“How is that possible?” she asked, looking from our Alexander to the imposter and back again.
“I don’t know,” I replied and started to run. She followed immediately, and I added, “But we’re about to find out!”
CHAPTER15
Harlowand I ran through the shadows cast by the tall bushes in front of the men’s buildings and then around the corner where Victoria and the fake Alexander had gone.
I caught flashes of Victoria’s hot pink gown as she ran. It flowed and puffed upwards on the wind with every step. It was like a target among the muted colors of the nighttime campus, calling us along to follow.
“Where are they going?” Harlow asked. “Who the fuck is that?”
“I don’t know, but we have to catch them!” I yelled, my breath coming in quick gasps now. Victoria was fast, and her fake Alexander was even faster.
They dodged and darted from one shadowy part of the lawn to the next, and we could barely keep up. She turned another corner, and we followed, finding ourselves in a wide breezeway between two buildings. At the end of the path was a tall hedge, the edge of the campus. I was so turned around I had no idea where we were. I’d never been on the men’s side before, and it didn’t mirror the women’s as I’d expected. It was twistier and even more of a maze.
“Fuck, where did they go?” I asked, skidding to a halt on the stone pathway. “This is a dead end.”
“Maybe they went inside a building?” Harlow suggested, but everywhere was closed up and seemingly empty, with black windows and silence cloaking them in the night.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “Look around for a door, a tunnel, like the one that joins the two. There might be more than that one.”
We slowed our movements and carefully examined the edges of the pathway. In one of the darkest points, I thought I caught a glimpse of movement, but it was just the wind stirring a branch on a hedge.
“What’s that?” I asked, and we walked towards it. There was a loose, disheveled edge of branches on one of the tightly trimmed bushes, so I pushed at it and found a dark space behind. “Look, here it is.”
Harlow pulled out her cigarette lighter and flicked it on to light our way. We went down a flight of stairs, much like the one linking the two sides of the campus, and entered a lit tunnel down below.
The other set of stairs was brighter still, and we popped up on the lawn right next to the medical center where I had my treatments. There were still lights blazing in some of the windows, and I saw movement from one of them when I scanned it for Victoria.
“She must be in there,” I said, and we hurried to the front door but found it locked. There was nobody inside that we could see, and even though I rattled the handle a few times and even yelled at the camera pointed down at us with its cold, staring eye.
“Fuck, why did they go in there?” Harlow asked. “Did she fake an Alexander face mask or some shit? Can the treatment be used for something like that?”
“No,” I said quickly, then furrowed my brows. “I mean, I don’t know. Maybe it can, but why would Victoria go to tall that trouble?”
“To fuck with you,” Harlow said. Then she tilted her face to the camera and yelled directly into it, “Because she’s fucking pathetic, that’s why!”
I tugged at her sleeve, and we walked back to the tunnel towards the men’s side. “I don’t think it’s jealousy,” I said. “She has everything I have and more.”
“She doesn’t have Alexander,” Harlow replied as we hit the other side and went up the stairs. “That’s the one thing she’ll never have, not if you’re still engaged to him.”
“That’s true,” I said, thinking about her words. Did it make sense, though? Could Victoria actually be that petty and deceptive?
I didn’t have a chance to think about it any longer or even pose the question to Harlow because Alexander, Rome, and Luke appeared. They were talking loudly and walking together. They turned the corner and saw us. All three of them exclaimed with joy, and Rome jogged up, threw his arms around me, and picked me up to swing me around. I giggled and kicked my feet and said, “Put me down! We have something to tell you guys.”
He was still shirtless, just wearing his jogging pants, and his skin was slick with sweat. Steam rose off him in the cool air, and he set me down carefully.
“These guys saved my life,” Luke said, draping his arms around their shoulders casually. “They really fucking did. A couple of times, now. I fucking owe you guys, big time.”
“You don’t owe us shit,” Alexander said, his swagger and cocky grin giving away how energized he was by the fight. “I mean, you might owe me Willow’s sweet little cunt. Or maybe her ass. I want to be first, so you owe me that.”
Luke and Rome laughed loudly, and the three of them guffawed like old pals, discussing how they were going to divvy up my body like the spoils of war.
Part of me recognized that I should be offended. I should clutch my pearls and be scandalized by the way they talked about me.
But come on, it was fucking hot. I was still tipsy, still had to pee, was still horny as fuck after kissing Harlow, and still wanted each and every one of the men in front of me. So yeah, I was thrilled from top to bottom over their overt desire for my body.
“Hey,” I called out, though. “I know what happened at the party!”