Where Fires Dare to Burn

Chapter 22 - Whiplash

 "So, are you gonna tell me what happened the other night?" Kenny asked as they waited outside the takeaway coffee stand, impeccably positioned a hundred yards from the main campus lecture hall. A straggled line of other students was already forming, lured by the smell and the promise of caffeine.

"I told you," Luke muttered, looking down and making a show of examining his shoes.

"You did." Kenny nodded sagely. "And I told you that you were yanking my chain."

He frowned, shoving his hands into his pockets as he tried to think of a sensible answer. As it transpired he'd made it back to the dorm at a little after 3 am, exhausted, shell-shocked, smelling of woodsmoke and aching from his ordeal with the poachers and the Karkadda. There weren't a lot of good reasons for that, especially when as far as his room mate knew, he'd been out watching movies with Oaklynn.

Their coffees appeared in the front of the stand a moment later, buying him a few more precious seconds. Kenny took the pair of steaming takeaway cups and handed one to him as they turned towards the lecture hall. They moved at a slow, meandering pace, giving Kenny plenty more time to twist the knife.

"You're still gonna stand there and tell me movie night just dragged on and turned into a little domestic?" he challenged. "With everything that's going on around here? With her history with all this?"

"What do you want me to say, man?"

"Hey, look, what you guys get up to is your business, but the kid who wiped out at three in the morning didn't look like he'd been out for a nice date-night, okay?" Kenny took a sip of his coffee and shrugged. "With all that stuff we found out, you know, the guys are still worrying about you."

Luke gave him a withering look. "The guys?"

"Alright, and me."

"What exactly is it you're worried about?"

"Well, Kasper and the goon squad for a start." He made a vague gesture to their surroundings. "Kyan isn't always going to be around to knock the guy on his ass. If I were you I'd be keeping my head on a swivel."

"I can deal with Kasper."

"And we're catching whiplash from you two," Kenny continued. "One minute you're friends, next minute you're avoiding each other like the plague, then you're boyfriend-girlfriend and living it up. Now it looks like we're back to keeping a radioactive safe distance. It's a little hard to get to grips with."

"Believe me, I know."

"So what happened?"

"It's... complicated." Luke felt a twang of frustration as he said the words. How many times had Oaklynn said the same? Now here he was, staving off his friend with the same meaningless dodge. He wanted desperately to tell Kenny the whole insane story, to let it all come spilling out like a waterfall, but he knew he couldn't. Besides Gallie Parwood's ultimatum, his room mate would never believe it.

"Well that figures," Kenny snorted. "Gotta be honest with you, man, she seems like a lot more trouble than she's worth." He looked around suspiciously. "Speaking of which, where is she? Normally can't drag her away from a good cup of coffee. Don't you guys have a seminar this morning?"

Luke fumbled for an answer. Would Oaklynn even be in class today? They had a seminar, but with the previous night's events he wondered if she would even show. Even if she did, would they be able to sit together? Were there other Karkadda in their classes that he didn't know about? A creeping sense of paranoia seeped into his brain.

"That wasn't meant to be a trick question," Kenny said quietly.

"She's probably there already," he managed.