I braked in front of her, and she stuck her hip out, all full of attitude.
“You need to roll right on by,” she said.
“Nice to see you again, too.” I pulled off my helmet. “Where’s Corabelle?”
“Not anywhere you can get to her.”
“She and I have a history.”
“Yeah, that was pretty obvious in the dish room.”
I assessed her. She met my gaze pretty steady, not intimidated in the least. “How long have you known her?”
“Since I started working at Cool Beans.”
“You her friend?”
“I’d take her over you.” She jutted her hip out. She was a live wire, completely the opposite of Corabelle.
“Fair enough. I need to be able to contact her.”
The girl laughed. “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to give up her number.”
“It’s important.”
“So is her privacy. You look like a stalker to me.” She tossed her hair behind her shoulders.
“I could say I got it from the TA. She’s in my study group. But it’s serious. Corabelle, she —” How did I persuade this girl? “She’s getting upset with me around.”
“That’s not exactly convincing.”
“I’m the only one who can help her.”
She looked back to the door, and I knew Corabelle was still inside.
“All I know is that she’s been hurt by somebody.” She moved in close and poked my shirt. “And I’m figuring after that scene yesterday that the somebody is you.”
“We grew up together.”
“And she wanted to get away from you. That’s why she changed groups. So I don’t think she wants to hear from you.”
“But this guy?”
“Not your business.”
“They been together long?”
“Again, not your business.”
I couldn’t crack this girl. Corabelle would get mad at me for this, but I had to give it a shot. “We had a kid together,” I said.
The girl’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“He died when he was a week old.”
Her bag slid down her shoulder and rested on the ground. “I didn’t know.”
“We were eighteen. I sort of left her. I shouldn’t have.” I stuck my helmet on the handlebars. “I want to make this right. Help me do that. You saw her yesterday. I think we have a shot at this.”
The girl pushed at her bangs, upset, and I could see she was struggling with what to do.
“What’s she been like?”
She shrugged. “Sad. Alone. She doesn’t go anywhere, do anything.”
Her words were a blow to the gut. “You two? Do you do things?”
“Sometimes. Mainly I see her at work. And we signed up for this class.” She twisted her bright hair in her fingers. “She doesn’t go out.”
So that guy had to be something new. “Corabelle used to light up a room. Her laughter was the happiest sound in the world.”
“I’ve never heard her laugh.”
Another blow. “We were supposed to get married, but the baby came early. Then I left.” I had to get to this girl. I needed to talk to Corabelle, before she got all tied up in that other guy. What was going on with me was pushing her toward him, I was sure of it. “If I could just talk to her, outside of class, I think I could make things right.”
The girl pulled out her phone. “I tell you what. You give me your number, and I’ll give it to her. If she wants to talk to you, she’ll call.”
That was probably about as good as I could get for now. I told her my number and waited as she tapped it in. “You will tell her?”
She shrugged. “If I think it’s a good idea.”
The doors behind her opened and her eyes went wide as Corabelle and another guy came down the steps.
“Shit,” she muttered.
Corabelle saw us and froze. The dude seemed oblivious and tried to lead her away, but she wouldn’t move.
Everything inside me wanted to claw its way out — rage, disgust, and somewhere way down there, despair. I was going to be too late.
She grabbed the boy’s hand, and he looked surprised. They took off along the front of the building and down a path away from us.
I started to swing my leg off the bike even though I was in the middle of the sidewalk, but the girl punched my arm. “Don’t you dare,” she said. “I’m not going to let you mess with her unless it’s what she wants.”
“I’m what she wants.”
She shook her head. “That’s not what it looks like to me. You need to back off. I don’t care how well you can put a girl up against a dish counter, that boy is bound to be better for her than you.”
I snatched up my helmet and shoved it on. This was pointless. I needed away from all this, and the fire in my belly wasn’t an easy one to quench.
The Harley roared, startling a bunch of birds in the tree next to us. The pink girl backed away. She’d probably delete my number. I’d gotten nowhere. I probably wasn’t going to get anywhere.
I left campus behind to head to the garage. I had a short shift this afternoon, then the night was free. I could see if Mario wanted to shoot pool, but really I knew what I had to do. Scrounge up a bit of cash and head to Zona Norte in Tijuana. There, the girls were easy and paid to like you, and I didn’t have to think about real life at all.