Chapter 19: Day One

At seven the next evening, somebody knocked on my door three times, evenly spaced.

Caleb stood in the hallway with his hair still damp from a shower and a thermos in one hand.

In the other he held a foil packet and a digital thermometer.

"One hundred and four," he said, and held the thermometer out so I could read it.

I looked at the screen, and then at him.

"I checked it twice," he said. "I boiled it, I waited, and I checked it in the stairwell."

"You boiled it."

"Yes. It's a process. I don't know how you've done this every day."

"You get used to it."

"I don't think I will." He swallowed. "Day one."

"Day one of what?"

"You did ninety-nine," Caleb said. "I'm starting mine."

I leaned against the door frame, because my knees had gone strange.

"Caleb, we ended it on the quad. In front of a guard with a clipboard."

"I know. I read the report. He spelled Johnson with an H."

"I told him not to."

"He did it anyway." He didn't smile. "I'm not asking for anything, Sabrina. I'm bringing you water."

I took the thermos and drank.

It was one hundred and four degrees exactly.

I hated that it was exactly right.

"There's something I have to say first," I said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start She Chased the Campus Heartthrob, Then His Friends Came After Her from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.