Page 88 of Call the Shots
It took me forever to fall asleep last night. I kept tossing and turning, thinking about him.
“What time is it?” I tried to swing over the bed, but the dull ache of my ankle stopped me.
“Eight.”
“Eight?I unplugged my alarm clock?—”
“No, I unplugged it.”
“You—what?”
“You needed sleep.” He hesitated. “I’m sorry about last night. I haven’t…uh…talked about that in a while…”
“I won’t tell anyone,” I promise.
“I got you crutches and breakfast. I didn’t know what to get, it’s yourGianna’sorder. Usually you just have one of those shake things, but we drank a lot last night, so?—”
Slowly, I inched off the bed. “Um—thank you.”
I tried to tell him I was fine but no matter how many times I repeated it, Bear kept hovering. He joined me while I hobbled across campus, but his legs were too long. For every five strides of mine, it was one painfully slow step of his.
“I don’t like the big gestures for help, okay?” I whispered, burning bright red. “They’re mortifying.”
My crutches caught on the grate outside of my poli-sci building and Bear snagged my backpack, grabbing my neck like a kitten to pull it away from me.
“Bear!”
“It’s fine, I have your backpack.”
“I don’t want you to have it!”
Bear just walked ahead and waited, beginning the torture again.
I thought I got rid of him after my first class but when I walked out, there he was, scrolling on his phone. I tried to quietly crutch myself down the hall, but his footsteps echoed behind me.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I whispered, crutching a little faster before my backpack was yanked again. “Bear!”
“You’re going the wrong way. It’s this way.”
“Because I’m trying to get away from you—what?” I frowned. “How do you know my class schedule?”
“I asked Cleo.”
“She gave it to you?”
“Well, I wasn’t a hundred percent truthful about why I needed it?—”
“I’mfine.Leave mealone.”
Mortifying.Humiliating. Embarrassing. I had a headache that was dedicated to Bear when we walked into astronomy together. I took my usual seat and put my head in my hands. “Please stop following me around.”
The class was freed up from dropouts and students skipping, we were the only two people next to each other. “I’m sitting here in case you drop a pencil or something.”
“I’m not in a body cast?—”
“What do I do to even the score between us?”
“What are you talking about?”
