110

Piper

Footsteps

There was only one presentation ahead of me. I was alone in the sitting room, meandering back and forth across the carpet. The note cards were shuffled in my hand. I knew them. But it was the only thing that seemed to ease the anxiety.

"It doesn't matter," I mumbled under my breath. "You can do this."

Outside of the sitting room, I could hear the presentation, something about serving as a role model to your residents. Things like not getting drunk during an overnight shift or sleeping with a resident on your floor. I winced and kept pacing again. Better to think about the here and now.

Like the…weird sound of tapping rain?

I frowned and glanced over to the door.

What is that?

Slowly, I opened the door. That was footsteps. Like - a lot of footsteps. The entire audience of the presentation had been deathly silent. A graveyard would've been more chatty. The sound of footsteps didn't make sense. I walked along the walkway to where the other RAs were gathered, all looking about as confused as I was.

"What's going on?" I whispered.

"The room's filling up?" an RA muttered to me in surprise.

I frowned. "What?"

I didn't believe it until I brushed back the curtain a little and gazed out at the audience. The chairs were filling up. Why? Were they coming for another event after this one? I wracked my brain, trying to think of the room schedule when I realized something very particular about the people filling up the seats.

They were all athletes.

Like…all of them.

I stared, stunned, at the lines of hockey and soccer and football and everybody in between, taking their seats. The guy giving the current presentation fumbled a little on his lines and I understood. I would've been doing the same thing.

Wait. I would be doing the same thing. Were these people going to be here for my presentation?

My heart leaped to my throat.

Oh my god.

In the front row, someone sat at the seat closest to the middle, leaning back in his chair. It was Adam . Staring intently at the stage, he held a bouquet in his lap. The longer I stared at him, the less I believed it.

His eyes flickered over to the side and caught mine. A full smile lifted on his lips. Not a grin, not one of the cocky ones he flashed all over campus, but a breathtaking smile, excited to see me. He held up a thumbs-up sign and mouthed three words to me.

" You got this ."

More footsteps flew up the stairs and June burst into our little area, panting. "Piper!"

The other RAs shushed her and she hurried closer.

"Piper," she whispered, sucking in breaths. "Adam's here. Well—everyone's here. Like half the football team and the whole athletics dorm."

"I know, I—" I started to say before one of the other residential leaders entered our space too, shocked.

"Ms. Fontaine?" she asked slowly, giving a look back over to the room. "I apologize, we've been alerted that our audience members have arrived here for your presentation…?"

A blush turned my cheeks scarlet.

Another residential leader came through, but he was more angry than anything. "If you're going to have your residents come and interrupt our event to make some sort of statement, Ms. Fontaine, this is out of the question. It's rude to your other presenters, to have them marching in like—"

"She didn't ask them to come after everybody," June retorted.

"What?"

Slowly, I nodded. My voice was tiny. "I didn't tell them to come. I mean…I told my floor but that's eighteen people."

Both of the residential leaders took long looks at each other and turned back to me. The woman from the freshmen dorms shrugged her shoulders. "Beggars can't be choosers, Robert."

"I…" He frowned. "Don't do it again."

"Piper." June grabbed my shoulders and steered me towards the stage. "You're almost on. So, what do you think? I can call campus security right now. Adam doesn't have to be here."

If I wanted to, all I needed to do was tell June and they'd escort Adam out in front of everybody. If anything, it'd send a message. And that would be the end between me and the Marrs Manwhore. But I gazed out at the audience, out at the boy with the reddish-brown hair, who'd helped me with my heels all those years ago and my heart beat painfully in my chest.

"No…" I swallowed. "I want him here."

"They're giving you the signal," June assured me and disappeared back into the shadows. "We'll be right here when you're done, okay?"

"Okay," I whispered and polite applause finished up the last presentation.

This was it. This was the point where I was supposed to walk up to the stage and take the clicker from the presenter but my legs didn't work right. I stumbled forward and caught myself, taking tepid steps up to the spotlight, in front of all of those people.

"Up next we have…" The presenter paused. "Piper Fontaine with Athletes and Student Culture ."

A roar of applause overfilled my senses and my throat locked up. Regardless, I made my way to the presenter and took the clicker from his hand, tightening my fist around it until my knuckles were white. And then…the microphone.

Speak.

There was a sea of faces in front of me, all obscured in the lighting, and my breathing hitched up while I tried to focus on one thing. And the only thing that made me feel brave enough to keep going. Adam, calmly nodded in front of me, encouraging me to continue.