Page 29 of Olivia's Only Pretending
“I have your other shoe!” another shouted.
“Jessica! You can jump down barefoot. It’s okay! Come on!”
“Guys, we have to get out of here before security comes sniffing around. I can’t get another fine!” someone scolded the group.
We slowly realized the shouting group of students was climbing down the roof of the theater building behind the bulletin board.
“The students like to climb on the roofs,” I whispered. “They also like to pull fire alarms.”
“Pull fire alarms?” Victor echoed.
“Yeah, pulling fire alarms. It’s been a campus drama lately.” I nodded, rolling my eyes. “Fire alarms going off randomly, day or night.”
The group finally jumped down. Then they raced past us in a rush of giggles and heavy, nervous breathing.
After they left, I turned back to Victor. My hands were still on his chest. His hands were still around my waist.Where were we?
Serious and focused as before, he said, “I think we should climb up on that roof.”
Climbing onto the roof wasn’t as easy as the students made it seem, for me anyway. Victor seemed to be a natural. He hoisted me up onto the roof and then basically leaped up after me with ease.
While I was nervously scrambling on all fours to find a place to sit, he strolled around the roof, taking in the view. I was pretty certain I’d pulled something in my lower back but didn’t feel like mentioning it to the twenty-four-year-old guy with perfect balance.
“This is like a much cooler tree house. I see why kids like to climb up here,” he said, with his hands tucked into his jacket pockets. He turned back to glance at me.
I was sitting with my knees folded to my chest. The breeze pulled a few strands of my ruby hair out of my bun, and they were flying around my face, around my neck.
“Hey.” He plopped down beside me.
“Hey.” I rested my head on his shoulder. “It’s been fun having you here tonight.”
“I had a great time. I liked seeing the faces and voices to match the work stories you tell me.” He gestured at the dark campus below. “I’m finally getting to see the place you run around every day.”
It was really fun to share these pieces of myself with him. I relished it in a way I hadn’t anticipated. “Does it match what you imagined?”
“Yes and no.” He tapped his knee thoughtfully. “I thought you’d be a little more freaked out, honestly. With …” He rolls his eyes while he says his name. “Ryan,there.”
“I honestly kept forgetting he was there. Forgetting why I had my copilot enlisted for support.”
“You started thinking you just had me there as your hot young buck or something?”
“Please, don’t ever say that again.” I covered my face with my hands. But to a degree, maybe he was right. I’d started thinking Victor was there just for fun.
He pulled my hands from my face. “I’m kidding. I’m kidding. But speaking of Ryan, he did interrupt a conversation.”
I nodded. The one about passion. A conversation we’d started at absolutely the wrong time and place. “You were making some good points about passion. I’ll admit.”
“I think your dad has given it a bad rap when you don’t need to be so afraid of it.”
“I know it isn’tpassionI’m actually afraid of … it’s …” I looked out at the tops of oak trees veiled in night, thinking.
I was afraid of a loss of control.Of loosening my tight grip on things like my heart, my time, my future.
“I like to feel sure of something before I take a chance on it,” I finally said.
Victor sat quietly beside me, taking his time with his response. “But are you really taking a chance then?”
A couple strolled by hand in hand on the sidewalk down below, their voices a distant murmur.
