She sighs again. “I’m no good at long-distance relationships.”
“You could come up here.”
She groans. “I asked my mom, but she said no. She—never mind.”
“What?”
“She’s kind of down on you right now. Because of the hit and run.”
My mouth drops. It’s her hit and run. I’m just covering for her.
“Yeah, I know,” she says in a rush of words. “It’s messed up. I tried to explain how it was an accident, but she didn’t really want to hear it.”
“Loooora,” I complain.
“I know! I’m sorry. I’ll keep working on her. By the time you come back, I’m sure she’ll like you again.”
“You have like eight months to convince her.”
“Eight months? Is it really that long?”
“Yeah. Graduation is in June.”
After a long pause, her voice comes out only slightly above a whisper. “June is a long time from now.”
No shit. It sucks. “Well, it’s June or years apart with me locked up,” I say with annoyance.
“You’re mad at me.”
I take a deep breath. Yes, I’m mad, though it’s not necessarily at her. It’s more the situation. And Wallingford. And her mom.
“Do you want to break up?” she continues.
“What?” I ask, stopping in the middle of the path. A guy crashes into my back and apologizes as he goes around. “No. Of course not. Why … do you?”
“Nooooo,” she says in a drawn-out way that makes the inkling of a suspicion grow into something more serious.
“What the hell, Lora?” I ask, my voice growing louder. “I thought we had something good, and you’re going to break up with me the first chance you get?”
“I said no! I just … I miss you. I hate being apart. It’s really hard.”
My eyes grow wide and practically pop out of my head. It’s hard for her? She’s got to be kidding me. She should try one day here. She’d never make it.
“Logan? You there.”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“We’re good, right?”
“Yeah, we’re good. Look, I’ve got to go do something. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay. Love you.”
“Love you, too,” I say automatically before ending the call and staring at my phone in disbelief. She’s going to break up with me. I honestly didn’t see this coming. We’ve always gotten along well, hardly ever fought, spent a ton of time together. We seemed to be in a good place. At least we were until the accident.
And now I’m going to lose my girlfriend in addition to my freedom.
Can life get any shittier?
I continue obsessing about the impending demise of my relationship the rest of the way to the bus and as I select a seat in front of Noah.
“You’re in this club?” I ask, sitting down and leaning against the window.
“Court-mandated. You okay?”
With a sigh, I reply, “I think my girlfriend is going to break up with me.”
“Sorry, man. Same thing happened to me.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Absence doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder. In my case, it made her stab me in the back.”
I raise my brows.
“She hooked up with this guy I’ve … had issues with in the past.”
“What kind of issues?”
“We had a falling-out over my prescription painkiller acquisition and resale hobby.”
It takes a moment for his words to register. When they do, I study him more closely than I ever have before. He still doesn’t look the part to me, although the camouflage pants and shirt, cammies as everyone around here calls them, could play a big role in that. “You’re really a drug dealer?” I never would’ve guessed. As much trouble as Gordy gets into a school, it’s over stupid stuff like truancy. I’ve never known anyone involved in truly illegal behavior before, and I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this new piece of information.
“I’m nothing now, but I preferred to call myself an entrepreneur back in the day. Why are you here?”
“Hit and run,” I say.
“Bummer. Manslaughter?”
“No! No one died—just some injuries and bad damage to a building. And I didn’t do it. My girlfriend did. I let her convince me to cover for her.”
“And now she wants to break up with you?”
“I think so.”
“Wow. She’s even worse than my ex.”
A commotion draws our attention to the door. Jernigan is there with Paige and a couple of other students, and they’re all laughing at something he said.
My frown deepens when I see her. I didn’t realize she was also in this club. I thought I was getting away from Wallingford and her.
Jernigan puts his hand at her lower back, and she smiles at him, says something, and then takes a big step, putting space between her and his hand before taking the seat at the front of the bus. He slides in next to her. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he has a thing for her and she … well, I can’t tell. She’s impossible to read. The way she looked at him says yes, but the slick way she evaded his touch says no. Then again, she’s acting very relaxed right now, not the Paige I’m used to seeing.
“Are Paige and Jernigan together?” I ask Noah.
“I’m not sure. Hey, Eddie,” he whispers to a guy sitting behind him. “Are Alex and Paige together?”
He shakes his head. “No, but he wants to be.”
“Sorry,” Noah says with a shrug, “but I’d stay far, far away from her if he’s interested.”
“What? Oh, no, I’m not … I was just wondering. I can’t really see her dating anyone.”
“Dating isn’t easy here,” Eddie says. “With the whole no-PDA rule on campus, it’s not exactly a dating paradise.”
I’m sure that’s what the administrators were going for. I continue watching them as they talk and laugh. Commander Jernigan sits too close to her, and she scoots back whenever he turns around. It’s still not conclusive, but it’s looking more like she’s not interested. I’m not sure why I would care one way or the other, but the growing smile on my face as I watch her makes me realize I do. Maybe it’s because Jernigan is a prick, always finding fault in something I’ve done. He’s even worse than Paige. Where Paige will usually wait to assign my punishment until we’re mostly alone, Jernigan will bark it out during formation or in the middle of the hallway between classes. For him, the bigger the audience and embarrassment, the better. The thought of him being shot down by someone may be the highlight of my day. Possibly my week.
Luckily, the two of them ignore me all the way to the animal shelter and they work in a different group than me. While they’re carrying hundred-pound bags of dog food from one storage room to another, I help other cadets disassemble tables and desks so they can be moved to the new reception area. It’s not exactly fun, but Noah and I talk the whole time, there’s no senior officer shouting orders, and there’s a TV hanging on the wall playing an old movie. Back home, I’d be thinking about ways to get out of this, but right now I’m trying to figure out a way to do community service every single day. Maybe twice some days.