Learning Curve

Finn

“We’re going to die in here!” Julia declares, officially flustered, as we end up back where we started the third leg of the tunnels again. I make a third mark on the wall with Scottie’s lipstick next to the others and rub a hand through my hair.

“Relax, Juju,” Ace coddles, breaking out yet another nickname for the girl he has no idea he loves. “It’s going to be fine. We have a system. We just have to try the other tunnel this time.”

Scottie lets her butt slide down the damp cement wall and takes a seat on the floor, her head in her hands, and I watch her closely as Blake starts to discuss strategy with me.

“Okay, so we know we took the left fork and the straight fork, and both brought us back here, so now we need to take the right fork. My Apple watch picked up the tiniest blip of GPS when we were at that point, and it showed us under Sorority Row.”

“It makes no fucking sense to go right if we were under Sorority Row,” I say with a snort.

Blake nods. “I know. Which actually kind of confirms it’s the right move.”

“I’m starting to hate this,” Julia says then.

I seal my mouth shut, and Blake does the same, but Ace doesn’t, laughing directly in her face. “You’re kidding me, right? I tried to get you to sit this out, but nooo, you just had to do it.”

“Shut up, Aceface. I didn’t know it was going to be like this.”

“Lexi literally said it was going to be like this!” he shouts, his voice echoing obnoxiously around us.

“Don’t yell at me!” she yells back, making Scottie stand up from where she’s sitting.

“Guys, calm down. We’re close. We haven’t seen anybody else in ages. If we just keep it together, we’re going to win the money.”

“Scottie’s right,” I agree, which actually earns me a smile. I don’t want to get too excited, but after three hours of hand-holding and working together, she seems to be thawing toward me.

Julia takes a deep breath, and Ace pulls her into a hug. I bug out my eyes at Scottie, and she mirrors me with her own.

She dusts off the butt of her jeans as Blake waves us all down the dark tunnel once again, and I hold out an outstretched hand. She takes it so willingly, I can almost forget all the stupid shit I’ve caused between us.

Ace and Julia streak past us in a blurred run, and Julia’s giggles trail behind her as they pass Blake too. I pick up the pace to keep up but meter myself based on Scottie’s much shorter legs. When the group puts some natural distance between us, I chance bringing up a topic that could very well ruin all our progress.

Still, it feels too important to ignore it.

“I really do understand that it’s none of my business,” I hedge carefully, my voice a whisper. Her hand flinches in mine, but she doesn’t pull it away. “I know I haven’t earned the right to know very much about you, really. But I’m still going to ask you about the messages.”

“Finn.” Her voice breaks in unmistakable shame and embarrassment.

“I know. I get it.” I laugh at myself. “I really do. Hell, I understand keeping shit to yourself more than anyone.”

She glances toward me, and the glow from my phone’s flashlight is just bright enough to see her features. They call me a hypocrite in more languages than either of us speaks.

“But Julia is your friend. She would not have brought this shit up without your permission if they weren’t serious.”

She sighs. “They’re just mean. Smack talk, really. They haven’t, like, threatened me or anything.”

“I’ll fucking kill whoever it is if they do.”

“Finn.”

“I’m not kidding, Scottie.”

She scoffs softly. “I know you’re not.”

“But you’re still not gonna show them to me?”

She shakes her head. “I…I can’t. I want to, but I just…”

“Can’t,” I finish for her. Fucking hell, do I understand her completely, even if I hate the shoe being on the other foot. “All right,” I finally agree, letting her off the hook for now.

“Really? You’re going to drop it?” she questions, pulling me to a stop just before we get to where the others are waiting.

“No,” I say carefully. She frowns. “But I’ll let it go for now if you promise to tell me if you get more.”

“Finn—”

“Promise me.”

She rolls her eyes. “Fine. I’ll tell you if I get more.”

“Hurry up!” Ace calls from the three-way split in the tunnel ahead of us. “We actually did it! There are no marks on the wall. This is a new split!”

Scottie and I speed up into a jog until we make it to them. Blake makes a mark on the wall with the lipstick and then steps back to consider our three options. “Abrams is one of the oldest buildings on campus, right?”

“I have no fucking clue,” Ace remarks, making Julia laugh.

“It is,” Blake says then, answering himself. “It was the original university building, back in the late eighteen hundreds.”

“How do you know this shit?” I ask.

Blake rolls his eyes. “It was in the freshman orientation pamphlet I got last year. Obviously, none of you bothered to read yours.”

“Wow,” Ace chortles. “Blake Boden is a do-gooding dork.”

Blake shoves him, and I put Ace in a headlock after he bounces away, ordering, “Stop making fun of the guy who actually knows shit, bud. He might leave our asses here and take the money for himself.”

Ace wriggles away to bow down in front of Blake, actually striking a curtsy at one point, and we all laugh. “Please accept my humble apology, my dear sir, Your Football Royal Highness.”

Scottie surprisingly settles next to me, and I drape my arm around her shoulders without even thinking. She grabs my dangling wrist and holds it to her chest.

My whole body aches with longing. I really wish I had a different life sometimes.

“We will follow your lead dutifully for this next leg of the challenge.”

Blake picks Ace up to standing again, and Ace clings to him in an aggressive hug. “Security! Security!” Blake calls out playfully, and Scottie, Julia, and I all step forward to pull Ace off him.

“Come on,” I say, pushing Ace forward into one of the tunnels with a shove. He bounces back like he’s tethered to us, though, and Blake starts explaining his reasoning.

“The oldest building probably has the oldest tunnel, so I’m thinking it’s this one.”

I shrug. It’s a good enough theory for me.

Blake waves us on, and we all follow him on the path, only revisiting one more split we have to mark before finding the right direction. At the end of the tunnel, there’s a door, and Ace runs toward it excitedly. I don’t know if it’s the good news he’s hoping for—the door that leads to Abrams—or another door entirely, but now that we’ve been at this for the last five hours, I’m convinced it’s the door I’m leaving through, either way.

Whether we win here tonight or not, I at least feel like I won some ground with Scottie.

Ace tries the knob, and it opens without requiring a special knock. He charges through first, though Julia is plastered to the front of him as he does, and Blake follows closely behind. I usher Scottie forward with a hand at the small of her back so she can exit first, and the smile she gives me over her shoulder will live rent-free in my head until the day I die.

Lexi is waiting on a table in the basement conference room just through the supply closet the tunnel lets us into. For as much beef as I have with the Winslows, after five hours in these fucking tunnels, I’m happy to see her.

Ace and Julia practically maul her, closing her in a group hug that nearly knocks her off her seat. Connor laughs at Lexi’s discomfort. Blake takes Ace and Julia’s place as they step away, Connor holding out the cash enticingly. Blake moves in for a hug, but Lexi stops him with a stiff arm to the chest. “No touching.”

I hear Scottie choke to herself as she stifles a laugh in front of me.

As Blake steps away, his eyes even more googly than before, Lexi watches me closely, a small smirk on her face. I use Scottie as a human shield, pinning her to my front as I step toward my secret long-lost relative.

“Well, well, Finn Hayes is a winner again. I might have to keep my eye on you.”

She’s right, of course, but not for the reason she thinks.

“I think you’re the one we need to keep an eye on,” I challenge back. “Running an underground society at a prestigious university like this.”

Her eyes narrow. “What makes you think I’m in charge?”

I laugh. “Maybe because you’re always the one in charge.”

She shakes her head and jumps off the table. “That’s simple thinking, Finnley. And I’m pretty sure you don’t have a simple mind.”

She and Connor laugh together as they leave the room, and Blake stares after them, his mouth agape as always. “I swear I’m in love.”

Scottie rolls her eyes and bumps him with her elbow to move him out of the way. Ace and Julia are counting the cash and splitting it up five ways. I take a stack from them as they hand them out, feeling the weight of it on the bulging anxiety that lives and breathes in my chest.

Blake smiles at his own stack. “Well, folks, you’re stuck with me now. Consider this team officially formed for any and all group Double C shit for the rest of the year.”

“Me too,” Ace confirms, shaking his bills in the air while Julia nods. “Ditto.”

Blake looks from them to me and Scottie—once again, we seem to have migrated toward each other. “What about you guys?”

“I’m in,” Scottie says immediately, steering her gaze up and over her shoulder to me. But it feels like my answer is for more than one question.

Am I in the group?

But more importantly…

Am I ready to stop pushing Scottie away?

Power and pain and deep longing move from Scottie’s green eyes to my gut as I hold them hostage. “You’ve got me.” My heart thrums in my chest. “You’ve got me for good.”

God help us all.