101

Adam

What Do You Think?

Piper's room was empty.

I was empty.

On the track indoors, I jogged around another loop without music, like a psychopath. The only headphones I had were the ones that Piper got me. I couldn't wear those anymore. And I couldn't drop them off either. Piper was gone and if I knew anything about Piper, she was at her parent's place. In a whole other state. Far away from me.

She might as well have been on the moon.

Fuck .

I took another look at the doors beyond the track and came to a sudden stop. A pair of dark braids swung by. It was Kassie in one of the dark blue Romans hoodies. I sprinted to the door.

"Kassie!"

She sighed. "I don't want to talk right now, Adam."

"Kassie, please." I bolted up to meet her and kept in line with her stride. "How is Piper—is she okay?"

"What do you think? Want to take a guess?"

My throat tightened. I'd been a mess for a couple of days, waiting to hear her door open. Because when I tried to text her, none of them went through. Phone calls, dead. I was worried sick over her.

"I need to know she's safe, Kassie," I urged her. "Is she in Oklahoma?"

Kassie gave me a hard look. "You know what this feels like? I feel like a child of divorced parents."

"What?"

"This is all my fault. I did this! What the hell was I thinking? If I wasn't so fucking stupid to rope you two into the movie night shit—none of this would've happened. This is a fucked-up nineties movie where I put my parents together and now they're separating and it's my fucking fault—"

"It's not your fault," I mumbled.

"Adam. Your locker is full of her door decorations," Kassie snapped. "Piper's got eyes for nobody else. You two have been locked at the hip all semester, there's practically an umbilical cord between you." She turned back around and stopped me in the hallway. "What the hell did you say to her to make her leave?"

The two of us already had the talk about my parents, but Kassie only knew what they were like from stories. She wouldn't understand.

I ran my hand through my hair. "Is she in Oklahoma?"

"Why? Are you going after her?"

It wasn't like I hadn't thought about that. But as much as I wanted to drive off and find Piper, I couldn't do that. Piper was the sweetest person I'd ever met. Sunshine personified. My parents would crush that like a twig.

"No."

"Goddammit." She sighed through clenched teeth. "Adam, what did you say? "

"I told I love her but she can do better."

Kassie stopped walking down the hallway and squeezed her eyes shut. She shoved her hands in the hoodie's pockets.

"Fuck, Adam," she muttered.

Nothing she could say could make me feel worse than I already felt. But before I could succumb to it, I needed to know that Piper was okay and surrounded by people who loved and cared about her. People who couldn't hurt her.

My eyes flickered back down the hall.

There are other things Piper needs.

"Yeah…she's in Oklahoma." Kassie sighed again.

"Kassie?" I shifted back around. "I need you to do me a favor."

Her eyebrows scrunched up. "What?"

"I need you to go to Oklahoma."

"Adam…" Kassie grimaced. "If you want to talk to Piper, it's you who needs to talk to her. Not me."

"I need you to go to Oklahoma and I need you to pick up Piper. She needs to get her stuff from Thomas's place. For the whole semester, she's been missing out on the things she left behind."

Kassie blinked, staring at me. "Adam…?"

"I'll do anything, Kassie."

"You could…come with us…?"

"I can't do that." I shifted back on my leg, fighting the horrible feeling in my stomach. "Piper deserves a lot better than what I can offer."

Without another word, I walked off down the hallway and made my way to the gym. I couldn't keep the conversation going. Thinking about Piper for too long hurt too badly. If I kept myself distracted, I could keep going.

And then what? Where was this going to end?

The side gym was empty. I set up the punching bag.

All I needed to do was get lost in the exercise. I took a deep breath and readied my stance. My fist flew out.

Do you really think this is going to keep them away from her?

I shook my head, getting back into the motions. Stop thinking. Stop feeling. Just go with the motions.

My fists flew out again, no longer in a rhythm, just wild and one after another. I struck the punching bag. My knuckles ached. My arms hurt. And I kept going.

Violent. Impulsive.

I must've bruised my knuckles but I couldn't stop.

What if I'm like them too?