She kept walking. Behind her, Theo Bassett lowered his phone. The video was already saved. That night, Zoe sat on her dorm bed and did her reading for her biology class, and Avery sat across from her doing the same thing, and neither of them talked about Brody Walter. There was nothing new to say.
Avery was worried. Zoe could see it in the way her dormmate kept glancing up, but she also understood by now that Zoe didn't want to be talked at. She just wanted to move through it at her own speed. Zoe reached into the front pocket of her backpack and pulled out the small photograph. Robert Oakerson.
1987. A tournament somewhere in Georgia. The name of the venue faded at the bottom. He was young in the photo. Younger than she ever really thought of him being.
And he was grinning like someone had just told him the best news of his life. Arms at his sides, chest out. Not performing. Just certain. She pinned it to the cork board above her desk and looked at it for a moment.
Then she turned back to her textbook and kept reading. Two floors down, Brody Walter typed a message to Theo Bassett. Short. Purposeful. Friday.
Recreation Center. Open practice. He pressed send and put his phone face down on his desk. Friday came the way trouble usually did. Sunny, ordinary, giving no warning.
The recreation center was alive by mid-afternoon. The karate club held open practice every Friday. Doors wide, anyone welcome to watch. It was part of how Brody Walter had built his reputation, visible, public, impossible to ignore. The room smelled like rubber mats and effort.
Music thumped from a small Bluetooth speaker in the corner. Students in white GIs moved through drills while a larger group of spectators lined the walls, some sitting on the bleachers, some just passing through. Zoe and Avery were passing through. They were heading to the campus gym on the far side of the building. Zoe had a habit of training on Friday afternoons.
Nothing organized, just movement. Just the quiet satisfaction of using her body the way Robert had taught her. She had her gym bag over one shoulder. She was not thinking about Brody Walter. Then, she was.
"Hey. " His voice came from the center of the room, easy and carrying, aimed like something thrown. "New girl. " Zoe stopped. Avery stopped half a step later. Brody stood in the middle of the main mat, surrounded by his usual circle. He was in his GI, black belt tied loose at his waist, arms relaxed at his sides.