“This is going to be a god-awful fucking mess,” I said, shaking my head and wiping my eyes.
“I don’t envy your life for the next week or so. I can’t imagine breaking up with someone that refuses to stay away. You know that’s how it’s going to be, right?”
We pulled into the parking lot at Morgan, and America held open the door as I lugged my suitcase in. We rushed to her room and I puffed, waiting for her to unlock her door. She held it open and then tossed me the key.
“He’s going to end up getting arrested or something,” she said.
She ran down the hall and I watched her rush across the parking lot from the window, getting in her car just as Travis pulled up on his bike beside her. He ran around to the passenger side and yanked open the door, looking to Morgan’s doors when he realized I wasn’t in the car. America backed out while Travis ran into the building, and I turned, watching the door.
Down the hall, Travis pounded on my door, calling my name. I had no idea if Kara was there, but if she was, I felt bad for what she would have to endure for the next few minutes until Travis accepted that I wasn’t in my room.
“Pidge? Open the fucking door, dammit! I’m not leaving until you talk to me! Pigeon!” he yelled, banging on the door so loudly the entire building could have heard.
I cringed when I heard Kara’s mousy voice.
“What?” she growled.
I pressed my ear against the door, struggling to hear Travis’s low murmurs. I didn’t have to strain for long.
“I know she’s here!” he yelled. “Pigeon?”
“She’s not … Hey!” Kara squealed.
The door cracked against the cement block wall of our room and I knew that Travis had forced his way in. After a full minute of silence, I heard Travis yell down the hall. “Pigeon! Where is she?”
“I haven’t seen her!” Kara shouted, angrier than I’d ever heard her. The door slammed shut and sudden nausea overwhelmed me as I waited for what Travis would do next.
After several minutes of quiet, I cracked open the door, peering down the wide hallway. Travis sat with his back against the wall with his hands covering his face. I shut the door as quietly as I could, worrying that the campus police had been called. After an hour, I glanced down the hall again. Travis hadn’t moved.
I checked twice more during the night, finally falling asleep around four. I purposefully overslept, knowing I would skip classes that day. I turned on my phone to check my messages, seeing that Travis had flooded my inbox. The endless texts he’d sent me through the night varied from apologies to rants.
I called America in the afternoon, hoping Travis hadn’t confiscated her cell phone. When she answered, I sighed.
“Hey.”
America kept her voice low. “I haven’t told Shepley where you are. I don’t want him in the middle of this. Travis is crazy pissed at me right now. I’m probably staying at Morgan tonight.”
“If Travis hasn’t calmed down … good luck getting any sleep here. He made an Oscar-worthy performance in the hall last night. I’m surprised no one called security.”
“He was kicked out of History today. When you didn’t show, he kicked over both of your desks. Shep heard that he waited for you after all of your classes. He’s losin’ it, Abby. I told him you were done the second he made the decision to work for Benny. I can’t believe he thought for a single second you would be okay with that.”
“I guess I’ll see you when you get here. I don’t think I can go to my room, yet.”
America and I were roommates over the next week, and she made sure to keep Shepley away so he wouldn’t be tempted to tell Travis of my whereabouts. It was a fulltime job avoiding a run-in with him. I avoided the cafeteria at all costs, as well as History class, and I played it safe by leaving my classes early. I knew that I would have to talk to Travis sometime, but I couldn’t until he had calmed down enough to accept my decision.
I sat alone Friday night, lying in bed, holding the phone to my ear. I rolled my eyes when my stomach growled.
“I can come pick you up and take you somewhere for dinner,” America said.
I flipped through my History book, skipping over where Travis had doodled and scribbled love notes in the margins. “No, it’s your first night with Shep in almost a week, Mare. I’m just going to pop over to the cafeteria.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Tell Shep I said hi.”
I walked slowly to the cafeteria, in no hurry to suffer the stares of those at the tables. The entire school was abuzz with the breakup, and Travis’s volatile behavior didn’t help. Just when the lights of the cafeteria came into view, I saw a dark figure approach.
“Pigeon?”