Beyond Reason

Chapter 3: The girl

~Keenan~

When I first saw Kevin Alvarez's sister at Haskins' party, the first thing that came to my mind was that she'd come as his personal chauffeur. It was the only thing that could've brought her out on a Thursday.

I watched her for a few minutes before I realised, from her constant phone checks and knee bounces, that she wasn't finding her mission easy.

She did the same thing every time: walk in, go around, maybe get a drink (entirely by chance), find Kevin and then leave. If she's at school parties, she'd dance and socialise for a bit, then disappear, reappear later and then leave.

Although I'd seen her around so many times, we had never actually spoken, and I didn't want our first conversation to be a version of "hey, your brother's out back in the pool doing the coke I sold him," so I relaxed and watched her go around in circles—it wasn't like there had been anything better to look at, anyway.

After a few more minutes of roaming the party, she went upstairs, so I took the opportunity to attend to a few of the shitheads lurking over my shoulder like dogs in blatant need of rabies shots.

It was almost midnight, meaning I'd exhausted my usual supply of molly. All that remained was some strange new shit Rob had sent me and the fools still wouldn't leave me alone. I didn't know what it contained, so I gave a clear warning stating exactly that, then sold it to them. Probably bad for them, good for Rob.

I headed outside to get some air and—if I'd find him— let the sad fucker know his sister was looking for him so she could finally go home.

A few minutes later, I came back inside without doing either of those things. My first sight was of the very same blonde girl I'd been watching, except she was swaying in her steps, barely aware of what planet she was on. Spiked with fear, I spun around to check on the guys, and they all had their fists to their mouths.

That was when I knew I'd fucked up.

~~~~

Joey sits on the edge of my bed and grabs the glass of water from before, her fingers shaky—either with fear or nerves— as she brings it to her lips. She barely takes a sip before setting it back down.

"Look, it's not that bad," I say, doing my best to console her.

"I missed my midterm exams," she says, fear in every line of her face. "Of course, it's bad!"

I shake my head, trying to find the best possible way to relay my next piece of information. "You didn't...the exams didn't hold. They were postponed."

"How?"

I pause again. The more I tell her, the more she'll see me as the rest of them do. There's a chance she already does, but so far, she hasn't shown any signs of fear or mortification at being in the same room with me, so maybe there's a chance she doesn't know who Keenan Reid is—yet.

I shrug. "No idea. But I know that the exams were shifted."

Her face relaxes with relief. "To when?"

"After spring break," I tell her.

She nods and exhales, calm descending over her. "At least that's good news. You know, the last thing I need is my complete ass of a professor on my case." She rolls her tired eyes at the thought of whoever her professor is. "You don't go to Bowen, do you?"