Red Alert/Red Notice (The "Super Jerk" Prequel)

15 - Wrapped Around Your Finger

^^Above, chapter title credit: Song by the Police.^^

{Geoffrey}

The move into the frat actually isn't bad. Matt and I still share a room, but it's bigger now and we get our own bathroom. He seems a little better after a couple weeks at home, but we're still on only semi-speaking terms. The only one I can't get off my back is Ridley. I'd managed to persuade Jake into giving him an interview at least, so he thinks I did something. But sure enough, four days into the new semester, he manages to track me down before class.

"Hey, Geoff," he says, pulling me out of the way. "There's something I wanna show you. Are you free tonight?"

I think of Raina, who I haven't seen since we left for the holiday break. I'd been planning on going over there tonight to surprise her, but now I guess it'll have to wait.

"I...guess," I say, even though I don't know what I'm getting myself into.

"Cool." His expression is surprised, like he wasn't expecting me to accept it. "Meet me out front after dinner?"

"Um...sure." It'd been nice, not having to look at or talk to Ridley all the time we were away. But now that we were back, I have to get back to expecting him everywhere I go.

"Don't bring anyone, okay? It's something I want just us to know about."

That, more than anything, sets off an alarm bell in my mind. He'd been wanting to get me alone most of last semester, but I'd always had Matt with me. If I can convince him that this doesn't look right, then maybe he'll come with me. Or even better, stop me.

≈

"Ridley wants you alone?" Matt says when I tell him. "If he'd wanted some private time, why doesn't he just ask you out?"

"Come on, man, this is serious." At least Matt's coming back around to joking with me. "I don't trust Ridley, and I know you don't. That's why I'm telling you."

Matt stops twiddling his Rubik's cube and sits up. "You think he's gonna pull something? Or try to?"

I shrug. "I dunno, actually. I didn't like the look of that green stuff, but who knows what that's going to be."

"Okay. Here's what we're gonna do. Is he driving you?"

"He didn't specify."

"Well, whatever he does, I'm gonna tail you. Just so, you know, he doesn't try to blow you up or anything. Sound okay?"

"Thanks, Matt," I say, and I mean it.

"Hey, no problem." He shrugs. "Besides, we're not just roomies now, we're brothers."

So after we finish dinner around seven-thirty, I bundle up and go outside to meet Ridley, who's leaning against the hood of a car. Despite the chill he doesn't seem cold at all, dressed in just jeans and a sweatshirt with a beanie over his hair.

"You look warm," he says to me when I join him. "Really bundled up for this, didn't you?"

"It's freakin' thirty-eight degrees out here, Ridley." I can feel the cold even through my sweater, jacket, and coat. "Let's get this crazy thing over with so we can come back and get warm."

He pushes himself away from the hood and walks around to the driver's side, while I get in shotgun. I glimpse Matt from the front window of the frat house, and he gives me a nod, so discreetly that I barely see it. Then Ridley puts the car in gear and we're off.

We drive across the river and then keep going, headed due east. I watch a neighborhood whip past, and after that, forest. Then, abruptly, he turns left. Through a break in the trees, I see a lake, crusted with ice. And then it's more driving straight. I check my watch; it's been forty minutes since we left campus. Wherever he's taking us, it must be really out of the way.