Page 14 of The Hunt

Unfortunately, all of my positive thoughts about my new college instantly vanished when I caught sight of Jake standing outside the library.

“Shit,” I muttered, heart dropping into my stomach. I ducked behind a stone column, waited a few seconds, then peeked out, praying Jake hadn’t spotted me. Thankfully, he seemed far too engrossed in his conversation with a perky brunette girl to have noticed my arrival in the area.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I retracted my head, deciding to remain hidden in my spot until I knew Jake was long-gone. I knew it was pathetic and childish to hide from an ex, but I really,reallydidn’t want to deal with his shit today. Especially not after all the recent messages I’d received from him.

I peeked out again and saw him sauntering away, heading for the east side of the quad. That was the opposite direction from where I needed to go.Thank god.

I stepped out and hurried past the library, glancing at my watch as I went. I was supposed to meet the girls in the West End Café in two minutes, so unless I ran, I would be late.

“Excuse me!”

I glanced to my left and saw the brunette girl Jake had been speaking with waving at me. At first, I assumed she was one of his friends who wanted to berate me for ‘stalking’ him to Hollingsworth, or whatever his latest nasty claim about mehappened to be, so I looked past her, pretending I hadn’t seen or heard her.

That didn’t deter her. She waved at me again and smiled brightly. “Hi! How are you doing today?”

“Uh… hi,” I replied, brows dipping in a slight frown of confusion as I stopped. Had I met this girl somewhere and forgotten? “I’m okay, thanks.”

With that, the girl launched into a speech about helping people get off the streets and into housing. “For the same cost as one Starbucks frappe per day, you could help us provide shelter and meals,” she said, her eyes wide with practiced empathy. “It’s such a good cause, and it’s really easy to sign up too. All on a tablet.”

I winced, feeling a tug of guilt but knowing I couldn’t commit to even a small donation right now. “I’m sorry. I’d love to help, but I’m pretty strapped for cash. I can’t even afford a Starbucks frappe for myself once a week, let alone every day,” I replied, managing an apologetic smile. “But if I’m ever not a broke student anymore, I’ll look you up.”

“Oh, no worries! That’s totally fine.” The girl waved a casual hand. “Have a nice day!”

“You too.”

I resumed my walk toward the West End.

“Wait!”

The charity girl called out to me again, and I turned to see her hurrying toward me. I stopped and let her catch up, wondering if I’d dropped something.

“Hey,” she said, fishing a business card out of her pocket. “Sorry, I know this is totally awkward, but when you mentioned being a broke student, I figured this might come in handy for you one day.”

“Um… what is it?”

She handed me the card. “This is the other place I work at. It’s a finance center in Havenport that specializes in loans for students.”

“Oh, thanks, but I don’t really need a loan right now.”

The girl pressed on, seemingly oblivious to my words. “The owner started it to combat all those payday loan places with super high interest rates that prey on desperate students,” she said. “Our rates are very flexible. Some of them are as low as 2%.”

I still didn’t want to take out a loan for anything, but that rate piqued my interest. “Only 2%?”

“Yup. It’s really low, right?” the girl said. She lifted a palm and went on. “Anyway, don’t worry, I promise I’m not trying to sell you anything. But from one broke student to another, I just thought I’d mention it in case you ever end up in a tough spot. Like, say… your computer suddenly dies. Or you get a bigger phone bill than usual. Stuff like that. I know from experience how stressful it can be, and there are just so many horrible places willing to take advantage of people in situations like that.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind,” I said, tucking the card into my purse.

“Cool.” She smiled brightly. “Anyway, have a nice day.”

The girl went to turn away, but I took a slight step forward and spoke up again. “Sorry, I was just wondering… do you know that guy you were talking to before me?”

Her brows puckered. “What guy?”

“Tall. Sandy-blond kind of hair. Black sweatshirt.”

“Oh,him.” The girl wrinkled her nose and waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t know him. I was just trying to get him to sign up for the charity. But he said no after wasting my time trying to flirt for ten minutes.” She sighed, eyes rolling upward. Then she cocked her head. “Anyway, why do you ask?”

“I just wanted to say—if you happen to run into him again, be careful. I know him, and he’s a bad guy. Areallybad guy.”

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