Chapter 34 The Four Minutes

Chapter 34 The Four Minutes
He came around the corner at exactly four minutes like he said.

I saw him and started walking fast trying not to look like it. When he spotted me on the bench he covered the distance quickly and crouched down without saying anything. He took both my hands and turned them over.

He stared at my palms.

Then my face.

"The knee too?"

"It's fine."

"Zara."

"It's just a graze, Chase. I've had worse from the campus steps."

He looked at my hands again, jaw tight but fingers gentle, turning them over carefully.

"She tripped me," I said. "Jade. Slid her foot out."

"I know. You told me on the phone."

"I wanted to say it again. Because it sounds unbelievable the first time, but when you say it twice it just sounds like what it is. Mean."

"Are you okay?" Not about the hands.

"Yes. I got up, picked up my stuff, said what I needed to say and went to my seminar." I paused. "I'm angry but I'm okay."

"Good. Stay angry."

He sat beside me and pulled out his phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling her."

I went still. "Chase—"

"Right now. So you hear everything and there's no version that gets twisted later."

I nodded.

He called.

Three rings. Amber picked up, voice clear enough that I could hear both sides.

"Chase." Surprised. Pleased. "I've been trying to reach you—"

"I know. That's why I'm calling. So we can be clear."

A pause. "Okay."

"What happened today in the corridor—Jade tripping Zara, the photos, whatever you said before that. It ends today."

Silence.

"Chase I don't know what she told you but—"

"Amber." Just her name, once. "I was there when you called at lunch. I turned my phone over because I have nothing to say to you that I haven't already said. I thought that was clear." He paused. "Apparently not. So I'm saying it directly. Leave her alone. Not a request. If anything like today happens again, I'm taking everything—the corridor, the photos, the scholarship board report—straight to the Dean's office."

Quiet on the line.

"You wouldn't." Her voice had changed completely.

"Try me."

Another silence.

"I told her the truth. I told her you still have feelings for me. That's not harassment—"

"It's not true. Whatever we had, I've been honest about where it went and when. Using that to get to her isn't the same as truth." He paused. "We're done, Amber. Completely. Not technically, not almost. Done. I need you to respect that like I've tried to respect you."

Nothing for a long moment.

Then: "She's not who you think she is."

"She's exactly who I think she is. That's the whole point."

He hung up.

Put his phone away.

Stared ahead at the campus path.

Then turned to me. "Okay."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me for that."

"I'm thanking you anyway."

He reached over and tucked hair behind my ear, hand lingering against my face briefly.

"Come to the house tonight. Karen's making food and Micah's been asking about you since Wednesday."

"It's Monday."

"I know."

I smiled. "Okay."

Micah was in his dinosaur pajamas when we got there—the day pajamas—and he launched himself at me from the third stair. I'd learned to brace for it. He wrapped both arms around my neck. "You took so long."

"I was at school, Micah."

"School takes too long." He pulled back and studied my face with that focused look he got when checking if something was wrong. "Your hands are red."

"I fell."

"Did it hurt?"

"A little."

He held my hands and looked at them seriously. Then he kissed each palm once. Just like that.

I stared at him.

Chase made a sound behind me that was almost a laugh.

"Better?" Micah asked.

"Yeah. Much better."

He wriggled down and grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the kitchen where Karen was plating food and everything smelled warm and ordinary in the way I'd learned to treasure.

After dinner Micah had his bath and Chase read to him. I sat on the floor outside Micah's room doing reading for tomorrow's seminar, listening to Chase do different character voices through the half-open door. The dragon sounded like a grumpy old man. The princess sounded suspiciously like Priya.

I was smiling at my notes without reading them when the voices stopped.

Then Micah's voice, clear and matter-of-fact.

"Chase."

"Yeah buddy."

"I want Zara to be my sister."

Silence.

I stopped moving.

"Like for real. Not just she comes over. Actually my sister. So she has to stay."

Chase didn't say anything.

"You really like her, huh," he said finally.

"She kissed my hands when they were hurt. And she named a dinosaur after me. And she always comes back." A pause. "I just want her to stay. Can she stay?"

I pressed my back against the wall and looked at the ceiling, eyes stinging.

"I'm working on it," Chase said quietly.

"Okay." Satisfied, like that was answer enough. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight buddy."

The lamp clicked off.

Footsteps crossed the room.

The door opened and Chase came out, saw me sitting against the wall with my notes and my face doing what it was doing. He slid down the wall beside me.

We sat there.

"She always comes back," I said quietly.

"Yeah."

"He said that like it was the most important thing."

"For him it is. People kept not coming back. Our dad. The babysitters before you." He looked at me. "You never did."

I thought about a six-year-old who'd learned early that people left but decided to love without holding back anyway. Who kissed hurt palms and named dinosaurs and asked for things with his whole heart because nobody had taught him yet that wanting was dangerous.

I hoped nobody ever would.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"I know."

"Micah knows too."

"Yeah." Chase looked at the closed door. "He knew before either of us did, honestly."

I laughed. He laughed. Quietly, so we wouldn't wake Micah. The hallway was warm and the house settled around us and somewhere on campus Amber had photos she may or may not post by morning.

But right now none of that was the most important thing.

The most important thing was this six-year-old wanted me to be his sister.

And a boy sitting beside me who'd said I'm working on it like a promise.