That’s why it comes as a bit of a surprise when I think I see a figure through the falling snow. It looks like there’s someone up ahead leaning against the wide trunk of one of the trees, but I think I must be making it up.
No one would be out here of their own free will.
No one sane, at least.
As I get closer, it looks like he kicks some bags at his feet around to the other side of the trunk and out of view. I had expected this to be a very lonely Thanksgiving, so seeing anyone else here is certainly a surprise.
But it’s even more of a surprise when I see who it is.
“Chase?”
I must be seeing things because there’s no way that he’d still be here. He, like the rest of the guys, left for break early this morning. I saw him.
I wasn’t looking on purpose, of course. I just happened to glance out the window and saw them making their way toward the circle of exhaust rising up between the tree trunks in the distance.
But sure enough, when I get closer to where the figure is standing, it’s not some kind of mirage.
It is Chase.
“Hey Aubrey,” he says with what’s supposed to be a nonchalant smile, but the way his teeth are chattering, there’s nothing nonchalant about it.
He looks absolutely freezing. His lips are blue, and his face looks like it’s chapped by the wind.
I glance to either side, as if expecting someone else to jump out from behind the trees as some kind of joke … but I can barely see more than ten feet in any direction, the snow is falling so hard.
My toes curl in freezing protest inside my shoes. No one in their right mind would just stand around outside in this weather, not for a moment longer than they had to.
Which begs the question, of course, what is Chase doing so casually leaning up against a tree in the middle of a snow flurry like he has nothing better to do in the world.
There’s no time for being coy.
“Chase … What are you doing out here?”
“Oh, I’m just getting some exercise in,” he says, but there’s no hiding the nervous edge to his voice.
“Bullshit,” I say, staring at him until he’s forced to look away.
The temperature is in the single digits and he should be well on his way home by now, not lingering here on campus. Then I spot the bag that he had kicked behind the tree and see that it’s his backpack.
“I don’t believe you,” I say matter-of-factly. “It would be crazy to be out here exercising in the freezing snow. Besides, I saw you heading home this morning.”
I cringe a little inside at the admission, and then quickly add. “Or, I mean, I saw you headed out to the cars.”
“Yeah, well I—”
I cut him right off before he can think to wonder why I was watching him out of the window.
“Plus,” I say, “I can see your backpack behind the tree. What’s going on? Why are you standing out here in the cold with your bag?”
He sighs and shivers and acts like he’s trying to think of some other believable excuse to concoct.
“Chase,” I say again, a warning in my tone.
“Fine,” he says in defeat. “I only just realized that no one was coming to get me for break. And I didn’t bring a key to the dorms with me because I thought that I wouldn’t need it. My entire dorm building is locked up because everyone else went home for the break.”
I stare at him for a long moment as I put two and two together.
“So, you’re just standing out here freezing to death?” I ask. “The bookstore is open and there’s hot coffee to drink. You should have gone in there, maybe someone could have helped you.”
“Nah, I don’t want to look like a charity case,” he says. “Besides, there’s only a skeleton crew of staff left on campus. I doubt they’ll have a key to my dorms.”
I want to call bullshit on that too, but from the looks of him right now … I don’t want to argue with him. He might try disappearing into the woods entirely, and I’d rather not add the trauma of discovering his frozen and lifeless body somewhere on the path in a couple days just because he ‘doesn’t want to look like a charity case.’
“Well, you can’t just stand out here all night,” I say, shrugging my shoulders up higher against the cold. “You’ll freeze to death.”
Chase just stares ahead with a pitiful look on his face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look this vulnerable before. I know, just like with Sterling in the weeks before, there’s something he’s not telling me.
I can’t just let him freeze to death out here, so I decide to do something that I very well may end up regretting.
“Why don’t you come back to the girls’ dorm with me?”
“Really?” he says, his face suddenly lighting up. “You’d let me stay with you over the break?”
“That isn’t what I said,” I say, “but I can’t exactly leave you out here now, can I? Your lips are turning blue. You’ll be frozen solid by morning.”
“I mean, technically you could just pretend you never saw me I suppose,” he says.
I roll my eyes at him.
“I’m not going to leave you out here, Chase,” I say as I reach behind the tree to pick up his backpack. “Come on, before I realize what a terrible idea this is and change my mind.”
There’s no one in my dorm building either since all the girls went home for Thanksgiving, but there is a resident advisor that’ll be making rounds a couple times a day, if the last break I spent here alone is any indicator. So, until Chase is willing to admit to someone that he needs to get back into his
