Page 17 of Make No Mistake

Seven

I was not looking forwardto my classes on Monday morning, but I only had two so I would be done by eleven. Today was the day I would decide on my project topic. I had to.

No more procrastination for me. No sir.

While walking to my fist class I looked around at the students passing me. Was there a story with any of them?

This was a game I liked to play to distract myself. Currently, I was distracting myself from the self-inflicted stress from my impending doom. I hadn’t made it through the last four years of classes to give up now.

I gave up that thought and looked around. What could I come up with on the spot about the people around me?

Two girls, probably freshman given their happy demeanors since upper classmen lost that after the first year, bounced by whispering to each other. The blonde just got asked out by a cute guy from the basketball team. The redhead was jealous at first but realized the connection could lead to her own basketball boyfriend so she was now super supportive.

I laughed at their innocence, then at myself for creating something so cheesy. I passed an older man sitting on a bench, reading a paper.

He was a professor of … astronomy—yeah that fit—and he was counting down the days until his retirement in the fall. Kids just didn’t appreciate the stars like they used to.

By the time I made it to my first class, I’d come up with four little stories. If only school assignments were this easy, and entertaining. I sat through the lecture on fact-checking and moved on to my second class of the day. Fifty minutes separated me from freedom. We were reviewing questions from our previous test. Pointless, in my opinion, but attendance was a huge portion of our grade, so I used the time to create a pros and cons list of contacting Sean.

Pros were short. Finding closure. That was really the only thing I could think of. My heart refused to think of anything else. Like hearing the sound of his voice, or looking into those chocolate eyes I used to dream about.

No.

I was doing so much better. I was moving on and even starting to feel something for someone new. The cons were long and mostly revolved around impacting my mental and emotional stability.

Aubrey had good intentions when she made the suggestion, but I was finally making progress on my own and I didn’t want to risk undoing any of it.

The professor announced the end of the class, and I gathered my things before checking my phone.

I had four missed calls from Jay and a text to call him immediately. Once I was outside I hit dial.

He answered on the first ring. “Mckayla?” His voice sounded so relieved.

“Hi, Jay. What’s going on?”

“There’s been more released about the attack on Saturday night.”

I was shocked. I didn’t think they would have anything else for days.

“Okay, did Mr. Jowett assign someone to cover it?”

A tingle in my chest appeared. I loved the thrill of a new story, especially when it was a break from the norm, and this definitely was.

“Yeah, you and I will work together.”

My smile grew. “Of course we will.”

I could hear his laugh. “Mr. Jowell proposed the idea. I merely accepted.”

“Sure.”

“We need to meet at the lab. When are you free?”

“I’m walking there right now.”

“Great.” He paused for a beat. “We’ll put all of the details together, and we’ll figure this out. Things like this don’t happen at CU, Mac.” He paused again and let out a sigh. “I don’t think it’s random.”

His thoughts seemed all over the place like he was voicing his stream of consciousness. I wondered if he knew he was doing it.