Marianna Baer - Frost

“So, I hear there was trouble on the home front,” he said, catching up.

“Yeah.” I shivered—the sky was gray, the air was damp and cold and bit at my cheeks. “I actually wanted to talk to you about it.”

“Senior tea?” he suggested.

“Maybe somewhere more private?”

We were already heading toward the path to the mailroom. I was thinking about a small lounge nearby that was usually empty. I didn’t want anyone to overhear me as I talked to him about Celeste.

“Actually,” he said, “I have to meet someone later at senior tea. So …”

“Oh. Okay.” I didn’t know why, but this surprised me. Maybe because I hadn’t noticed him making any particular friends since he’d been here.

We entered the lower level of the student center and went into the mailroom—a total scene, as it usually was between classes. My box held a coupon packet from local businesses, a flyer for Buried Child —the play Abby was in, an Urban Outfitters catalogue, a glossy brochure from my mother’s office, and a note to call Dean Shepherd’s office. Probably about babysitting.

David came up behind me as I was sorting through things to keep and recycle. He rested a hand on my shoulder.

“Need a condo in LA?” I asked, waving the real-estate brochure, conscious of the warmth that spread through my body from where he touched me in a way I wouldn’t have been if Celeste hadn’t made an issue out of it.

“Why are you on a real-estate mailing list?” he asked.

“It’s my mother,” I said. I glanced at the brochure again. She’d drawn a speech bubble coming out of one of the windows: Can’t wait until you’re here!

I held it out to him and pointed at the building. “That’s where she lives.”

“Really?” he said. “Wow. Pretty slick.”

“Pretty awful,” I said, throwing it in the recycling bin.

He gave me a funny look. Sort of … pitying.

“That wasn’t a statement or anything,” I said as we made our way back outside. Ever since I told him about the divorce mess, I’d gotten the impression he thought my relationship with my parents was totally dysfunctional.

“Didn’t say it was.”

“I know.” I fastened a higher button on my jacket to keep the wind out. “I just feel like you might think we’re not close anymore. I mean, we’re not close the way we used to be, but it’s better. I was way too attached to my parents before. The separation had to happen sooner or later.”

“I guess,” he said, kicking at a couple of acorns on the path. “Seems like they didn’t have to make it so traumatic for you, though.”

“Maybe.” I was kind of annoyed at what he was implying about my parents. “But it all worked out for the best.”

We walked up the steps and into Grove Hall, to the same sprawling room where registration had taken place. There was a setup of baked goods, coffee, and tea here for seniors three mornings a week. I waited for an opening in the crowd around the food table—the way we all ate so much, it was as if we hadn’t eaten breakfast a couple of hours ago and weren’t going to lunch soon—got a pumpkin muffin and a coffee, and met David on a small couch in a corner of the room. He moved his bag off the spot he’d saved for me.

I sat down, shrugged off my jacket, and checked to make sure no one nearby was listening to our conversation. “So, you know about the vase,” I said.

“Yup. Am I still a suspect?”

“Don’t be silly.” I wished Celeste hadn’t told him that part of it. “I think it just blew over. Our room has such strong cross breezes, and it was pretty blustery.”

“What about Abby?” he asked.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “But that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I’m worried that— Well, wait. Did Celeste mention the other thing?”

“What other thing?”

Lowering my voice a notch further, I told him about the knocking noise she’d heard. As I did, the expression on David’s face grew more and more concerned.

“Why didn’t she tell me this?” he said, pulling his phone out of his bag. At first, I thought he was calling her, but then I realized he was online, searching for something, following links. “You know that guy she was with over the summer?” he said, still typing.

It took me a second to remember. “The guy in the band?”

“Yeah. I’m just … Oh. Here. Hold on.” He didn’t say anything for a moment, then, “Okay. Good.” He turned his phone off and tossed it in his bag. “There’s video from a show last night in Amsterdam. He’s there.”

So David had thought the guy might have followed Celeste here? “Could you really have imagined him doing those things?” I asked, trying to picture a typical rocker guy hiding in Celeste’s closet and knocking on the wall.

“It would’ve been weird,” David conceded. “But he was weird. Maybe not technically a stalker, but close.”

I took a sip of coffee. “I guess dealing with him over the summer explains why she’d be paranoid now.” It made me feel a bit better to know that there was something behind her irrationality. “Because I’m sure it was just a noise that the house made, not a person.”

“Yeah,” David said. “I’m sure you’re right.”

“Anyway,” I said. “I’m worried that from now on, if anything slightly out of the ordinary happens, she’s going to blow it out of proportion. Look for someone to blame. Probably Abby. Do you have any suggestions for what I should do to … I don’t know, make her feel more comfortable in the dorm? And to help convince her that these things really were just random?”

“I can talk to her,” he said. “But I bet you don’t have to worry. Something else will distract her. Another ill-fated love affair, probably.” He smiled a little ruefully.

“And you believe me that Abby didn’t break it, right?” I said.

“Sure,” he said. “If you say so. I don’t even know her.”

“You’ll get to know her better at the dorm dinner.”

“The what?”

It turned out that Celeste hadn’t invited him. I’d assumed she had, when she referred to her guest as a “he” a couple days ago. “You should definitely come,” I said, trying to cover my surprise and to smooth over the awkwardness. “I’m sorry we didn’t invite you sooner.”

“That’s cool.” He was looking at me strangely. “You know,” he said, “as long as we’re getting stuff out in the open, there’s something I need to talk to you about, too.”

“There is?” I felt a little surge of nerves at his serious tone of voice.

“Uh-huh. You seem to have a problem, and I’m not sure you realize.” He reached forward and softly brushed the side of my head, then grinned as muffin crumbs sprinkled my chest. “Every time you eat, you get food in your hair.”

I quickly wiped the crumbs off. “Yeah. That’s been pointed out to me before.” Shit. My nervous system had had a mini-conniption, wondering what he was going to say and then feeling his hand touching my head and—

“Hey, Leena, David.” Simone Dzama, a doe-eyed, environmentally friendly hippie chick, stood by the couch. It was only after she squatted next to David and began talking excitedly about a trip to a green rally in Boston that I realized she was whom he had been meeting. I picked at my muffin as they talked, trying not to listen to them making plans. I studied the shifting sky out the plate-glass windows, then read and responded to a couple of messages that had arrived while I was in class.

Simone finally stood. Before walking away she said, “We should find a time for that other thing, too, David. This weekend or something.”

My pulse sped up again, and I knew it wasn’t from caffeine.