Free Crashing Into You Page A

plummeting all the way to the ground, and I still
pulled Evan to the floor, still wrapped my legs around his back. I pulled his
boxers off, and then he slammed his body against me so hard I thought I would
break.
    “I want you,” he said. “I
want you now —”
    The elevator struck the
bottom floor, and we both launched up against the ceiling.
    “Evan!” I screamed.
    I flung myself up and struck
my forehead against Melanie's top bunk. The pain was immediate. I sat back
down, and brought my hand to the top of my head.  
    “Oww...” I said.
    I looked around. I was not in
an elevator. I was back in the bedroom. Rightly thrown out of an impossible
dream.
    The sunshine from the window
almost blinded me, so I pressed my head back down against my pillow. The room
was dead silent; I didn't hear any movement from up top. Either Melanie was
still sound asleep, or she was already out the door and making the most of a
new day.
    I reached down beside the bed
for my phone, and glanced at the time.
    “Oh whoa,” I said. It was already
11:30 AM.
    There was a text from Lukas,
too. He was already in the library. I jumped out of bed, stretched for a minute.
I looked out the window. The clouds and rain were gone. It was beautiful out, a
perfect day not to sit in a library studying, surrounded by textbooks and binders
and huge stacks of index cards—but such was my life.
    “Just a few more days,” I
said.
    And then summer .
    I walked to the bathroom door
and knocked. “Melanie? You in there?” No answer. I went inside and hopped into
the shower.
    When I showed up at the
library a few minutes past noon, I found Lukas sitting by himself at a circular
desk, three books sprawled out in front of him, his fists shoved up against his
cheeks, and his eyes bright red; he had already been studying for four hours. We
quizzed each other on sociology for a bit, but I knew pretty soon after I
arrived that he needed a break, so we grabbed a snack at the cart out front,
and took a short walk around the quad. We talked about our new place, about all
the fun things we were going to do this summer. We didn’t bring up Evan at all.
    I didn’t really want to tell
anyone, most especially Lukas, about what happened last night. I needed time to
think it over. Was Evan ever going to break up with Melanie? I hoped he would,
and I hoped he wouldn’t. I was so conflicted, and I was grateful when Lukas
stuck to other topics, even though I had forced him to leave the library early
the night before. It was almost as if he knew I didn’t want to discuss anything
Evan, like he could literally read my mind.
    We studied the rest of the
afternoon, took a short break for dinner, then returned to the library for some
last minute cramming. By the time we departed at 10 PM I was so exhausted I
could barely walk. My brain was so fried, so jammed with information, I didn’t
know if I’d remember my own namein
the morning.
    I walked into my dorm and sat
down on my bed. I stretched out my arms and legs, and let out a loud yawn. Even
though I’d only been up for eleven hours, I was ready to go right back to sleep.
    I plugged my phone into my
charger, and set my alarm for 6:30 AM. My sociology final wasn't until 8, but I
needed some time in the morning to decompress, before I sat in a room for hours
on end taking a difficult test.
    I set the phone down, and dropped
back against my bed.
    And that's when it hit me.
    Melanie knew. That he had tried
to kiss me. That he didn't love her anymore. That’s why she was gone; it had to
be. Evan probably spilled the news to her last night, or sometime today, and
she didn’t want to see me, not tonight—and not ever again.
    I obsessed over the thought
for a few minutes but didn’t lie awake for hours, like last night. I was way
too exhausted for that. My head hit the pillow, and soon enough, I was out.
    My eyes shot open the next
morning before my alarm even went off. I jumped in the shower, got dressed, and
put on a little