Breathless #5 (The Breathless Romance Series - Book #5) (2 page)

Chapter
Two

When we got back to the campus, I let Georgia out at
the dorms. I was determined to find out something — anything — about where
Johnny had gone. “Are you sure about this?” Georgia asked me. “I mean, if he
wants you to stay away…he might be doing something risky or dangerous.” I
shrugged. I was miserable without Johnny.

“If he is, he is,” I said. “That’s not about to stop
me. I know for a fact that if I was going through something, Johnny would be by
my side the entire time. I can’t do any less for him. Besides…” I took a deep
breath. “If he really doesn’t want me around, if he wants it to be over, he
will have to tell me to my face.” Georgia looked doubtful, but she got out of
the car and I watched her walk back towards the dorms. I had to think; if
anyone would know where Johnny had gone, it would have to be his frat brothers.
At least one of them would have to have at least some clue of where Johnny was.
I didn’t know any of them well, but they at least knew that I was Johnny’s
girlfriend. Assuming they didn’t think that I had abandoned him in the wake of
this mess, they would hopefully have enough pity on me to tell me what they
knew. I could only hope.

I drove over to the Phi Kappa house and pulled into
parking on the road. I tried to decide how best to go about asking, but I knew
there was no point. Either they would tell me or they wouldn’t. Either they
would know that I was trustworthy or they’d think the worst of me. Either they
were standing behind their brother or they’d already disowned him and wouldn’t
even care where he was. I took a deep breath and got out of my car.

It was still fairly early, at least far as weekends
went on campus went. No one was around and I had to wonder if anyone was even
awake at the Phi Kappa house. Had they been partying last night? I had no idea.
I walked up from the street to the front door and took another deep breath to
steady my nerves. I really didn’t have any other choice but to ask them for
information. They were the only people save for his teammates I could possibly
ask. I swallowed down the sense of panic I was feeling and knocked on the door.

I waited. It was, after all, only ten. It was possible
that no one was awake yet. But I didn’t want to knock again. I didn’t want to
piss anyone off. I was beginning to lose hope when I heard someone call out
that they were coming. I closed my eyes and focused on what I was there to do.
I opened my eyes as I heard something at the door in front of me. I bit my
bottom lip to stifle the instinct to run away. I wasn’t normally this scared,
but there was so much at stake.

The guy who answered the door was in pajama pants and,
from what I could see, nothing else. I put on my best smile, though I knew that
my best smile at the moment was a poor imitation of my usual smile. “Hey, sorry
if I woke you up,” I said.

“Nah, it’s all good,” the guy said. He was relatively
good looking, but not a patch on Johnny, with dark hair and eyes and a bronze
complexion. “You’re Johnny’s girl, right?” I nodded.

“I saw his truck at the train station,” I told the guy.
“I’ve been…kind of looking for him. You know?” I shrugged. He had to know — everyone
on campus knew. “I’m worried about him.” The guy smiled.

“He said you’re pretty sweet,” he told me. “It’s good
of you to be worried. I mean, not that I’d want you to worry, but you know.” I
managed a little laugh.

“Yeah, I know,” I said. The guy scratched at his rib
cage, leaning against the frame of the door. He looked out onto the street; no
one else was around.

“Come inside,” he said. “I don’t know where he got to,
but one of the others might have an idea.” He opened the door wider and I
slipped past him, feeling a little relieved; he was willing at least to let me
in, to give me the chance to find out where my boyfriend was.
Surely someone in this frat has a clue,
I
thought. I couldn’t imagine Johnny getting onto a train without telling anyone.
It also made me happy to know that his brothers, this one, at least, were
supporting him and cared about him still. I didn’t know whether they believed
the rumors about Johnny or whether they knew the truth, but they at least were
not kicking him out, either way.

It was weird to be in the frat house without Johnny,
knowing that he wasn’t even in there. The house had the same odor of tons of
guys living in one place: sweat, stale beer, dirty clothes somewhere in another
room, a kind of grimy funk that I didn’t think any amount of cleaning would
ever manage to get out of the walls and floors. I followed the guy who had
answered the door into the living room to see a bunch of guys gathered around
the TV, watching something — I thought it might be the recap of a game. A few
of them were in pajama pants, but most of them were in nothing more than
boxers. I recognized a few of them from Johnny’s team. “
Yo
,
guys,” the brother who had let me into the frat house called. A few of them
looked up; they had been so absorbed in the TV and their bowls of cereal that
they hadn’t even noticed that anyone had come in. I tried not to blush or
laugh.

“Hi,” I said, smiling nervously. “I know a couple of
you guys are on the team with Johnny. Does — does anyone know where he’s at?”
The guys looked at each other and I could see them hesitating.

“She’s worried about him,” the guy who’d let me in
said.

“Johnny didn’t want anyone to know where he was,” one
of the guys said, more to the others than to me.

“She’s Johnny’s girl, though,” another guy said. “I
mean, you heard him talking about her. He trusts her.” I tried not to fidget as
they debated amongst themselves, feeling more and more desperate. It was obvious
that they weren’t going to really acknowledge me until they had decided matters
between themselves by the way that they were talking about me as if I wasn’t
even there. I waited, telling myself that they were just looking out for Johnny,
just like I was. They weren’t sure what to think of me, and I could imagine
that they’d probably been hounded over the past few days about their brother.
They weren’t going to open him up to someone else hounding him.

“Just tell the girl; can’t you see she’s miserable?
Besides, if Johnny doesn’t want to see her, he can tell her to get the hell out
of dodge.” I sighed, relieved. I wasn’t exactly glad that I was obviously
miserable, but at least someone was talking sense.

“Johnny told me the other day he needed to go home and
make things right. I offered to give him a ride to the train station, but he
said he’d just park it — they don’t tow you.” I considered. I had no idea where
Johnny lived. I looked around the room; it was obvious that they wanted to help
me, but it was equally obvious that they were not fully awake, that they were
probably hung over.

“I don’t actually know where Johnny lives,” I said,
blushing. “Does anyone have the address?” Some of the guys shrugged, others
frowned in thought. Finally one of them got up.

“His mom sends him stuff sometimes; let me see if
anything’s hanging around in the kitchen.”

“That’s where the mail goes,” one of the other guys
explained. I waited as the first guy walked out of the room and into what I
could only assume was the kitchen, while the others started to turn their
attention back onto the show in front of them. The brother who had let me in
had wandered off once it was clear that the others were willing to help me, so
I didn’t even have a chance to thank him.

The guy who’d gone into the kitchen came back with an
envelope. “He hadn’t opened it yet, so you can still see the address,” he said,
handing it to me. I smiled.

“Thank you. I’m — I’m really worried about him,” I
said. “I just…” I sighed. “It’s a lot for him to deal with, and I don’t want
him to be alone.”

“You’re pretty alright,” the guy said, grinning a
little. “Johnny told us you’re the sweetest girl he’s ever met.” I blushed,
smiling.

“I don’t know about that. But I care about him a lot.”
The guy nodded.

“Just so you know, you’re always welcome here. You’re
Phi Kappa by affiliation. Anyone bothers you — anyone from the other frats or
one of the sororities, you let us know.” I felt like I was going to cry; it was
so good of them to take up for me.

“I can mostly handle it,” I said quickly. “But thank
you.” The guy hugged me briefly.

“Johnny’s a good guy. If he’s into you, we figure you
must be something special.”

“We can agree on one thing: Johnny’s a good guy.” The
brother laughed.

“Go on, you don’t want to hang with us when you could
be getting to Johnny.” I hugged the frat brother one last time and hurried out
of the house, breathing deep of the fresher air outside. I had an address. I
had somewhere to go. I looked at it and sighed; Johnny wasn’t lying when he’d told
me he’d gone about as far away from home as he could and still stay in the same
state.
It could be worse
, I told
myself.
He could have decided to go out
of state for college — and I wouldn’t have blamed him at all.
But it was
going to be a long drive, and I didn’t even know if he’d see me once I got to
his mother’s place. I didn’t even know if he was still there or if he’d done
something, like turn himself into the police. I couldn’t imagine what state of
mind he was in.

But the return address was what I had to go on. I
texted Georgia and told her that I was on my way and that I would probably be
gone all day, if not longer. She texted back by the time I’d gotten into the
car and told me to be safe, to let her know if I found anything out, and to not
get myself killed.
Drive safe, woman.
They’re crazy out there.
I turned the key in the ignition and plugged in
the address on my phone. I hooked it into the sound system of my car and took
the car out of park. Whatever happened, at least I was taking control of the
situation. At least I was going to do something. Even if Johnny decided that he
didn’t want to see me, I would have made an effort to find him, instead of
spinning my wheels getting nowhere with him far away.

Chapter
Three

I spent the entire rest of the morning driving, into
the afternoon. It seemed like the highway was never-ending; the turn-by-turn
directions were silent for at least two hours, even though whenever I spared a
glance at my phone to confirm that it was still on, it showed me moving consistently,
keeping track of me by satellite.

I had a lot more time to think than I would have
wanted as I made my way down the state, further and further away not only from
the college but from even my parents’ home. I cringed when I thought about what
my dad would say about how much I was spending on gas — I had to fill the tank
twice. I knew my dad would see the charges on the statement, but I thought that
by then I’d have a decent story of some kind to give him; though I had no idea
what that would be. If Johnny rejected me — if he really wanted me out of his
life for my own good, it would be for nothing.

Johnny could lose everything over this. If booking it
out of town like he did made him miss more classes, if he missed the big
championship game, then he could lose his scholarship and definitely, the team
would stand a good chance of losing the game. He could be kicked off of the
team. If he failed his classes because of unexcused absences, he could end up
getting kicked out of the school altogether, since he would no longer be able
to pay for his classes. Even if he managed to somehow keep his scholarship, he
would be on academic probation. I thought about how much Johnny loved hockey;
it clearly made him happier than just about anything on the planet.
Other than you. And he might lose you, too.
I couldn’t let him throw everything away, even if he thought he was responsible
and even if he thought that it was the only way to make everything end.

I felt jittery and insecure, but not as panicky as I’d
felt trying to get to Johnny’s away game to get the story from him. I didn’t
know at all what would come of tracking him down or even if I would find him at
his mother’s house and be able to talk to him. What if she stonewalled me, the
way the guys at the frat had intended to? What if she decided that I was no
good just because I was another girl in her son’s life, someone who might bring
him nothing but trouble?

I checked in with Georgia with every gas stop I made,
telling her that I was still okay. I knew she was worried about me. I suspected
that she thought I was completely crazy to go about it this way, but I knew I
couldn’t wait any longer to figure out how I could help Johnny or whether he
would even let me help him. I had to have faith that once I was there, once I
was able to hopefully see him and talk to him again, things would be okay. It
was the only thing I had to hold onto.

By the time I pulled off of the highway into Johnny’s
town, my legs had gone numb from sitting in one place all morning. I looked
around; it was a tiny little town. It looked to be mostly middle class, though
some of the houses I drove past were boarded up, with foreclosure signs on
them. I followed the turn-by-turn directions to the letter, winding along one
road and down another, making a turn here, passing a particular street, making
a U-turn, getting onto another street. I slowed down. Small towns tend to be
wary of out-of-towners like me, and I didn’t want to end up in trouble with any
of the local police; that would just make everything worse. I had a moment of
wondering if I really was crazy. Should I just have let things rest with what
Johnny had said about me moving on, cutting him out of my life forever?