Hard and Fast by Sean Wolfe

Author:Sean Wolfe [Wolfe, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780758267870
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2011-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Two months later, Axom was sitting at a small table on the patio of his favorite coffee shop just a couple blocks off campus. There were more than a dozen of them on campus, but he didn’t care for any of them. They always had exactly the same people frequenting them, at exactly the same times every day, and they were the exactly the same people he saw in all of his classes. This one drew some students as well, but also enjoyed a lot of other people—moms with little kids, grandparents, a few homeless people who came back for free coffee when two employees in particular worked, and a transient and ever-changing group of hippies, surfers, and valley boys and girls. It was much more interesting.

“Are you sure it’s the right thing to do?” his best friend Malcolm asked.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Axom said, and swished his iced coffee in his mouth and then swallowed. He got brain freeze easily, and so had gotten in the habit of warming cold drinks a little in his mouth by swishing before swallowing.

“But it could really get ugly. He could fail you. And even worse, he could influence a lot of other professors to make your life miserable.”

“I know,” Axom said, and looked past Malcolm to watch two young mothers pushing strollers on the sidewalk next to them. “But I can’t keep letting him hold this shit over me. He has literally threatened me. And not just with failing me, either. Physically threatened me.”

“What? You never told me that.”

“It was just this past weekend. He said that he could make my life very painful and intolerable if I didn’t agree to see him again. That I wouldn’t live to regret it.”

“That fucker.”

“Literally. But all of this has made me certain that I made the right decision.”

“No doubt,” Malcolm said. “I wanna go over there and kick his ass myself. I know some people, if you want me to take care of him.”

Axom laughed.

“That’s okay,” he said. “I got it. Just watch for the drama later this afternoon. And I’m gonna need a diversion. Is everything all set for this weekend?”

“Of course, birthday boy. Everybody’s meeting at Paradise Lost at eleven on Saturday. I think this will be a birthday you won’t soon forget.”

“Good. I’ll need it,” Axom said, and tossed his empty cup into the trash. “All right, this is it. Wish me luck.”

Malcolm stood up and hugged his best friend. “I think I’ll kick back here for another few minutes. The barista has been staring and smiling at me for the past half hour.”

Axom laughed, and walked out the door.

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