Page 89 of The Cheerleader

His friend says, “Let’s get out of here, Vinnie.” He stumbles out the door, and Vinnie follows.

Once they leave, I make sure the glass doors of the lobby are locked. Keith slips from the lecture room door to check on us and sees the chain for the main entrance as we finish with the locks.

“We’ll have people exit through the back,” he says. “Works better that way anyhow. Thanks for helping out, guys.” He looks around. “Where’s Liz?”

“She disappeared down the hall with the money,” I say.

Eldy adds, “Better watch out or she might leave the country. Looks like you guys raked it in tonight.”

He laughs. “You bet your ass we did. Josh and Liz are masterminds. We’re rolling in dough now.”

“Cheerleaders most likely to fucking succeed,” I say.

Eldy claps my back. “We’re missing the movie, man.”

I roll my eyes. Keith tries opening the door, and it doesn’t budge. “Fuck. It automatically locked.”

“Follow me.” I lead everyone down the hall and around the corner to the back hall leading to the doors at the front of the lecture room, and they go back inside. I don’t bother.

Opening the exit door at the end of the hall, I prop it open and sit on the small cement step, breathing in the night air. Eventually, I feel someone come up behind me, and I’m not surprised to see Liz when I turn around.

I’m also not surprised to see her face warm up in a flirtatious expression, but I’m not happy about it as I get to my feet and come back inside to face her.

“Thank you,” she purrs and puts her hands on my chest as she closes in. I glance over her shoulder, wishing for an interruption because I suddenly feel too tired to confront the problem of our relationship tonight.

Instead, I move towards the door to go back into the movie. “Let’s go back inside,” I whisper as she walks with me.

She shakes her head and scrunches her nose. “Not me.”

I can hear the hooting, applause, and other noises from the movie inside, and I don’t much want to go in either.

“Can’t say I blame you. You finished counting the piles of money already?”

Her mouth returns to its normal queen-of-the-world smile. “I’m a fast counter. Josh and Nick are on their way to deposit it now.” She looks around like she’s looking for someone. “Wait for me while I go to the women’s room.”

I’m happy to wait in the hall and miss the movie. At this point, I’m not sure how much is left of Deep Throat. Confident that if anyone else acts up, my friends will take care of it, I can afford to stay put. They’re stand-up guys when they need to be. Even though it meant missing a chunk of this shitty movie they wanted to see, they helped me eject Vinnie the drunk rugby player anyway. I owe them.

Liz returns from the recesses of the dim hallway to find me leaning against the opposite wall outside the lecture room door.

“Thank you for taking care of the problem with those guys,” Liz says as she gets close, not stopping until she’s right up against me. “You’re so good to me, Bry.”

She clasps her hands around the back of my neck and plasters her body against mine so close that I can feel her curves and her heat. Fuck. I don’t want to feel her, and I need to do something about it before she goes too far.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she says, tilting her head up to kiss me. I turn my head away, discomfort and sadness strangling me as I disentangle myself from her and hold her at arm’s length. I can’t even blame her behavior on drinking this time.

“Stop it, Liz. We’re not⁠—”

“I know. Don’t say it. You don’t want to take advantage of me because you think I’m pathetic and I don’t know what I’m doing⁠—”

“That’s not it.”

“Then what is it, Bryan? Tell me.”

“We’re friends. You’re too important to me as a friend to fool with our relationship. I only hope I didn’t already ruin things between us.”

“Oh, Bryan.” She sighs and leans into me, and I let her because it’s just a hug, and I’m tired of pushing her away when I need her friendship, her hugs, the way it used to be.

“You could never ruin things between us. No matter what, we’ll always be friends.” She sighs again, and I relax, hoping we can stay like this. I don’t have too many people I can talk to or trust, and she’s number one on that list. Eldy is number two. It’s a short list.