Crashing Into You (7 page)

Lukas appeared to my left,
more excited about his hot chocolate than if he were splashing his way through
a hot tub with Gerard Butler himself.

“Perfect timing,” I said.

“Mmm. Gimme, gimme.”

We sat down at a table near
the back. I took a sip of the drink but it was too hot, so I let it sit for a
minute.

“Did you talk to the landlord
about next Saturday yet?” Lukas asked.

“Yeah, she said we can start
moving in as early as 7:30 that morning. You got permission to stay in the
dorms for Friday, right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Everyone’s moving out that
afternoon, so we’re gonna have the whole campus to ourselves that night.”

“How fun is
that
gonna be?" His voice went up a
couple octaves. "What do you think we should do?”

“I don’t know. We’ll have to
think of something.” I took a sip. Much better. I stretched out my arms, and
when the main door chimed, my eyes darted to the front counter. “Oh my God.”

“What?” Lukas followed my
gaze.

“Hello,” Melanie said as she
walked up to the barista. Her eyes were aimed down at her purse. “Could I get a
venti chai latte, with soy milk?”

I waited for her to finish
paying before I said anything. She looked dressed for a ski weekend, with her
bulky sweater and long, red scarf.

“Melanie!” I waved. “Hey!”

I worried that she would run
the other way, after everything that went down last night, but she stepped
right toward us, and even shot me a tender smile. “Hi Sydney.”

“How are you?”

She shrugged, and said, “Not
too bad.” She stopped beside Lukas, tapped her fingers against his chair. “Oh,
hey Lukas. It's been a while.”

“Sure has,” he said, with little
enthusiasm. He took off his glasses and breathed into the lenses, like he
wanted to do anything but make conversation.

“What are you doing here?” I
asked Melanie, as she shifted her gaze back to me.

“Nothing much. Just some last
minute shopping.”

“Shopping? For what?”

“For Evan. Our anniversary’s
on Tuesday.”

I forced a smile. How could I
have forgotten? “Oh, that’s right.” I could tell she was waiting for me to ask what
she got him, but I didn’t give her the luxury. I didn’t want to know. “Look,
Melanie, I'm glad you're here. I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about last
night. I feel really bad.”

She shook her head, put her
hand out to stop me. “I told you before. It's fine.”

“It’s not fine. I freaked out
on you, when you were just trying to help. I don’t want last night to be your
last memory of me as your roommate. I don't want you to refer to me years from
now as that
crazy
chick you roomed
with in college. I promise you I’m not that insane, I just get a little worked
up when it comes to drinking and driving—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Lukas
interrupted. “What happened last night?”

I hadn’t told him yet. I'd
been too embarrassed.

Melanie ignored Lukas. “I’m
the one who should be sorry,” she said. “I practically forced you to go to that
party. It was my fault.”

“You didn't force me to go, I
wanted to go.”

Lukas tapped his fingers
against the table real fast and loud, to an annoying effect. “Is anybody going
to tell me what’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute,”
I said. I looked back at Melanie. “So where are your friends? Did they come
with you?”

She pursed her lips. “Yeah.
For a little while, but... they kind of ditched me.”

“Oh? Why's that?”

“They wanted to go home and
get ready for Reece’s party. I guess people are heading over around 5. He’s got
food, too.”

“That’s the party Evan was
talking about, right? The one that's supposed to be pretty nuts?”

She opened her eyes real
wide. “Yeah, oh my God, he showed me pictures. Reece’s parents have this huge
place in Marina Del Rey, worth, like, millions. I guess they're out of town
this weekend, so Reece has the whole house to himself.”

“Are you going?” I took
another sip of the hot chocolate. It was already lukewarm.

“I promised I would. I'm
gonna swing by the dorm real quick, then head over.” She studied my face,
hesitated for a moment. “You know, if you guys wanna come...”

“After last night?” I laughed.
“Thanks, but I think I'll sit this one out.” Lukas didn't even bother
answering. His eyes told me he wanted to talk to me, and only me.

“I figured. Just thought I'd
ask.”

“Thanks,” I said. And I meant
it. After last night I was shocked she even suggested it. “No, Lukas and I
already have our fun planned. We’re rockin it out tonight… at the
library
!”

“Ooooh, now that sounds like
a good time,” Melanie said, before she laughed.

I crossed my arms, leaned
back in my chair. “You mean you don't want to join us? It’s gonna be
hours
of entertainment.”

She leaned her head to the
side, and pretended to think about it. “You know… I might have to pass on that
one, Sydney. Sorry.”

“Chai latte, for Melanie!”
the barista said.

She grabbed her drink, and
headed back over to us. Lukas looked peeved that she hadn't kept on walking,
right out the front door.

“I’m gonna use the bathroom
real quick,” he said, and stood up from his chair.

“Again?” I asked.

He didn't answer me; he just
marched toward the other side of the Starbucks.

“Is he all right?” Melanie
asked. She took a sip of her latte.
 

“I have no idea. He's been a
little on edge today. I think it's all the finals he has to study for. Or maybe
he can't get Gerard Butler out of his mind.”

“Yeah?” Melanie said. “I've
been thinking about Gerard Butler a lot, too.”

“Eww, really? He's so old.”

Melanie dipped her head
toward mine, and ran her tongue along her upper lip. “He's not old, he's
yummy
.”

I swatted my hand at her. “Gross!
Stop!”

We both laughed. I loved
laughing with Melanie.

“Well, anyway,” she said,
turning toward the door, “I should probably get going. How long will you guys
be studying tonight?”

“Until the library closes.
Like 11-ish.”

“Oh wow, all right. I might
be back by the time you’re done. I’m not planning on staying at the party for too
long.”

“No?”

“I overdid it last night, you
were right. I might have to take it easy for a few days, especially with finals
coming up.”

I shot her a warm gaze, one
that was almost maternal. “You know, you don’t
have
to go to this party if you don’t want to, Melanie.”

“No, I know.”

“You can be lame with us. You
can come jam at the library, with
us
!”

She laughed. Leaned down and gave
me a half-hug. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Okay. Have fun.” She headed
toward the front door. Right before she walked out, I shouted, “And Melanie?”

She turned to me. Put her
sunglasses on, even though it was practically dark outside, with all the cloud
cover. “Yeah?”

“I really am sorry about the
way I acted last night. I’ll make it up to you, okay? I promise.”

She nodded. “If you say so,”
she said. She stepped out onto the pavement and disappeared around the corner,
out of sight.
 

Lukas appeared a few seconds
later, like he had been patiently waiting for her to take her exit. He sat down
and smiled, like he'd done nothing weird.

“Seriously?” I said.

“What?”

“You just got up and went to
the bathroom a second time because you didn’t want to sit here while Melanie
and I were talking?”

“I can't explain it,” he
said. “She makes me uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable? Why?”

“She’s such a phony. Can't
you see it in her face? She doesn’t want to go to that party. She just wants to
fit in. She just wants to be like
everyone
else
.”

I shrugged. “Some people want
to be normal, Lukas. Even if they have to do things they don't really like. I
guess it makes them feel better about themselves.”

“Yeah? Well, I'm glad we
don't have to be like that.”

“I know, right? We can be
lame together.”

He smiled at me, and I smiled
right back. I never had a best friend growing up. I had been waiting for
someone like Lukas my whole life, and not a day passed this last year and a
half when I didn't consider how lucky I was to have found him.

“So tell me!” he finally said,
waving his hands in the air, all giddy. “What the hell happened last night? I
want details!”

“It’s nothing,” I said. I
took another sip of my drink. It was as cold as a chocolate milkshake.

“That wasn't nothing.
Something must have happened.”

I scratched the nape of my
neck, and averted my eyes toward the window. “I didn’t make a pass at Evan, if
that’s what you’re thinking.”

Even though I’d wanted to.

Even though I’d really,
really wanted to.

Chapter 9

Lukas’s phone started beeping.
“Time!” he said, and clicked it off.

“Whoa, has it been another
hour already?”

“Yep.”

I sat up and blinked a few
times. The brown encyclopedia books surrounding us all blended together, like a
circular bar of chocolate. We had been in the library since 5:30, at a table
near the back.

“What time is it now?” I
asked.

He glanced at his phone
again. “10:05. You up for one more hour?”

I dropped my atmospheric
science book on the carpet, and grabbed my sociology binder. Started flipping
through it. “Yes, that's fine.”

“Okay, I’m just gonna run to
the bathroom real quick.” He stood up, pushed his chair back.

I laughed. “You go to the bathroom
a
lot
.”

“Hey, I have a small bladder.
What do you want from me?” Lukas disappeared behind the book-stacks, and suddenly,
I was alone. Students had cleared out of the William H. Hannon Library with
great haste in the last hour. It was a little eerie, the awkward silence in the
big open hall.

I glanced down at my notes. I
didn’t need Lukas's phone timer. “Frequency description,” I said. I closed my
eyes, tried to remember the definition. “A description of a variable providing
the number of cases that fall into a variable’s category.”

I glanced at the definition. I
didn't get it word for word, but close enough.

“Okay, Frustration-aggression
theory.” I closed my eyes again. “That’s… that’s when… uhh…”

“That’s finding yourself in a
library on a Saturday night.”

My eyes shot open. I spun my
chair around. “What the…
Evan
?”

“Hey you.” He leaned down,
gave me a quick hug. He had his huge backpack slung over his shoulder.

“What are you doing here?” I
asked.

“I’ve been studying, too. For
the last hour or so. Have you been here long?”

“Not too long, no.” A small
lie. I didn’t need to tell him the exact timeframe. “I thought you were going
to that party with Melanie?”

He sat in the empty chair
next to me, and rested his backpack on his lap. “Nah, I bailed. I wasn’t really
in the mood, so I told her I'd meet up with her later.”

“You were in the mood… to
study?”

“That’s right.”

“On a Saturday night.”

“Mmm hmm.”

I squinted at him. Studied
him.

“What?” he asked. “Is it that
crazy I skip out on some lame party for once in my life? Besides, I need to
pull up my grades.”

I shook my head and brought
my hand to his knee. He didn't push it away. “No, no, that’s good!” The
smarter, the geekier, the lamer Evan was, the better. His just being in the
library made me want to jump his bones.
 

He scooted his chair closer
to me. Peered down at my notes. “You’re working on sociology, right?”

“Uhh, yeah. Just started.”

“Can I study with you?” He
put his left hand on the notebook, and his right hand on my shoulder. We both
sat in silence for a moment, as he perused the words and definitions. I tried
to focus, but knew I never could. The longer he kept his hand on me, the harder
it was not to squeal with excitement.

I caught Lukas walking toward
us in the corner of my eye. I wished at that point we had a signal we could
make to each other, some kind of gesture with our hands that said,
go away, I’ll call you in the morning
.
But no such luck.