Page 41 of A Perfect World
“I know it feels like-”
“You havenoidea what it feels like,” I growled. I was shackled underwater with him far above the surface, my lungs screaming and heart shattering endlessly. “He’s not some guy I'll forget, my damn curse won’t let me.”
Hannah stood stunned with a spoon in hand and mouth hanging open. There was no point trying to explain myself. I grabbed my phone and ran out of the dorm, raw eyes searing. I didn’t care where I was going- I just had to get away.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
I slammed into a muscled chest.
“Sorry,” I muttered, wiping my nose on the back of my hand.
“Oh, hell no, who made you cry, Nemesis?”
I blinked away the haze of tears. Slowly it cleared to reveal Jack. “Nemesis?” I hiccupped.
With a sheepish smirk, he scratched the back of his head. “Yea, you’re right, not accurate anymore, I’ll come up with something better.” I jumped at a nudge against my leg. Big, brown puppy eyes belonging to Jack’s golden retriever, Buddy, peered at me as he pawed my leg and whimpered. “He says he doesn’t like to see you so sad.”
I scratched Buddy’s head, “I’ll be ok. I think,” I murmured to the dog. He whimpered, nosing my hand for more pets.
Jack looped an arm through mine and yanked me forward.
“You’re exactly who I was looking for.”
“Me?”
The door to the stairwell slammed shut with a bang, thundering down the concrete labyrinth. He dropped to the top stair and leaned against the wall. I lowered to the cold cement across from him, hugging my knees to my chest.
“Well… kind of.” He shrugged.
I craned my neck, scanning the gray and black stairs surrounding us. “And you needed to bring me… here?”
Buddy plopped on the landing, his sweet eyes trained on me with a creepy level of awareness.
“Yeshere, because I don’t want anyone listening and everyone’s too lazy to use the stairs,” he said matter-of-factly. It made some kind of sense. I wiped my runny nose on the cuff of my sweater.
“Ok, why?”
He exhaled dramatically and dropped his head back to stare at the ceiling. “I can’t find Ollie.”
My stomach sank. “He didn’t tell you?”
Jack’s head snapped back to me, brows lowered. “Tell mewhat?”
I shifted, my butt already numb from sitting on straight concrete.
“He went home.”
Jack shot to his feet so fast I almost rolled down the stairs. “Why the fuck did he go back there? He wasn’t supposed to go back there. He can’t go back there,” He ranted, pacing the landing. Buddy sat up, ears alert.
“His mom called and he was really upset-”
“Fuck!”
Jack’s curse bounced back at us a hundred times. He dropped to a squat, hugging his head.
“He said he didn’t think he’d come back,” I whispered.
Dark eyes met mine with abject horror. “So, you’re telling me, my best friend willingly traveled straight to hell with no plans to return? He’s making the trip to Mordor without back up? Without a game plan? Without-”
