One & Only

Chapter Ten

TEN

I wasn’t even to campus on Monday morning when I got a text from Dylan.

We need to talk. Meet me in the atrium ASAP.

Fear bubbled in the pit of my belly. Was he breaking off our partnership after I’d blown him off at Verde on Sunday? Or because he realized that working together was just too weird? Or maybe it was because I wasn’t good enough? He couldn’t do that! I needed this project. I needed the money. I needed…Dylan.

I took a deep breath.

What’s wrong?

There was no reply. I sped to campus, parked, and tried to look calm as I approached the glass doors to the bioengineering lab. Dylan was standing by the stairs, and his face was grim. Today, the glasses were absent and his frown left me cold. I’d honestly never seen him so serious. 

He saw me, and there was no brightening in his expression. I’d never before realized it, but there was always a hint of a smile when he first caught sight of me. The fear boiled over. Maybe this didn’t have anything to do with our work at all. Maybe he somehow found out about me and Hannah. About my dad.

That was silly, though. It wasn’t possible. Even if he’d noticed our eyes, most people would write that off as a coincidence. Lots of people had similar eyes. I smoothed my hands over my jean skirt, tugging down the folds that always formed over my hips when I sat. What I wouldn’t give sometimes to have tiny little hips like Hannah. 

What I wouldn’t give to have a lot of Hannah’s things.

I took a breath, pulled my shoulders back, and walked over.

“Good, you’re here,” he said, his tone flat. “You have to see this.”

He led me over to the lab sign-up sheet posted on the board outside the admin offices. Elaine Sun was signed up for Monday through Wednesday evenings every week for the rest of the semester in the lab we’d been using for our sessions.

“She’s trying to sabotage us,” he growled. “I know it. She’s studied our schedule and she must know you can’t make it at any other time.”

“So this thing really is cutthroat.” And to think one of the things I was looking forward to at Canton was not competing for lab space.

“When it comes to Elaine?” His tone was grim. “Yes.”

I laid a hand on his arm. “We’ll find another lab space.”

“Not with all the equipment we need, and not for as much time as we’ll need it. She arranged this very neatly. And, lest you think I’m being paranoid, look at this.” He pointed at erasure marks on some of the pages, and I could see the ghost of Elaine’s name. “She erased every Thursday or Friday slot she had and every slot she had where we had classes. Now she’s only reserved our lab for the times we need.”

“Maybe her schedule changed?” I suggested. “I can’t imagine someone going through all this trouble just to mess with us.”

“Well, you’re a better person than Elaine.”

No, I was just a busier one. I could barely get my own shit together, let alone figure out how to fuck up someone else’s.

He slammed a fist against the board. “I’m so angry at myself right now. I don’t know why I didn’t sign up for the whole semester right off the bat.” Up until now, Dylan had just been signing us up for the labs when he came in for his early Monday morning class. “But in two years, I’ve never had a hard time reserving a space. I’ve ruined everything.”