Page 21 of Find My Way Down to You

Without thinking, my eyes leap back to him.

His head turns, as if he feels my stare. Our eyes meet. A chill slithers down my spine. There’s a hint of surprise in Cary’s face, like yesterday. The disbelief quickly dies, replaced by hard eyes, his arrow-shaped jaw straining against his skin.

Before my next breath, he disappears. The girl does too.

For a moment, I’m frozen. Shocked. Anger burns that feeling away. He knows what happened to Hal. And I want answers.

Now.

“Leaving so soon?”

The not-drunk boy inspects me, another drink hovering just shy of his amused lips. I forgot about him. I forgot what we were even talking about. My brain can only focus on one thing:

He’s leaving.

“I have to go,” I say, my voice tight with urgency.

One corner of his mouth goes higher. “Found the place you want to be?”

I don’t respond. Who was that girl and what was she doing withCary?

I’ll never find out standing here.

“Sorry, it was nice to meet you,” I say in a rush, already shoving my way into the hallway and down the stairs.

The night’s air wraps around me like a fist. This close to the sea, the draft is strong. I can taste the salt in my throat as I look left and right.

No one’s here. Only a wide green campus that I know very little about.

It’s a maze with its identical palm trees and ivory buildings. I turn in circles. Suddenly, I can’t remember which way we walked earlier. And there’s nothing to indicate what direction Cary went. Not a single footprint in the lush grass.

Where is he?

I run, fast and determined. My feet pound against the stone walkways. I cross through an empty quad. Past the library lit orange by streetlamps. My eyes search hastily around.

A buzzing noise loops in my head. I ignore it, just like I ignore how my lungs swell and shrink too quickly. The exhausting ache that climbs up my legs.

Nightfall reshapes the campus until I’m not sure if I’m farther or closer to where I started.

Finally, I stop in another quad. A large fountain sits at the center. Sweat drips down my brow as I walk around it. My heaving chest fills with disappointment.

He’s gone.Again.

In the middle of the stone fountain is a sculpted warrior on a pedestal. A Trojan, Santa Barbara State’s mascot. Water leaps in clear streams from the well surrounding him. It falls back down in a splashing melody. Beneath that, I hear the buzzing again, loud, incessant.

It’s my phone.

“Whereareyou?” Max yells the moment I answer.

“I don’t know.” I turn in another circle. “Nearby? I think I see a cafeteria.”

“Why’d you leave?” Her voice is a mix of fury and frustration and fear.

“I saw him.”

“Saw who?”

“Cary.” His name is like sand in my mouth, coarse andunwanted. “He’s on campus. I need to find him and—”