Chapter 13: The Clock Tower

Caleb came across the quad at twenty past midnight with his coat open and his hair still wet.

Valerie had texted him from my doorway, and all it said was: Clock tower. Please.

She stood on the bottom step with her hands in her coat pockets, and I stood one step behind her.

"You look terrible," Caleb said to her. "Did something happen?"

"I need to tell you something, and I need you not to say anything until I'm done."

He folded his arms. "Fine."

"I grew up in Dunmore," Valerie said. "Three streets from the gas station."

Caleb waited.

"I wasn't the girl. I never had a yellow anything. When you said it was me, I said I lived near there, and you filled in the rest."

Her voice cracked on the last word.

"Nobody had ever been so glad to see me. I let you be glad for six weeks, and every single day I wanted to tell you."

She wiped her face with her sleeve.

"I'm sorry. That's all I have."

The quad was not empty.

Four grad students were coming out of the library with a pizza box, and they had stopped to listen.

Caleb did not look at them.

"Nineteen years," he said.

"I know."

"You nodded." His voice was very quiet. "I told that story on these steps, and you nodded in all the right places."

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