YesterWorld (Book 2 of the Down World Series)

Original Edition: Chapter Thirteen

"My mother's gonna kill me," Christy muttered to herself, driving with both hands clutching the wheel and furiously scanning her rearview mirror. "I've never ditched school in my life."

"Well, there's a first time for everything," I offered, my eyes glued to the map on my phone to determine how many minutes remained before arriving at Kieren's school.

"I should have just loaned you the car. Then I could have gone to class."

"You really want me driving your car with no insurance? I'm the worst driver on the planet. Why do you think I bike everywhere?"

"'Cause you can't afford a car?"

"That's one reason. Turn right here."

Christy drove on for a few minutes in silence, twisting her mouth into anxious zig-zags. "Okay, can I just ask you something?"

"If your mother finds out, I'll tell her it was my fault."

"Not that."

"It's another three miles, then turn left."

Christy turned the front defrost on, clearing up a fine layer of condensation that had formed on the windshield. She was waiting for me to respond, I knew, but I was afraid of what her question would be.

"What is it?" I finally asked.

She hesitated briefly before opening her mouth. "I just...I don't understand why we're doing this. You haven't talked about this guy in almost a year. And you seem really happy with Brady. He's actually warm with you, he has a sense of humor. He treats you well."

"Kieren treated me well."

"Really? When? When he went to college and didn't call you for a month? Or when you stopped by his dad's phone store and found him in the backroom whispering with that girl?"

"When was that?" I asked stupidly, realizing immediately that it would seem like an odd thing to have forgotten.

"Seriously, you know when, Marina. It was like two weeks before Christmas. Remember? Because you had gone in to ask him what he wanted."

"They were just whispering," I said more for my own benefit than hers. "It could have been about work or something."

"Marina, honey, you are fooling yourself. What is this about?"

"I just...I can't explain it, Christy, but I need to talk to him."

Christy made the right turn into the campus gate, and we waited our turn for the car in front of us to finish checking in with the security guard.

"I just don't want to see you get hurt," she said softly as she pulled into a parking garage, before softly adding another word: "again."

*

I could only assume that the address I had for Kieren in my phone was still his dorm, although it occurred to me that it might have been old information. What if he'd moved this year, now that he was a sophomore? What if he wasn't even living on campus anymore? Was I standing outside this dorm, freezing my butt off while Christy went to find a coffee place to do homework, for absolutely no reason?

I was about to give up when a tall blond man that I didn't even recognize at first came out of the front door with two other young men. He zipped up his winter coat as he walked and laughed at something his friend was saying. Jesus, could that really be Kieren? How had he aged so much in just a year and a half?