AFTER YOU SAVED ME // ZESSA

Chapter 21: Hardin's Return

Zed's POV

"Oh, give me a fuckin –" Hardin seethes into the phone, before I hear him stop himself, clear his throat, and start again. "What is it, Zed," he asks, slightly less irate.

"It's about Tessa," I breathe out, my voice uneasy as I pace my bedroom floor, "Have you talked to her recently?"

"What?" he yells. "What do you mean? Why would I have talked to her?"

"I don't know, I thought maybe you had. Never mind, bye," I say, going to hang up.

"What the fuck is going on, Zed," he demands, "You wouldn't call me unless it was serious, I'm not an idiot," he yells.

I debate hanging up anyways, ignoring his questions. But the anxiety over not knowing where Tessa is gets the better of me. I hate Hardin, but the only other person who maybe knows Tessa as well as I do is him, unfortunately. He could possibly help.

"I can't find her," I admit.

"What the fuck? What do you mean you 'can't find her?' She's not a damn key you misplace, how do you lose an entire fucking human?" he says, the sound of wind muffling the phone speaker.

"It's not like that. She said she was with a friend, but it does not seem right. What the hell are you doing? It's so loud," I ask, pulling the phone away from my ear as the whipping sound grows louder on the other end.

"I'm coming," he huffs.

"Coming where?" I say confused. Is he coming here? To my apartment? Since when does he know where I live?

"To you, you idiot. I am walking to my car. Where should I meet you?" he shouts over the howling of the wind, the sound of a car being unlocked in the background.

"I don't want to meet with you Hardin. Just because our restraining orders expired doesn't mean we are suddenly friends again," I reply angrily.

"I don't want to be your fucking friend either. But I'm not going to let anything happen to Tessa," he says back.

"The scars on her arms prove you would," I shoot back harshly.

"If you don't tell me where to meet you, I'll just spend all night trying to find you on my own," he fumes.

"Fuck, fine. Meet me at..." I say, my forehead wrinkling as I try to think of somewhere public to meet Hardin. Less chance of him trying to kill me... again. "Meet me at the engineering library on campus."

"The fucking library?" he asks, disbelief and annoyance lacing his every word.

"Yes! Do you want to help Tessa me find her or not?" I say back, just as annoyed.

I hear him groan, then say, "I'll be there in 20 minutes."

I beat him to the library by only a few seconds. He probably drove like a dick the entire way – very fitting for him.

"Why the hell did we meet here?" he asks, getting out of his obnoxious black car and slamming the door.

"Because it's open late, it's the biggest library on campus, oh, and there's a security guard on duty at all times," I say knowingly, closing my car door and shaking the hair out of my face.

"I'm not going to do anything to you," he says, a pang of shame in his voice. "Unless this is your fault, then I'll have to fucking kill you myself," he says, sarcasm evident in his delivery, though the joke does not land well with me.

We make our way inside the enormous building surrounded by long columns and ivory tiles. It is the nicest library at our school thanks to all the successful engineering alumnae who donate money every year.