Staying on Course (Finding our Way 2)

“Okay, I’ll behave. But before you go, I have to know. Are you going to disappear for another three days?”

“Not if I can help it.”

Quinn knocks lightly and comes into my room with an enormous load of stuff.

“I’d better go, too. Quinn’s here, and I haven’t even told my parents about our new deadline. Call me tonight if you can.”

We say our goodbyes and hang up as Quinn sets up a tack board, dry erase board, and her computer at my desk. I raise an eyebrow but stay quiet, knowing this is how my anal-retentive friend narrows down ideas.

“Let’s rock this shit. I have plans to see Dean in Atlanta this weekend.”

Envy turns in my stomach, wishing I was able to see Bryce. Five and a half weeks can’t get here soon enough.

Chapter 10

We spend three days going through photos, outlining ideas, and communicating with the members of our teams to gather their notes and share resources. We both finally decide on our diagrams. I’m finishing an email to Shana when my dad knocks and pokes his head through the door.

“Dev, Nate called and said you need to check your phone. Bryce is going crazy. Something about a video online.”

“Huh?”

He shrugs and walks out while Quinn looks at her messages.

“Oh no. Oh no. Oh no,” she chants.

“What?”

“Dean is livid. Left three messages and five texts.”

“Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.” She shoves her phone in my face.

My mouth drops when I open the video from the going away celebration in Rio. A lot of us are dancing around, but the video zooms in on Quinn and me at one point. From the angle, it absolutely looks like we are dirty dancing with the guys behind us. Lucky for me, I look tame compared to Quinn. Her teammate, Hank, lowers his hand rapidly and appears he’s spanking her. I remember the whole night, and what really happened was that he almost dropped his beer and used both hands to grab it.

That is not at ALL what it looks like.

We are both tagged in the video that is now on Facebook. Bryce is probably shitting a brick.

I give her a sympathetic look and grimace.

This is not going to be good, I think as I dial and wait for Bryce to answer.

“Are you fucking crazy?” he roars in greeting. “Where have you been?”

“I didn’t think we’d talk until tonight, so my phone was on silent.”

“Did you know about the video streaming across the internet?”

“I do now, and it looks worse than it is. Really.”

“Tell me how it could be worse. That guy is practically up your ass! And don’t get me started on Quinn.”

“Bryce, listen to me. It isn’t what it seems.”

> His breathing gets louder, and he growls. Quickly, I explain the night and wait for him to calm down. But my plan backfires, and instead, he gets more aggravated.

“Can you pull this shit down?”

I un-tag myself and remove from my timeline. “Done.”