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He'd been in and out twice already, each time punching angrily at keys on his phone. She'd watched the first time out of curiosity, and the second time because she could. By the third time, she'd decided she'd had enough. He looked too old to be one of the undergrads, way too old. And this was a library. He could at least have the decency not to slam the third floor door every time he stalked off. "If you're looking to sneak up on people in the stacks, ain't no one here but me and the dust," she called out, as he walked past. She was huddled around a small fort of textbooks, easy to miss in the dim library lights. It seemed like he meant to keep walking, and then he didn't. He turned his head back towards her, and she could almost see his calculations. Of course, if he were one of those creeps, she'd just made it real easy for him. "What're you doing in the library at 3 a.m.?" That wasn't the question she'd expected him to ask. As he got closer to her table, she could tell that he was definitely older than most undergrads, but not too old. It was probably just the obscene levels of scruff and dirt that made him seem that way, and really, she didn't mind any of that. She definitely wasn't checking him out or anything. "Studying. What're you doing here?" "Studying," he said, which must have been a joke as she hadn't seen him with any books. "Well, I was -- but my brother Merle keeps getting himself into shit with security… I told him to stay away from here, but he don't listen." Merle. The name rang a bell. "Merle Dixon's your brother?" she said. "Yea -" He scowled. "Suppose you've heard of him." "Only through my sister. I heard he left the year before I came here." She picked at one of her books, realizing that he hadn't hurried off yet. The Dixon brothers were supposed to be a whole lot of trouble, which meant that she should stay far, far away from this one. "You want help?" He snorted. "Yea, what you gonna do? Act as a distraction? Bat your pretty little eyelashes and hope the cops don't notice while I sneak my brother out the back?" She looked him up and down, and then left her books where they were. "You bet your ass I am." -- -- -- They walked across the campus in silence. She was beginning to think that she'd offended him, not that it mattered much. She'd convinced herself that she was doing this because she'd wanted to be rid of the distraction. But she knew it wasn't that. After spending hours with her textbooks, she needed to get out, and the best way to do that was in violating about half a dozen school rules. Right? She kept pace with his long strides. The rest of the campus seemed fairly deserted. Here and there, she thought she heard the ragged strains of a car stereo, or drunken shouts. But mostly, everyone seemed to have vacated the campus for the outer ring of frat houses and guaranteed loud parties. Beth didn't do loud parties, which was part of the reason she was stuck alone in the library on a Friday night. She also didn't do alcohol, or weird adventures with strange men. She supposed there were exceptions to some rules. "You got a plan?" They'd stopped a few feet from the campus security office, just far enough that they were outside the range of the security cameras. "Don't worry about me," she said. "Just get it done." She walked around him and headed straight for the door. She walked with a confidence that she didn't feel. It wasn't until she was at the door that she realized she didn't have a plan. She'd never broken someone out of campus security before. Hell, she'd never as much as crossed the line with any authority figures. She almost her Daddy's voice telling her that any sort of man who got her into trouble wasn't someone she should be hanging around. And yet, here she was, staring up at the rickety screen door, barely held together with duct tape. The security office looked like an old maintenance shed, converted now to a part-office, part-drunk holding tank for wayward students. But even a fresh set of paint couldn't hide what it had once been. She didn't hesitate as she pushed open the door. She walked straight up to the first officer, the one who seemed to be in charge, and sobbed.. "I - I - I don't know what to do," she said. "One of my friends. We were walking back from -" She tried to remember the name of that party street where everyone went. "- the soccer house. And this wild animal - I think it was an animal - it just jumped out of the bushes, and my friend fell, and she's lying out there, and I think you all need to…" Wild animal attacks weren't exactly uncommon in these parts, she knew. But even so, a wild hog on university grounds wasn't likely to be believable. There'd been none of the usual evidence that a pack was even in these parts. So, she stumbled forward. The officer behind the desk came out to steady her. "Now, look," he was saying, but she wasn't really listening. In her faked fall, she'd caught site of a mirror pointing into the backroom, the only other room in the place, which had fallen silent upon her arrival. "I know what you must think. Some dumb drunk girl. But you all need to get out there right now. My Daddy's farm had these feral hogs, and y'know… They could rip a person in two." She sobbed into her hands because -- yea -- she had to play this for what it was worth, or risk everything. "My poor Lottie…" "Okay, sweetheart, okay. I'll send an officer out to look for your friend…" The officer was hovering over her, as though scared to touch her for fear she'd fall apart. The other officers had stopped playing cards and were watching her, too. "You might want to send a back-up," she said, shakily, "if you knew what those things were capable of… and there aren't enough trees on this campus to provide decent cover." The officer seemed to consider this, before asking, "And what about you? Can't leave you all shook up in here." She smiled, a shy small smile. "I can text my sister to come and get me," she said. "She's probably worried sick as it is." "You sure?" Officer Scott didn't look as though he was about to let her go. "Yea - yea, those feral hogs haven't got anything on my sister…" She watched until she was sure they were gone, and then headed towards the back room. Fortunately, it was empty. She was walking back to the library when the other man seemed to appear out of thin air. She stopped and looked around. "You got what you wanted done?" He seemed to shrug and fall into step next to her. "I should thank you." "No need. I'm pretty sure campus security doesn't even know what a feral hog is…" She felt his arm pressed against hers. "Let's hope they never have to find out…" They were standing at the foot of the library steps. Maybe it was the dimness of the campus lights, or just the elation at having done something very, very wrong. She didn't know, except she did know that he might have been attractive under ordinary circumstances, and these were far from. "Hopefully your brother's alright." "I got him locked in my car." He didn't seem the least bit bothered by the inhumanity of that. "Hope the son of a bitch doesn't puke all over the place." He paused, seemingly looking through her. "You need me to walk you home?" "No, I've got it. I've still got about half a dozen articles to read for my paper." A small smile lit up his face. "Well, I'll see you around." -- -- -- -- She might never have seen him again, if it hadn't been for her sister. "I'm not interested," she said, for about the fifth time. "C'mon, you can't sit holed up in the library all night reading obscure theories." She knew Maggie was in the doorway, arms folded, possibly even tapping her foot to an unheard rhythm, but she didn't turn to look. "Beth…" "Alright." She pushed back her chair and smiled up at her older sister, trying her best not feel sick inside. She didn't like parties, or really any of it, but she'd do it for Maggie. "Just this once, and you owe me…" The party was at the aptly named lacrosse house. She said aptly because it was where all the lacrosse players lived, and that was about the last place she'd have wanted to be on a Saturday night. There was the usual loud music and sloppy drunkenness, but Beth had long abandoned that for a spot on the back porch, where she had a cup of water and a view of the Georgia night sky. It was okay not to get drunk at high school parties and still have friends. College parties were a little different. She sighed when she heard the back door creak open again, expecting another sloppy couple stumbling out into the dark quiet of the yard. But instead, she felt the weight of the porch shift under her. She turned to see the man from the library, which was strange, as the lacrosse house was even less his scene than it was hers. She still wasn't convinced that he even went here. "You don't like people, or something?" "No… It's not that." She turned her gaze back to the stars. "I just don't like parties. Like -" "Yea." She smiled a little bit, wondering how it was that she could have this connection with a complete stranger. "You know, I never got your name…" "Daryl." "Beth." She let the silence wash over her. It was nice, sitting here with him, and not having to fill all those awkward spaces of conversation that she hated. "Is your brother here?" She felt the weight of the man shift next to her. "Nah, he's stuck out in some cornfield… I might have…I might have left him there." "You left your brother in a cornfield?" She couldn't help but laugh. It was a soft, clear sound that filled the night air. "That's awful." "Yea, didn't need a repeat of last weekend. Even if your performance was worth a repeat." "It was nothing. I only needed to get you out of the damn library so I could study." Their arms were touching again, and she could smell the alcohol oozing off of him. "You're drunk," she said, sitting back. "I might be." The way he looked at her made her pause. She could count what she knew about this man on one hand. He had bad study habits, if he even studied. His brother was trouble. And her sister had made it more than clear that getting involved with people like the Dixons wasn't worth it. It was one of the few lessons that Beth had bothered to learn from her sister. That, and be better about letting Daddy know what an awful drunk you are. She shook her head. "I don't do drunk. I should -" "You want to get out of this place?" She looked at him. She knew that her first response should be no. She'd done enough for him -- what with lying to security and all. And now she was sitting out here, with a man probably twice her age, who probably wasn't even a student and drunk to boot. She could hear her Daddy's voice warning her about all that trouble on university campuses, and this - this was definitely trouble. "Yea," she said, "I'd love to." -- -- -- They didn't go far. There was a row of raggedy rowhouses behind the party houses, and beyond that, there were some woods. It might have been romantic, if she weren't scared that her sister was going to find her body out here. She might have trusted this man, back where there was lights and music, but out here, she didn't quite know if she did. "Are you even a student?" she asked, feeling bolder as they stepped under the trees. He chuckled. "Yea, got me a degree in criminal justice. You?" "Psych," she said. "I'm going to be a social worker." She stepped over a broken rusty can, almost stubbing her toe against a tree root. "You're not going to leave me out here like Merle, are you?" He stopped so suddenly that she fell into him. He caught her, and set her right, giving her that look that made her feel like she was under some sort of cross-examination. He'd make a pretty great cop, if he ever went that route. She swallowed. "I only ask," she rambled, "because it's like some set up to a horror movie…" "Is that what you're thinking?" "No… But I mean, when you said…" She was damn grateful for the darkness because she was blushing. "Nevermind. You didn't answer my question." "No." Even in the dark, she knew he was grinning. "Just thought you might enjoy the best damn spot here to look at the stars. Seemed like that was all you were doing back there, anyway." She smiled in spite of herself. Maybe her instincts had been right. "And where's that?" She felt her pulse race as his hand wrapped around hers and pulled her through the trees. Suddenly, they were standing on the edge of a clearing, not even four square feet wide. Far above her were all the stars she'd learned as a child, beautiful and distinct against the velvety sky. And if they were still holding hands as they sat on the grass and counted constellations, she didn't mind. |