like a prop for a play. He’d be unable to go a minute without someone mooing in his face.
Mal and Gray took care of the drugs, and Ryan took care of the club decertification. I didn’t have to hit anyone once.
Chapter Thirty-Two
BO
I WAS WAITING IN THE library lounge for AM to appear after class. I’d stopped waiting for her outside of her classroom. She didn’t like that. She’d eventually told me it made her look weak, like she needed someone to escort her across campus. I just liked to spend the time with her, but I understood her need for independence. It was one of the things that had drawn me to her in the first place, so I really couldn’t complain. Instead, I waited in the lobby of the library. She’d meet me here and we’d study. Or AM would study, and I’d just drink her in, this miracle of a girl who saved me. All this time I thought I was saving her.
She burst through the doors, noisily, unafraid of someone noticing her. The tension I’d once seen in her shoulders while she moved through campus was no longer present. I felt my mouth widening in response to her apparent happiness.
“Finals canceled?” I asked.
She shook her head, but her eyes were dancing wildly with some suppressed emotion. I thought it was glee. She executed a little hop over to me, looking five kinds of adorable. I wanted to scoop her up and lick her all over, but I restrained myself.
She threw herself at me, and I was surprised. When I looked around, there were people milling about. I took advantage of her changed behavior and snugged her up close to my body. Her eyes widened as she felt my arousal hard against the swell of her belly, and her amusement turned to outright laughter.
It only made me want her more.
“What?” I asked her, rubbing my hands along her arms.
“Clay Howard has left school.”
“Really?” I tried to look surprised, but she caught something in my tone. Her amusement faded away and was replaced by a suspicious look. With an effort, I smiled as blandly as possible. “Where’d you hear that?”
“It was all anyone could talk about in class,” AM informed me, but she was searching my eyes, my face, for some sign that I knew something. I employed some of the discipline that I was working on and tried to project innocent interest. It must have worked, because her suspicious look dropped away and was replaced by excitement once again.
Stepping back, she pulled me toward the exit door. “Let’s go home instead of studying here,” she said. I went along benignly.
“Tell me,” I urged her again. I wanted to hear what this end of the telephone chain sounded like.
“I heard he dropped out. And I heard some gossip that the lacrosse club was being disbanded, but I didn’t figure that was accurate.”
I only hmmmed. AM tried a couple more theories out on me.
When we arrived at the apartment, Ellie was there to greet us. “Guess what I heard!” she cried, throwing her arms wide as if throwing us the news.
“Is it about Clay Howard?” AM said, turning to shut the door behind me.
“Yes.” Ellie’s arms came down with a flap. “Already heard?”
AM nodded, but then she began jumping up and down and the two clasped wrists and hopped around the room like they had pogo sticks attached to their legs. I leaned against the hallway wall, not too far from where I had punched a hole, not too far from where my world fell apart and AM and I stitched it back together.
Someday I’d tell AM what I did and why. I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of her smiling face. I’d show her this picture and tell her I’d do anything to make her look this happy.
I wanted to bask in that glow. She and Ellie pogoed their way over to me. I drew her into my arms and said, “See ya later, Ellie.” I steered AM down the hall into her bedroom.
“What are you doing?” she asked, all coy and shit.