Chapter 14

It was the first day of finals, but I didn’t have one that day. I didn’t actually have one until Monday. Animal Behavior was Monday, Faith and Reason was Tuesday, and Mammalian Physiology was Wednesday. Three finals in three days was going to suck, and I needed to get a head start on studying.

I was one of those way too organized people and I’d long ago set up a template to organize all the information I’d need. I had a form to make a type of vocabulary list of important terms, a form to outline possible essay questions, a form for diagrams, and a form for facts that didn’t fit into any of those categories.

I was in the process of filling all of them out for my classes. I’d just finished my Faith and Reason forms which I’d chosen to do first simply because it was a class that didn’t interest me. I was working on the Animal Behavior forms and needed a break.

I walked downstairs into the kitchen and opened a box of peanut noodles. I added the water and the packets that came with it and stuck it in the microwave. I grabbed a soda out of the refrigerator and waited for the noodles to be done. When they were I grabbed them and the soda and walked into the living room to sit and watch TV for a little while with the girls.

Grace and Hailey were the only two in there and they both looked up at me in surprise when I walked into the room. Both of them desperately began searching for something. Grace scrambled up off of the floor and dove in front of the TV.

“What are you guys doing? I just wanted to hang out and relax for a while,” I told them sitting down next to Hailey on the couch.

“What a goal by Phillipe Boucher! Can you believe that pass from Crosby?” I heard the voice on the TV say.

“Oh, I get it,” I said standing up.

“Tanner, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were going to come down,” Grace apologized.

“No, don’t worry about it. You should be able to watch Jordan play.” I made my way up the stairs to my room.

“Tanner, wait!” I heard Hailey call. I threw the peanut noodles away uneaten in my room and started packing my stuff into my bag.

“Going somewhere?” Kelly asked stepping into my room.

“Yeah, the library. I need to focus.”

“I’ll drive,” she said.










The guys walked into the locker room celebrating the win, but Sidney wasn’t in the mood. It had been five days and he hadn’t heard anything from Tanner. He wasn’t surprised since finals had only just started, but it didn’t matter. He picked up the phone all the time to call her and every time he thought better than to push it.

The team was headed to Diesel but Sidney didn’t feel like celebrating. Sure, they’d just demolished the Islanders 9-2, Sykora had his first hat trick, and he’d had three assists, but they’d also lost their last three and hadn’t played very well in any of them. Tanner also still wasn’t speaking to him, and as far as he was concerned there was absolutely nothing to celebrate.

He got dressed and headed to his car. It was parked back where he’d always parked before Tanner. He stopped to sign a few autographs on his way out like he’d done before her as well. He couldn’t believe he was so worried about letting her see this.

He drove straight home and went right up to his room without grabbing anything to eat. He just wasn’t hungry. He sat down on the couch and started flipping through the channels. Nothing caught his eye and he turned the TV off. He picked up his phone and found Tanner’s name. Just like every other time, he thought better of it and put the phone down.

He decided just to change and go to bed. After sleeping for a while, he suddenly felt a pounding in his head. He got up to take a few painkillers and got back into bed. He glanced over at the clock and saw that it was 1:10. He tried to get back to sleep but something was really bothering him. He couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

He figured he was still just bothered by the whole situation with Tanner and not hearing anything from her. He picked up the phone and found her name again. He was about to put it down when something told him to call her. He hit talk, but there was no ringing. Instead the call went straight to her voicemail.

He told himself she probably had her phone off to get some sleep, but he felt really uneasy, like something wasn’t right. He tried her number again and it went straight to voicemail like the time before. He hung up without leaving a message and had to stretch out his right arm and leg. For some reason they were really sore. He figured he must have just slept on them wrong. And why the hell weren’t those painkillers working on his headache?










Kelly and I were sitting at a table at the library pouring over notes and typing away on our computers. I hadn’t realized how long we’d been there until I looked up at the clock and saw that it was almost 1:00 in the morning. I caught Kelly’s attention and she nodded. We packed up our things and walked out to her car.

I got into the passenger side and rested my head against the cool window. We didn’t talk during the ride and I just stared out the window watching things fly by. I stretched out my neck and glanced at the clock. It said 1:08 and I groaned inwardly. Finals week was exhausting.

“I feel like I’m getting every red light,” Kelly commented in frustration.

“Hey, our luck’s gotta change at some point, right?” She smiled and nodded her head as the light we were stopped at turned green.

“I can’t believe we were at the library so late. I’m exhausted. I don’t know how I managed to even stay awake that long.”

“No kidding. There aren’t even any other cars out here.” She stopped at another light and we both groaned.

“I’m tempted to just start running these. It’s not like anyone’s out here to notice,” she joked.

I laughed and could see the next intersection ahead of us. God I just wanted to get home and go to bed. When the light we were stopped at turned green I could see the light ahead of us was red. To my sheer delight it turned green not long before we got there. I checked the clock again. 1:10.

“Hey, look at that. Our luck has changed!” I called out. She laughed.

I looked back out the passenger side and saw a car driving up the street we were about to pass. I squinted in the high beams that the jerk wasn’t bothering to turn off. It was then that I realized that the headlights were coming at us pretty fast. I sat up straight when I saw that there was no way the car was going to be able to stop at the red light they had in time. I didn’t have time to yell out before the car slammed into my side of Kelly’s car.