Did you get them when they were puppies? It brought him back to the roly-poly days of Sun and Moon, when they could hardly have protected him from anything and yet somehow helped to keep the terror at bay. They were tangible gifts of love from another time when Keegan had tried to be the hero—succeeding only in part. He hadn’t thought about that day in months. At least he hadn’t dwelled on it much since then. But as his mind drifted from his walk with Ava at the rose garden, it all came back to him. Eight years ago. Seventeen years old. A bus stop. A gunman. Keegan had simply reacted. The guy was one of his classmates. That year they shared the same physics class. He sat across the room, always absorbed in his work. Whenever Keegan happened to see him in his peripheral at lunch, he always had his headphones on. In his own bubble on the quad. And now here he was, holding a gun and threatening to take out everyone at the bus stop. Students. An older couple. Some twenty-something girl in a Burger King uniform.
