Across The Hall (23 page)

My glance flickered briefly from his gaze to Quinn’s door. I knew that Beau and I were probably going to be having a heated discussion. I didn’t want

that to be out in the hal where Quinn could witness it at any point.

Beau fol owed my gaze to Quinn’s door. His grip tightened. “Were you with him?” He nodded his head towards Quinn’s door.

“No,” I answered quickly, and prayed it wasn’t too quickly to raise his suspicion. “He went to Chicago with the rest of them.”

Beau stil glared at me. He clenched his teeth and said very slowly, “No. He. Did. Not.”

My eyes flew open. How did he know that? Had he been here this weekend? I knew I needed to play dumb on this for sure. “What do you mean

he didn’t go? Kai assured me he was going.”

Beau didn’t release me, but his grip relaxed some as he let out a harsh laugh. “Sylvia, honey, I saw Mr. Rich Boy get in that wussy old man car of

his and take off about two hours ago.”

“Then Kai and the rest must be back.”

“Wrong again, sweetheart. When you didn’t answer your door, I went and knocked on theirs to see if you were there. No one answered. Your big

guy’s jeep isn’t here either, so I’m guessing they took that to Chicago.” He tilted his head, reading my expression, trying to determine if I was lying

or not.

“I don’t know why Quinn was here, then. It’s not like I go knock on his door asking for his every move.” I didn’t lie, I just evaded. “I didn’t leave my

apartment until this morning.” I hoped he hadn’t been here before that. I suspected that if he had been here he would have knocked on Quinn’s door.

Surely if he checked at Kai’s and Kerri’s’ then he would have checked at Quinn’s, too. “Now, let’s go in and talk about this. I don’t want to stand in

the hal where anyone can hear us.” He let my wrist go, and I opened the door.

As we walked in I turned my lights on. I scanned the room and it looked exactly like I’d left it. I let out a little breath. I didn’t know why I was worried

that it would look different.

I turned back to Beau. “Okay, now why exactly are you standing outside my apartment waiting for me?”

He pushed past me and stood in the middle of the living room. I moved to stand closer to him. “Wel , Sylvia, I tried cal ing Saturday night to tel you

I was on my way back. When you didn’t answer, I sent you a text. I thought you were just out with friends and I’d hear from you when you checked

your phone. When I didn’t hear from you by Sunday, I tried cal ing you again. Your phone went straight to voice mail. I got worried and drove straight

through the night to get here.”

“I can’t find my phone.” I glanced quickly around the room hoping it wasn’t out in the open. I didn’t see it so I hoped I was safe. I had to dig it out of

the couch cushions often, so I hoped that I would get lucky and find it there. “I’ve been looking for it al weekend. I didn’t have anyone around to cal

me so I could find it. The battery is probably dead.”

“Oh, and it doesn’t beep when the battery is dying?” He was stil eerily quiet.

“Yes, but if I lost it I wouldn’t always be able to hear it, would I? How else do you think I missed your cal ?” My voice was beginning to raise. What

exactly was he accusing me of?

He stood there eyeing me like he was debating on whether to believe me or not. “When was the last time you had it?” I felt like I was on trial. What

did I have to be guilty about? Oh, yeah, that. When I blushed I sincerely hoped that he thought it was out of anger instead of guilt. My body always

betrayed me. I was never going to get away with lying to him.

“When I talked to Kai, Friday after class, before they al left.” I looked him in the eyes as I answered him definitively.

“And she was the last person you talked too?” His question real y angered me.

“What does it matter who I talked to last?” I didn’t care if he was quiet. I yel ed. “What gives you the right to come in here and start quizzing me like

this?” I wanted to add that we had never discussed what the other expected out of our relationship, but I was too chicken to say it.

“I’m doing it because I care about you. I don’t want to lose you.” He reached out to me and stepped forward so that he could wrap his arms

around me. I stood unresponsive in his arms. “Sylvia, it makes me a little crazy when I’m gone from you for so long.” He was whispering into my hair.

“I get worried when I can’t find you. I’m sorry I’m acting this way. I just need you. But I guess I don’t mean that much to you.” His voice sounded so

sad and contrite. I had to hug him back.

What had I done? How could I have been so upset? Obviously he was just reacting to not being able to get a hold of me. Here I’d made him feel

bad. What did I expect him to think? I would have thought the same thing if I was in his place. I stepped back a little and reached up to cup his face. I

hoped my eyes could convey the sincerity of my feelings. “I’m sorry I worried you. I didn’t mean to. Honest.” It was true. I didn’t mean to worry him.

“You do mean something to me.”
I’m just not sure what that is, or even if it’s enough.

He leaned down and captured my mouth with his. It was a deep and demanding kiss but I gave in to it. I wanted to make up for hurting him and

show that I was sorry. I reached up and twined my fingers into his thick black hair which he had left down that day. Often times he pul ed it back into

a loose ponytail. I liked to pul it out and run my fingers through the back of his hair when he kissed me like this. Then I thought of someone else’s

hair and how that had felt around my fingers the night before.

Breaking the kiss, I stepped away from Beau. He smirked at me. “I bet pretty boy never kissed you like that.” I didn’t get why he always made

comments like that. Like he expected me to compare him to Quinn or something. Like I would tel him if I did. Not that he could ever compare. No

one could, and last night had just reminded me of that. I rol ed my eyes at Beau.

Before I knew what happened, he had me shoved against the far wal and ground his lips into mine. I pushed at him to get him to stop. “What?

Pretty boy ever kiss you like this?” His eyes were hard blue steel, and I was once again frightened.

“This has nothing to do with Quinn,” I hissed at him.

“Oh, Sylvia, dear, this has everything to do with Quinn.” With that, he crashed his lips to mine again. He stuck his tongue into my mouth. When I

didn’t respond, he stopped.

He looked me in the eye and said, “If pretty boy ever tries to kiss you like that... fuck that, if he even looks at you like he wants to kiss you, I wil

end him.” His voice was ice cold. I had a shiver crawl up my spine. I knew that he wasn’t kidding. My decision about Quinn was just made easier. If I

cared about him at al , which I knew, deep down, I did -- no matter what happened -- I would need to stay away from him.
That much is clear
, I

thought, as Beau brought his mouth back down to mine.

Down the hall, into my bedroom, turn around, back down the hall, pause look at the clock on the wall in the kitchen, around the couch, and

back down the hall again.
I paced like a caged animal. The time crept slowly. I didn’t turn TV or music on in fear that I wouldn’t hear Sylvia come

back home. I thought about propping my door open so I could watch for her. I didn’t want to scare her.

By the time my dad cal ed, it was after three. He said my mom was worried because they hadn’t heard from me al weekend. Not thinking I told

him that I had been sick. He started to ask questions and I tried to insist that I was better and I thought I was about to get away with it until I heard my

mom in the background. After that, there was no getting out of seeing them. I was given two choices: go there or they were coming to my place. As

much as I needed to talk to Sylvia I couldn’t risk my mom seeing the two of us right now. She would immediately know something happened

between the two of us, and I wasn’t ready for her intrusion.

After I hung up I paced around some more. I texted Sloane again to see if they’d heard from her. I knew I would raise suspicions about why I was

so concerned about Sylvia, but I didn’t care at this point. I would tel anyone anything just to know she was alright.

She’s probably at Jason’s. What’s going on? -S

Jason’s, right. I forgot about him. I decided that I couldn’t ask Sloane for directions to Jason’s without alerting them to something being afoot. I

thought maybe if I played it casual and avoided answering the question it would throw them off.

Ok. Let me know if you see her when you get back. -Q

If she was at Jason’s she was at least somewhere safe, I hoped. At least she wasn’t at Beau’s. I prayed she wasn’t with Beau. I started to worry

more about the possibility of her being with him. I clenched my fists and felt my jaw tighten. I started pacing again. My second pass through, I

realized that this wasn’t doing any good. I grabbed my keys and headed to see Dad.

I checked Sylvia’s door one more time. Stil no answer. I took the steps two at a time. I wanted to hurry and get this over with. I got into my car, but

before I turned the key I felt someone watching me. I looked around, hoping desperately that it was Sylvia. No such luck. Beau stood on the

sidewalk right in front of the car. Our glares met through the windshield. I broke my gaze away first to look around to see if Sylvia was with him. She

wasn’t. I started the car and pul ed out. At least I could cross that worry off my list.

I only stayed at Mom and Dad’s long enough to for Dad to look in my throat and cal me in a prescription for strep throat. I may have played the

sore throat up a bit, but being sick kept Mom from questioning me. She wanted me to stay with them so she could look after me. I quickly used an

upcoming test I had to study for as an excuse to hurry back to my place. Her raised eyebrow led me to believe that she didn’t buy that for one

minute. At least she let it go. I was out of there in less than fifteen minutes.

Dad cal ed the scrip into a pharmacy by their house. I was able to pick it up without a problem. I figured while I was out I would drive around

campus and just see if I would be lucky enough to run into Sylvia. I was slowly starting to realize that if she wanted to talk to me she would have been

back by then. I reached for my phone, hoping that she would answer. It again went directly to voicemail. So she wasn’t home yet, or hadn’t turned on

her phone yet.

If it was already that long since she’d left, it probably meant that she didn’t want to talk. What if she did go to Jason’s and he told her to stay away

from me? From the way everyone talked about him, you’d think he was Sylvia’s personal sun after I left. I worried that she would take whatever

advice he would give. No, I wouldn’t let that stop me. Even if she didn’t want to talk, I would make her listen. I screwed up before. I was not going to

screw this up again. I was going to make her see that I was right for her.

It was after six and I’d stil had no sign of her. I stopped to pick up sandwiches on my way back to the apartment. I got one for Sylvia, too, in the

hope that she would be back and be wil ing to eat with me. I knew it was a long-shot but it couldn’t hurt anything, right? I remembered the kind she

always liked. I hoped it was stil her favorite.

There was stil no sign that the others were back from Chicago. I didn’t bother stopping at either couples’ place. Instead I went straight to Sylvia’s.

I should have tried cal ing her first, I thought as I knocked on the door. I heard a voice and then the knob turned. I was ready for Sylvia. I knew exactly

what I wanted to say to her. I wasn’t ready for Beau. My eyes widened when they came into contact with his instead of Sylvia’s. He smiled widely at

me.

“Quinn,” he said brightly and way too smugly for my taste, “What can I help you with?” He opened the door wider and a saw a very panicked

Sylvia peeking around the kitchen door. As soon as Beau looked over at her, she dropped her gaze to the floor. He looked back at me and

motioned me in. “Sylvia, I think Quinn is here to see you.” His tone was over-friendly but I didn’t look at him. I focused on Sylvia.

Her eyes were wide and slightly pleading. She gave her head the slightest shake. I knew she was trying to tel me something. When Beau looked

back at her she looked down again. That couldn’t be good. She looked back up at me and this time her face was blank.

“Quinn?” She wrinkled her nose and questioned as if she were trying to recal who I was. I saw how intently Beau was watching her, and I

gathered that we were about to play pretend for his sake. “What are you doing here?” Her eyes flashed to Beau quickly and back to me. I stil wasn’t

sure what was going on between them but I had a real bad feeling about it al .

“Um, yeah, Sloane texted and said Kai wanted me to check on you since she can’t get a hold of you.”
Please let her phone still be off.
She let out

a breath of relief and then rol ed her eyes.

“Oh, my phone is lost. Wil you just let Sloane know everything is okay?” She stressed the last a little harder. She walked up to Beau and put her

arm around his waist.
Was this how she was going to play it?
My insecurities kicked in.
Did she plan to sleep with me and then go back to her

boyfriend? Was she trying to hurt me? No, Sylvia wouldn’t do something like that. Maybe she regretted last night and was choosing him over

me. Wait, I haven’t even told her how I feel. How would she know that I even wanted more if I hadn’t told her? I needed to tell her.