Page 52 of Open Water
"Thank you, Claire."
The oak doors. The November cold. The campus going dark at five-thirty, students crossing the quad with backpacks, a group laughing near the dining hall. The ordinary world continuing.
I walked back to my dorm. Climbed the stairs. Unlocked my door.
Liam's Riverside shirt was draped over my desk chair. Burgundy. Faded. The one he'd given me two days ago that I'd been wearing because it smelled like him. I'd changed out of it to go to Patterson's office. The Kingswell quarter-zip I was wearing now smelled like nothing.
I sat on the edge of my bed. Phone on the nightstand.
I'd saidokayto my father. I'd agreed to call what Liam and I had a phase, a private matter taken out of context, and the word had left my mouth so easily it scared me. Twenty years of Harrington training, the compliance still sitting in me like a second language I couldn't unlearn.
Because I'd been ready. That was the part I couldn't stop turning over. In the library with Marcus, on the bridge with blood on my hands, lying in Liam's bed telling him I'd burn it all down — I'd meant every word. And then my father's voice came through a speakerphone and I folded. The version of me who'd beaten Marcus bloody would have said no. But the one who picked up the phone was the older version. The boy who'd spent twenty years learning that the safest answer to Thomas Harrington was alwaysokay.
So I made myself think, I had to figure this out.
The truth was I hadn't actuallydoneanything yet. I'd said a word. The machinery — Eldridge, Patterson, the Caldwell statement — was a week out. And a week was time, and time was the only thing I needed. Because with time, I could think. There's always an angle; he taught me that himself. So I'd buy the week. Keep the door from slamming, find the way out before any of it turned. It had to be the plan — because the only other thing theokaycould mean was that I'd folded for nothing, and that one I couldn't carry.
My phone lit up.
Liam
How are you doing?
I stared at the screen.
I had to tell him. About the call. About what I'd said.
I had to tell him I'd said okay.
Alex
Can you meet me? I need to talk to you about something.
Liam
When?
Alex
Tonight. My dorm.
Liam
Everything okay?
Alex
My father called.
Liam
I'm on my way.
I put the phone down. The campus went dark outside my window. Somewhere on the other side of the river, Liam was pulling on his jacket and walking toward the footbridge.
I sat on my bed and waited for him to arrive.
Chapter 11: Liam
