Crashing Into You (25 page)

“
Really
?” I asked. It was hard to hide my shock at her reaction.
“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything before, I wasn’t sure how’d you take it. I
didn’t want you to freak out or anything.”

She shrugged. “I’m not
freaked out. I’m fine with it, seriously. I want you two to be happy.”

If she hadn't been facing me,
I would have let out the biggest sigh of my life. “That’s really mature of you,
Michelle. Thank you.”

Awkward silence followed. We
all just stared at each other for a moment.

“So,” Evan finally said, his
focus on Michelle, “what classes are you taking your first semester?” Since he sat
down, he had spent most of his time asking her questions. How are you? How’s
your mom? How’s the first day going? Is there anything I can do for you? He was
acting like a big brother—to the extreme.

“I’m, uhh, let’s see. I’m
taking English 101, which should be pretty easy. Psychology 101. Art of the
Cinema, with Sydney.”

“Oh, you two have a class
together?” Evan looked my way, for the first time in minutes. He gave me a
puke-worthy grin. “How neat.”

I bit down on my tongue. I
had almost forgotten, no matter how much I wanted to avoid Michelle, that I
would be forced to see her every Monday afternoon for the next sixteen weeks.

“Yes, that’s right,” I said,
and tried not to roll my eyes. “But Michelle, speaking of that... how’d you even
get in the class? I tried enrolling twice sophomore year, and it was always
full. And you're only a freshman.”

She shifted her gaze to the
table, like she was hiding something. “I don’t know. I guess there was a slot
open.”

“But... there couldn’t have
been. By the time freshmen sign up for classes, almost
everything’s
gone. Especially Art of the Cinema.”

Michelle wouldn't look at me,
for the first time since we took our seats. “I wanted to take some easy classes
my first semester, that's all. I didn’t want anything too difficult.”

“No, I get that, but—”

“So I talked to the
attendance office. Told them my situation. They made an extra slot for me.”

I veered my eyes toward Evan,
then back to Michelle. “You mean... you got in because of what happened to Melanie?”

“I wouldn’t really say it
like
that
, but yeah, I guess.”

She had used her sister's
death to enroll in a film class? That instantly rubbed me the wrong way.

 
I backtracked, though, and forced a
smile. Ridiculing Michelle wasn't going to score me any points with Evan. “I’m
not saying that’s bad. I mean, you’re right. You shouldn’t have a bunch of hard
classes your first semester. A lot of people in your position might have dropped
out of school completely, so I have to applaud you for that.” And the Oscar
goes to...

“Thanks.” She nibbled on her
sandwich. I had already pushed mine to the side. The pastrami was a little dry
tonight. “It’s like what I told you the other night, Sydney. I'm trying my best
to move on. I have to, you know?”

“The other night?” Evan asked,
and darted his eyes at me.

Shit. “Oh. Yeah. I forgot to
tell you. Michelle and I bumped into each other on Saturday.”

“Where? At the restaurant?” His
voice dropped a little lower, like he was upset, but I didn't mind. At least he
was looking at me for a change, and not her. “Was she the person you bumped
into when you were gone for an hour?”

“It was not an
hour
. It was twenty minutes, tops.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He
turned back to Michelle. “It's not a big deal, I just... I would’ve said hi to
you.”

“I don't know,” I said. “It
totally slipped my mind, I'm sorry. That night was kind of insane.”

Evan nodded. “You're right
about that.”

“Especially after dinner,” I
added, and brushed my shoulder against his chin. “We won by a
lot
, didn’t we?”

I laughed out loud, and Evan
finally broke a smile. I got lucky; Evan didn't seem to mind that I had kept my
little run-in with the look-alike a secret.
 

I glanced across the table,
as Michelle crossed her arms and stared at the two of us like we were her
mortal enemies. “I don’t think I understand,” she said.

Telling her Evan and I beat
Lukas and Robert in moaning decibel levels? Yeah, probably too soon. I shook my
head. “It’s nothing.”

“So,” Evan said, with yet
another question for the newbie, “what dorm are you living in?”

After a few more minutes,
Evan excused himself to go to his Monday night Courts, Law, and Society class—yawn—and
since Michelle’s dorm was on the way to my car, I had no choice but to walk her
home.

“So would you say you had a
good first day?” I asked.

“I think so,” she said. “I got
to spend some time with my roommate Sasha this morning. She reminds me of you,
actually.”

“Of me?”

She chuckled, and said,
“Yeah. I mean, just a little.”

“It's funny you say that. You
don’t remind me of
anyone
.”

She rolled her eyes, and chuckled,
again. She was so upbeat, for having gone through such tragedy; I couldn't get
over it. “Don’t get me started,” Michelle said. “You thought those two sorority
girls were bad. I had a freaking
janitor
ask me this morning if I was Melanie. Do I need to get a haircut or something?”

“Honestly?”

She nodded.

“A shorter haircut would not only
look really pretty on you, but it would definitely make you look different. At
least, a little bit. Right now it’s so uncanny. I think it's gonna freak some
people out.”

She yawned, and slapped her
hands against her hips. “You're probably right,” she said. “I'll go sometime
this week. Before the homework starts piling up.”

“Good idea.” I smiled. A
haircut for Michelle would be a welcome thing. For both of us.

We stopped in front of her dorm,
Rosecrans Hall. It was the most outdated of all the dorms on campus, and typically
housed the freshman stoners.

“Well, it was nice seeing you
again,” I said, with little emotion, and started walking toward the parking
lot.

“Same to you. Oh, and
Sydney?”

“Yeah?” I stopped.

She stayed focused on me,
like she was studying my every move. “I meant what I said before. I’m happy for
you and Evan. I hope it works out.”

She was so genuinely excited
for us that I wanted to throw up. It wasn’t normal. Four months after her
sister’s death, the boyfriend was dating the former roommate, and this didn’t
bother her? Either she was the most blissfully content person alive, or she was
putting on some kind of performance.

I wanted to believe the
former.

But the latter seemed way too
likely.
 

I unlocked my car and jumped
inside. I looked out the windshield, at Rosecrans Hall. I saw a figure walking
down the fifth floor hallway. Blonde hair, black shorts, cute figure. Michelle.

I tapped my knuckles against
my front two teeth and leaned against the dashboard. “Who the hell are you?” I
said, as I narrowed my eyes. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

Chapter 29

The rest of my first week
went as expected. I survived all the boring class introductions, and by
Thursday I was already depressed about the mountain of homework assignments piling
up. I saw a little bit of Lukas, and practically none of Evan, which I
expected. The only real surprise that week was that after Monday I didn’t bump
into Michelle a single time.

At least, not until the following
Monday.

Evan and I spent Labor Day at
Dockweiler State Beach, in Playa del Rey, just the two of us. I soaked up the
rays, while he poured over notes for his first test of the semester. We didn’t
say much to each other for the first hour, but it wasn’t awkward. I assumed if we
could reach a point in our relationship where we didn’t have to be constantly yapping
at each other all the time, there was a chance it would last. Back in high
school, James and I never had that. Three seconds of silence would go by, and then
he would be ranting yet again, about something neither of us particularly cared
about. Evan and I, on the other hand, were comfortable together, and never had to
resort to that bullshit.

I tilted my head back, gazed
up at the sweltering sun. I took in the silence.

For about one more minute.

A group of eight college kids
showed up to the right of us, just a few yards away. They dumped their bags and
beach towels on the sand, and started playing a volleyball game—girls
versus boys. I didn't recognize three of the girls. I did, however, recognize
Michelle.
 
 

She saw me right away, waved,
and ran over to us, rudely ditching her game.

“There goes the quiet,” I whispered.

“Huh?” Evan asked, finally
putting his notebook down.

“Hey guys!” Michelle skipped
up to us and stopped in front of Evan. “What a coincidence it is bumping into
you
here!”

“A coincidence indeed,” I
said, under my breath. I glanced at the strangers surrounding the volleyball
net. Michelle had made friends quickly.

“Sydney, what do you think?”
She showed off her new pixie haircut, and I shifted my gaze to the top of her
head. The hair was cut so radically short that from the back she might have
been mistaken for a boy.

“Oh, very nice,” Evan said.

I brought down my sunglasses.
Even with the new look, she still could have passed as Melanie's twin sister. But
it was an improvement, to be sure. “It's pretty,” I said, trying to sound
genuine.

“You guys want to join our
volleyball tournament?” she asked. “We just started.”

I didn’t rush to answer her
question. Instead I looked up and down her body. It was sickeningly perfect.
She wore a black two-piece bathing suit, with the top part so slim her
medium-sized breasts were nearly falling out. Her skin had no imperfections,
not even in her thighs or hips. Her belly button ring was small and silver, and
shined the sun into my eyes.

I pulled the sunglasses back
up, forced a smile, and said, “Thanks, Michelle, but not right—”

“That sounds
great
,” Evan said, interrupting me, as
he jumped to his feet. “I needed a break, anyway. Syd, do you want to come?”

My mouth hung open. “Uhh, no,
I’m good.”

“Okay. Be right back. Watch
my stuff.”

Watch his stuff? Was I his
mother? He raced over to the volleyball net and shook the hands of the other
boys and girls, who were probably all freshmen at LMU. I closed my eyes and
tried to relax, tried to clear my head. But my thoughts kept going back to
Michelle. That impeccable body. Her sweet demeanor. That face Evan loved that was
ripped away from him forever… only to magically return at the end of the
summer.

I darted my eyes toward Evan.
He joined Michelle’s team, even though it was all girls. He quickly scored two
points back to back, and slapped Michelle a victorious high-five. She patted
him on his lean chest, then whispered something in his ear. He nodded, and they
both laughed.

I gritted my teeth. Pulled my
sunglasses down again. I needed the sun to shine into my eyes so I would go
blind, and not have to see their little flirtations.

Later that night, I wasn’t
the one having trouble concentrating in bed; Evan was. I got on top of him, and
he tried his best. But nothing was taking shape. Crickets were enjoying more sexual
activity outside on the grass.

“Are you okay?” I asked. He
had never had a problem getting it up before.

“Yeah, sorry, I have a lot on
my mind. Give me a sec.” He sat up, kissed me hard on the lips. Still nothing.

“Evan, we don’t have to if
you don’t want to—”

“No, no. I do.” He pushed
himself to the back of the bed and said, “Here, you want to try something?”

I tapped my hands against his
shoulders, and gave him a soft peck on the nose. “You didn’t steal one of
Lukas’s sex toys, did you?”

He laughed, and shook his
head. “No. Here. Get on your knees.”

Evan slipped out from under
me and crept up from behind, like a quiet predator. His dick pressed against me,
and when he kissed the back of my neck, he got instantly hard.

“What the hell are you doing—oh,
whoa
.” He entered me from the back,
and started thrusting into me.

“That feel okay?” he asked.

“Oh, that feels
amazing
.” My breathing intensified. I
started licking the back of my upper teeth. “Evan... don’t stop…”

He kissed my neck and my
shoulders, then ran his tongue along the upper half of my back. I smashed my
hands against the wall, moved my body in motion with his. He rocked me back and
forth, faster and faster. For two minutes. Ten minutes. I let him.