“I have to get dressed and it’ll take me longer than that just to get there. Give me twenty-five.”
“Done.” I paused. I didn’t know what I was doing and this was probably going to get both of us in world of hurt with our parents. “Axel?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
“Sure thing. I got your back, lil sis.”
I hung up and double-checked that my cell was on silent. Even having it on vibrate could get me caught if I was actually on lockdown. Whatever the hell that meant.
Since Axel was going to take a few, I grabbed my backpack and looked around my room to see if there was something here I couldn’t live without, but there really wasn’t much that I couldn’t replace. I grabbed a few of my favorite T-shirts I’d screen-printed, my laptop, and my signed Nora Roberts book. With my cell shoved into my back pocket, I sat down, knees bouncing as the seconds ticked away.
Waiting that last ten minutes was torture. I studied the map of campus to kill time. Judging from the scale, it shouldn’t take me more than a few minutes to get to the front gate. The problem would be getting out of the dorm without waking anyone. My hearing had been a bit sensitive at the hospital, so I was assuming that was a Were thing. It would suck if one of these girls was a light sleeper.
Leaving through the door was a no go. No matter how softly I tried to close it, there was too much potential risk of waking up Meredith or one of the other girls. So I did the only thing I could think of. I opened the window gingerly.
The good thing was that I’d already survived a three-story drop. After that, two-stories was no big. Or it should be no big. That said, convincing myself to let go once I was hanging from my windowsill was harder than I’d imagined.
I made the mistake of looking down past my dangling feet. Two-stories was still one too many stories. But I had to let go. I counted down silently. When I hit three, I let go.
Next thing I knew, I was on my feet looking up at my window from the ground. I watched the windows above for any lights turning on, but nothing happened. I guessed Axel was wrong about the whole me being on lockdown thing.
The path to the right should lead to a parking lot. And beyond that, the main gate. I’d never seen it, but I hoped it wouldn’t be hard to open. Or climb.
I heard someone whispering, and it was getting louder. A three-foot hedge in front of the dorm seemed decent coverage. I moved around the end of it to hide between it and the brick wall.