Page 13 of The Wrong Quarterback

I forced myself to leave the shoes, knowing it would just set her off again in the morning if she saw they were gone, and then I strode out of the room, setting the empty bowl in the sink before I hurried toward the door.

After all of that, she still hadn’t eaten.

My gaze got caught on the dust-covered frames on the mantle. Photos from a life that felt like it belonged to someone else. The three of us—Walker, Cole, and a tiny me—grinning like idiots next to Dad, all of us clueless about how fast things could change. How everything could stop.

Walker and Cole were lucky.

I got it, I really did. They were older, so the contrast from how Mom was then to how she was now was sharper. Their demons were closer to the surface.

But man, some days, this fucking sucked. ThatIhad to be the one who walked into the tomb of a house and faced what was left of her. They didn’t have to see the way her eyes glazed over, or how she couldn’t remember if she’d eaten that day. Didn’t have to deal with the anger or the tears or worse…the blankness.

I ran a hand through my hair, trying to shove down the frustration bubbling up inside me. I wasn’t supposed to feel like this. I was supposed to understand, to handle it. But sometimes, it was too much.

I stood there for a second longer, waiting for something. Maybe a sign that things could change. But all I heard was my mom whimpering in her sleep.

And that was all I could take for the day.

I turned and walked out, the screen door creaking shut behind me. The weight in my chest stayed, though, clinging to me like the dust that covered everything in this place.

One thing I knew as I drove my truck away from the house like I was being chased…ghosts were real.

My mom was one.

CHAPTER 3

CASEY

“Ishouldn’t have had that third espresso,” Nat moaned as we walked across campus, weaving through the steady stream of students heading to their first classes. She was hopping every third step, talking really fast, and she looked a little green…but otherwise she looked beautiful. Her blond hair was down in beachy waves I’d never be able to do on myself, and her makeup looked like something out of a magazine.

“How did you drink three that fast?” I asked. I was still holding my mostly full first cup, feeling too nervous to add much caffeine to the mix.

“It all happened so fast,” Nat whispered as she brought her fourth espresso up to her lips.

I snorted, glad for the distraction. I hadn’t slept at all last night worrying about today. And how it would feel starting classes at the university Ben was supposed to attend.

This was supposed to behimwalking along this path,himgrabbing coffee at the Student Center,himtaking the campus by storm. Knowing Ben, he would have already had tons of friends in the three days of orientation.

It should have beenhimhere.

Not me.

“Hey, smile, Roomie. I’m the one that’s supposed to be puking this morning,” Nat teased, nudging me with her elbow. I hadn’t told her about Ben yet, but I’m sure it hadn’t escaped her notice that I was prone to melancholy. So far, though, she’d been kind enough to ignore it.

“Sorry,” I huffed. “Just nervous, I guess.”

Nat bit her lip as she studied me for a minute. “I think this is going to be a very good year for us, Casey Larsen. I just have a good feeling about it.”

I had to grin back.

The morning air was cool, and I was still getting my bearings on the campus layout. I’d been the awkward turtle who had walked my whole class schedule yesterday so that I didn’t get lost on my way to class…only for Nat to decide to go a completely different direction.

We turned a corner, and I came to a halt when I saw a massive concrete building that looked like it had been plucked from some dystopian movie up ahead. Strange symbols were carved into the stone, giving it a dark, secretive vibe that didn’t match anything else around campus.

“Wow. What is that?” I asked, tilting my head as I stared up at the ominous structure.

Nat snorted, shooting a look like she was half-annoyed, half-intrigued. “That? That’s the Sphinx.”

“The Sphinx?” I repeated. I didn’t think that I’d heard of that in any campus tour or catalog.

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