Caught Between My Bully and My Stepbrother novel · Chapter 3 of 32

Chapter 3: Orders

Joni's first orders put the quarterback on tray duty and the engineer on the spoofed text, which leads straight to Corey's girlfriend.

I folded the napkin in half and put it in my apron pocket.

"Nothing happens," I said. "Because I'm never going to ask."

Crew's mouth moved at one corner.

It wasn't a smile.

It was worse.

"Okay," he said.

"Here's your first order." I tapped the counter in front of Corey. "Tomorrow, noon, the dining hall. You carry my tray."

"I'm not doing that."

"In front of the team."

"Joni."

"Rule one, Haddix. You signed it like a big boy."

Then I turned to Crew.

"You. Find out who sent that text from my number."

"Already started," he said.

The next day at noon the dining hall was packed.

The football team had three long tables by the windows.

Saylor sat at the end of one with two of her sisters, picking at a salad.

I walked in, got a grilled cheese and tomato soup, and stood at the end of the line.

Corey came across the room with his jaw set so hard I could hear it.

He took the tray out of my hands.

"Where to, Your Majesty?"

"Somewhere with a view of your girlfriend."

He carried it all the way past the team.

A linebacker the size of a vending machine dropped his fork.

Somebody started a slow clap.

Corey put my tray down at an empty table ten feet from Saylor.

"Anything else?"

"Napkins."

He went and got me napkins.

Saylor watched the whole thing with her customer-service smile frozen on.

"Babe," she called. "Are you okay? Do you need me to call someone?"

"He's fine," I said. "He's being helpful. It's a new thing for him."

Corey walked out without looking at either of us.

I ate my grilled cheese in front of forty people and tasted every bite.

At three I sat across from the Ledger's editor in the basement newsroom.

She was a senior with a buzz cut and a pencil in her teeth.

She'd seen the clip.

Everyone had.

"I want the account," I said. "As my beat."

She took the pencil out.

"You're a transfer. You've written two pieces for us. One was about the parking garage."

"And it was a great piece about the parking garage."

"It was fine." She leaned back. "Every girl that account has posted has come through here crying. Nobody's ever found anything. Bring me proof of who runs it, and it's yours. Front page."

"Deal."

"And Burkett? Don't become the story more than you already are."

That night was a slow shift.

Corey didn't come in.

Crew sat at the end of my counter for four hours with a laptop and black coffee and didn't say a word.

Every time I refilled his mug, he said, "Thanks," without looking up.

At four I hung up my apron and walked out.

He was leaning against the lamppost outside with his hands in his jacket.

"Go home, Kimble."

"I am. It's this way."

"It's not, actually. You live the other way."

He fell in beside me anyway.

Campus was dead at that hour.

The sprinklers were going on the quad.

The fountain glowed blue in the middle of it.

I walked a little faster past it.

He noticed.

He didn't say anything about it, which was somehow worse than if he had.

"Find anything?" I asked.

"Maybe."

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe I'll tell you when it's yes."

We got to Ashgrove Hall.

I badged in and climbed the stairs and he climbed behind me, and I didn't tell him not to.

At my door I turned around.

He was right there.

One step below me, so we were nearly eye to eye.

The hallway light buzzed.

He smelled like coffee and cold air and his leather jacket.

He looked at my mouth.

He didn't touch me.

He just stood there, too close, while my heart did something stupid.

"You're in my doorway," I said.

"I know."

"Why?"

He took a long time to answer.

"Making sure nobody's in your room."

"Nobody's in my room."

"Then open it and show me."

I unlocked the door and pushed it open.

My bed, my desk, my bookshelf, my laundry pile.

Nobody.

He looked at all of it over my shoulder.

His chest brushed my back for half a second.

My whole body went tight.

"Good night, Crew."

I shut the door in his face.

Then I stood with my back against it, shaking, with my hand over my mouth.

I didn't hear him leave for a long time.

At five my phone buzzed on the pillow.

It was a group chat I hadn't made.

Crew had added Corey and me.

"Spoofing app that sent the text was paid with a prepaid Visa. Same card tops up a burner number. That burner has texted exactly one real phone."

A screenshot followed.

Then one more line.

"Your girlfriend's on the other end of this, Haddix."

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