Chapter 21: Thirty Days

Caleb's POV

I sat on the hallway floor outside her door with my back against the cinderblock.

My tie was in my pocket.

At midnight, a girl in pajamas stepped over my legs.

"Is that the guy from the video?" she asked her friend, not quietly.

"Yes," I said. "Sorry."

At half past twelve, Dani came up the stairs with a bag of pretzels.

She stopped in front of me and looked me over.

"She's awake," she said. "She's doing push-ups in the dark."

"Push-ups?"

"She does them when she's furious and doesn't want to throw anything."

Dani held out the bag.

"Eat. She'll open the door when she's ready, and not one minute before."

"Is that a promise?"

"It's a roommate's professional opinion."

She went into the room she shared with Abigail and shut the door loudly, so I'd know she wasn't listening.

I ate three pretzels and looked at the ceiling.

I thought about the way I'd stood up in the rock hall, with the words already coming out.

I hadn't decided to do it.

My body had decided, the way it used to at the sound of a phone.

I had put Hailey's promise down on the stone floor and walked away from it.

But the habit of standing between a girl and trouble was my own.

I had put it on Abigail without asking.

I took out my phone and wrote a note, because it's what I do.

"Things I do without asking: 1. Paying. 2. Fixing. 3. Standing up. 4. Deciding what she can bear."

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