Rent a Boyfriend - Gloria Chao Page 0,75
my chin. “Good, your cheeks are flushed.” She circled a finger in the air like a lasso. “Let’s move out!”
Nic and I were dressed like cat burglars—matching black turtlenecks, spandex leggings, and beanies. Our outfits weren’t all that visible beneath our coats, scarves, and mittens, but we knew what was underneath.
We swept through the empty hallways quickly, communicating with only hand gestures and looks.
It’s a roommate thing, I thought excitedly.
We snuck past the lone security guard whistling down the corridor, then crept through Barker Library, up the endless staircase, and past the locked door Nic picked with ease. Once we were on the roof, I let out the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. It fogged immediately as the wind cut through my down coat, numbing my body.
Nicolette leaned a ladder against the little dome’s platform and motioned for me to go first. No six-foot-something companion to help me up this time. As I climbed, my shivers threatened to topple us. If it weren’t for Nic beneath me, pushing me on (sometimes literally head-butting my pìgu), I might have turned back.
On top of the little dome, I tried to take a moment to reminisce about Darren and my first kiss, but thinking about him poked at the remorseful bubble that had been floating around inside me since the night of the wedding. At least it motivated me to push through the cold. Grand gestures weren’t normally my thing, but turns out, trying to find the right words to express yourself was really freaking hard.
I turned on my flashlight with shivering fingers.
“Okay, quickly now,” Nic shouted over the wind. “Work fast so we can get the fuck outta here.”
I gritted my chattering teeth and we moved swiftly and in sync, just as we had practiced in our room. Because of the wintry weather, we had opted for a simple design, just a few sheets of cardboard that were easy to carry and required minimal assembly.
The final piece. We were almost there. Just had to tie down one last corner . . . and . . . oops. I lost my footing.
The wind whistled past my ears as I careened down the side of the dome. I clutched the rope in my hands. My lifeline. My feet smacked against the limestone repeatedly. I gripped the rope until my hands hurt. A burst of pain exploded in my leg. Finally, the line went taut and I was jolted to a stop. My arms burned at the resulting tug, but it was nothing compared to what I felt in my thigh.
I bit my lip to keep from screaming—I knew it would be a five-hundred-dollar fine if we were caught up here. Nic tied off the last bit of rope, finishing our hack, then helped me inside.
As we huddled for warmth, she shined the flashlight onto my leg. My pants were torn, my Hello Kitty underwear on full display, and a trickle of bright red blood dribbled from my inner thigh down to my knee. The sight flipped my stomach upside down.
“Shit,” Nic said between chattering teeth. “You must’ve caught a jagged edge of limestone on your way down.”
I used my hand to shield the blood from view. “If you make a joke about my underwear, I swear to God I’ll find a way to grow real claws.”
Nic forced a smile. No laugh. Crap. It must be pretty bad.
“Let’s get you downstairs before the numbness from the cold wears off,” she said in a tight voice.
“Great, so we’ll just leave my DNA all over the crime scene.”
“We didn’t commit any crimes. . . . Well, not really. And it’s supposed to snow later anyway.”
I looped an arm around her shoulder. Her wavy hair was frozen with wayward icicles, and they snapped at my biceps like Medusa’s snakes.
“Mei, I think you need stitches. I’ll call Student Health. EMS can give us a ride.”
“No! They’re the worst! They’re going to do more harm than good!”
Nic rolled her eyes. “They can’t be so incompetent they don’t know how to give you stitches.”
“Oh yes they can! Trust me.”
“Well, where else are we supposed to go? You don’t want to just bleed all over our room all night, do you?”
Annoyingly, she had a point. I wanted to ask her if she would come with me, but her tight grip around my waist answered my question. I reluctantly agreed.
Ten minutes later, at the entrance of the Infinite, flashing lights appeared. The student EMT exploded from the back of the ambulance