CHAPTER 8
1973 Words
CHAPTER 8
Kennedy knew if she took the time to sit down, she wouldn’t get up again, but her bed tugged her toward it with an almost irresistible gravity. She threw her lab books into her backpack.
“So Reuben was here? Was he upset?”
Willow shrugged. “Does that guy ever get upset about anything? He must take, I don’t know, ten Prozacs a day or something. Is he a weed head?”
Kennedy shook her head, only half listening. “I left my phone here this morning so I couldn’t call him.” She glanced around her desk and rummaged through her top drawer. “Hey, could you call me? I still can’t find it.”
Willow let out a long, dramatic sigh that could have won awards if she had actually been on the stage, but she punched the buttons on her phone. “It’s ringing.”
Kennedy spun herself around in a slow circle. “I don’t hear it.”
Willow turned her cell off. “Maybe you let your batteries go dead.”
“Yeah, maybe.” It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time. The problem was she didn’t have Reuben’s number written down anywhere. She looked at her clock. Over an hour late. “He must think I’m such a flake. When did he stop by?”
Willow ran a hand through her long hair, which this week was tinted a somewhat convincing ginger tone. “Half hour ago, maybe? I don’t know. I’ve been busy.”
Kennedy glanced at the army shooter game on her roommate’s computer. “Looks like it,” she mumbled. “Hey, did he say where he was going to be? Did he mention the library?”
Willow was already back at her sniping. A fake death cry rang out as a puddle of red pixelated blood splashed on her screen. She didn’t respond. Well, Kennedy would try to send him an email and then head to the library to see if he was still there.
Kennedy waited for her desktop to load and opened a granola bar. What had she had for breakfast? It seemed like so long ago. And she and Reuben had at least three or four hours of work ahead of them to finish up that report. All she really wanted to do was sleep off the stress of the day. She glanced once more at her bed. Maybe a few minutes ...
Wonk. Wonk. Wonk.
Willow wrinkled her nose and covered her ears. “What’s that noise?”
The resident advisor from the boys’ side of the hall poked his head through their open door. “Fire drill,” he called out.
Kennedy groaned. She didn’t have time for this. She grabbed her backpack and decided to head right to the library. She could email Reuben from the computers there if she didn’t find him. Willow was moaning about having to start her level over again as she and Kennedy plodded down the stairs along with the other sluggish students. Several dozen were already outside by the time they joined the throng.
“So there you are.”
Kennedy turned toward the sound of Reuben’s voice and tried to muster the energy to smile. “I’m sorry about our meeting. It’s been a crazy day.”
She didn’t want to go into any details and was thankful when Reuben just remarked, “Hey, things come up. No big deal.”
“Well, I would have called. But I didn’t have my phone with me. I just got back to my dorm a few minutes ago, and I still couldn’t find it.”
“No problem.” Reuben’s eyes twinkled, and Kennedy had to laugh at his endearing way of staying so composed. There wasn’t much she suspected could make him mad, with the exception maybe of someone insulting one of his sisters.
“I was on my way to the library to look for you,” she said. “Do you want to head there?”
“Sure.” Reuben adjusted the straps of his backpack. “Did you print up the table from last week?”
Kennedy groaned. “I completely forgot. You know, things have been insane ever since that weird phone call Friday.”
“Hey,” Reuben insisted, “don’t worry about it.”
“We can go up now and grab it from my computer. Well, at least we can when this fire drill is over.”
“So that’s why you’re all standing out here?” Reuben chuckled. “I thought somebody put something rotten in the vent and smoked you all out.”
After a few minutes, the resident advisor shouted the all-clear, and Kennedy and Reuben headed up the stairs.
“Did your roommate tell you I stopped by?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m sorry you had to come all the way over here for ...”
“You don’t need to apologize any more. Your roommate’s very nice, by the way. Strange maybe, but nice.”
Yeah, that’s Willow. Kennedy kept the thought to herself. When they got to her room, she sat down and pulled up the files they’d need on her laptop.
“You can grab Willow’s chair until she comes back,” Kennedy offered. “It should only take me a minute.”
“Isn’t this yours?” Kennedy heard the smile in Reuben’s expression before she glanced over at him. “I thought you said you lost it.”
She reached out for the phone he dangled between his fingers. “Hey, where was that?”
“Right here on your roommate’s desk. I knew it couldn’t be hers. She isn’t the type to have John 3:16 on her phone case.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” Willow remarked from the doorway.
Kennedy put the cell in her bag. “Reuben just found my phone on your desk.”
“Huh.” Willow shrugged. “All kinds of mysteries today.”
“What other mysteries?” Kennedy asked automatically even though she was focused more on getting her file downloaded.
In her periphery, she saw Willow fling her hair over her shoulder. “I left around noon to find some breakfast. I know I locked up.”
Kennedy pressed print and wondered if Willow’s story had a point or if maybe she simply appreciated having a male audience member paying attention to her.
“Well, when I came back ...”
“Let me guess,” Reuben interrupted. “Your door was wide open.”
Willow pouted. “No. But it was unlocked. And I know for sure I locked it up.”
Kennedy shrugged. “I’ve done that before. Maybe we should mention it to the RA. Might be the lock itself.”
“Oooh,” Willow exclaimed, “let me be the one to tell him. I’ve been dying for an excuse to stop by his room.”
“You’d be better off going to Fatima. You know, the RA for the girls’ hall?”
Willow shrugged. “The other one’s cuter.”
Kennedy rolled her eyes, and Reuben stifled a chuckle. “What?” Willow asked. “Just because he’s a junior you think I can’t get his attention?”
Kennedy snatched the pages from her printer. “Come on,” she told Reuben. “Let’s get this lab finished up, now that we’ve wasted half the afternoon.”
“What?” Willow demanded. “You still don’t think ...”
Kennedy’s ringtone interrupted Willow’s tirade. “Is that mine?” she asked, digging it out of her backpack. “I thought the batteries were dead.”
“Guess it’s your lucky day.” Reuben headed for the stairs and Kennedy followed him out.
She didn’t recognize the caller ID. “Hello?”
“Kennedy, honey, it’s me, Sandy. I forgot to give you the cookies I made for you earlier. We were going to stop by and surprise you, but Carl lost the address you wrote for him.”
“I didn’t lose it,” Kennedy could hear Carl object in the background. “I had it right here on the desk. On a purple Post-it.”
“Well, anyway,” Sandy breezed over him, “are you at your dorm now? Because I want you to have them while they’re fresh. If I had been in my right mind, I would have sent them back with you this afternoon, but, you know ...”
Sandy’s voice trailed off. As Kennedy walked toward the library with Reuben, she searched for something to say to keep Sandy from feeling guilty over homemade goodies. “That’s really sweet of you. I’m actually getting ready to work on a lab report, but if you give me a call when you’re pulling up to campus I can come out to the parking lot and meet you.”
“I’m sorry we couldn’t surprise you, sweetie. But you know Carl, always misplacing everything ...”
Carl’s flustered reply was barely audible.
“Well, I’ll see you pretty soon.” Sandy’s voice rang out strong and melodic. “We just have to finish up these postcards.”
Kennedy was glad to note how much more chipper Sandy sounded compared to earlier.
“You know,” Sandy continued, “I feel awful about this afternoon. Here you are, I haven’t seen you since you were in my Sunday school class way back when, and we didn’t even get to have a proper how-you-doing chat.”
“Well, I know today’s been a crazy day,” Kennedy began and then stopped, reluctant to bring up the incident at the center.
“Don’t you worry about us,” Sandy prattled. “You know, Carl and I, we’ve been through hell and back more times than you’ve been around the sun. We’re just thankful you weren’t hurt, honey. And you weren’t too shook up, were you?”
“I’m all right,” Kennedy assured her, although thinking about that afternoon made her shiver in the autumn breeze. By the time Sandy was done talking, Kennedy and Reuben were already stepping up to the library.
Reuben held the door open. “That woman has a loud voice.”
“That’s the pastor’s wife at the church I checked out this morning. I knew her a long time ago, before we moved.”
Reuben didn’t say anything else as they made their way to their regular study spot near the art history books.
“So, you want to talk?” Reuben asked when they both sat down.
“Talk about what?”
“Whatever happened today. Why you were so late. Why you started shaking on the phone just now.”
“I wasn’t shaking.” Kennedy laughed nervously.
“Yes, you were. You want to talk?” he asked again.
She glanced at their books on the table. “Not really.”
Reuben leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and studied her. “All right. Then let’s take a look at that lab.”
They finished up their report a few hours later over dinner. Reuben even managed to keep from spilling anything on their paper or getting dirty finger smears on any of the pages.
“You doing anything else tonight?” he asked as they walked together back toward Kennedy’s dorm.
“I have to read a little more Dostoevsky. But that’s pretty relaxing.”
Reuben chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”
“Not many people use Dostoevsky and relaxing in the same sentence, I imagine.”
They said good-night, and Kennedy’s legs felt as heavy as titanium as she trudged up the stairs. She was glad Willow was out. She could use some quiet time to herself. She gathered up her robe and shower supplies when her phone rang. Not again. She glanced at the time. It could be her mother. She groaned and put down her towel when she saw the number. She had been so busy with Reuben she’d completely forgotten about those silly cookies.
“Hi, Sandy,” she sighed, trying to muster up some convincing resemblance to enthusiasm.
“Kennedy, it’s me.” When she heard the tension in Carl’s voice, Kennedy overlooked her own exhaustion.
“Did you find out who the girl is?” She clutched the phone to her ear.
“No,” Carl answered. “No, Sandy wanted me to tell you she’s terribly sorry about the cookies.”
Disappointment sank to the floor of Kennedy’s gut like a concrete ball.
On the other line, she could hear Carl sigh, too. “We’re just now leaving the center, believe it or not. We had the police to talk to, they went over the whole joint, then the reporters ...”
“It’s all right. Tell Sandy I just had dinner, and I’m stuffed now, anyway.”
“Well, she’s still planning to get these cookies to you.”
Kennedy wondered if maybe she should feign a diet or something so the Lindgrens would stop worrying. The gesture was nice, but Kennedy couldn’t imagine how fretting over a plate of sweets could be beneficial to their health.
“Anyway...” Carl let out a nervous-sounding chuckle. “The reporters are wondering who’s really behind the vandalism. One suggested Wayne may have planned it to garnish extra publicity.”
Kennedy’s whole face scrunched up at the thought of the politician. “Do they have any proof?”
“You know how reporters are,” Carl answered. “Act like they’re holding all the cards and you never know if they’re bluffing until you see it all in print.”
Kennedy didn’t know much of anything about reporters, but she was sorry the Lindgrens had gone through so much today.
“Well, I don’t want to bother you,” Carl said. “I should let you go. Sandy just wants me to say she’ll call you tomorrow about the cookies. We can’t have her baking go to waste, you know.”
Kennedy told Carl good-night and ended the call as her low battery light came on. That was weird. It was over halfway charged when Reuben found it that afternoon. She plugged it in and reminded herself to talk to her dad. Maybe it was time for a new battery or something.
She picked up her towel and stared around the room. What was it about being alone that made the back of her neck prickle? Had she gotten so used to having others around that solitude freaked her out and left her skin all covered in goose bumps? She glanced at the window to make sure the blinds were down, half expecting to see someone staring right at her.
What a crazy day. As she headed to the showers, she hoped tomorrow would be a little calmer.
- Writer
