Chapter 2 The Echo is heard
Five weeks ago, Kelsey Brennan made the worst mistake of her life — or the beginning of the one that would shape everything that came after.
At seventeen, she went to a concert she wasn’t supposed to go to… and caught the attention of the one man she had spent years fantasizing about.A rock star.
A rescue.
A single night that turned her into a whispered legend at school — and a grounded prisoner in her own home.
The Echo is heard
Five weeks after the concert, Kelsey finally worked up the courage to ask the question she’d been dreading.
“Can I go out? I’ve been asked on a date.”
Her mother looked up from chopping vegetables, knife pausing mid-air. “I think it should be okay, honey. But we’ll have to run it by your father.”
“I’ll be eighteen in five months,” Kelsey said, hating how defensive she sounded. “I shouldn’t have to ask permission, but I’m doing it as a courtesy.”
She knew — they both knew — that her father was still furious about the concert. The anger hadn’t diminished with time; if anything, it had calcified into something harder and more immovable.
That evening, her mother broached the subject. Kelsey listened from the hallway, her stomach tight.
“Absolutely not.” Her father’s voice was flat, final.
Footsteps on the stairs. Kelsey barely made it back to her room before he appeared in her doorway.
“Kelsey, you’re still grounded. What you did was absolutely stupid.” He crossed his arms, settling into that infuriating parent stance. “What would you do if you were me?”
As if logic would prevail in this discussion.
“I would let me go,” Kelsey shot back. “I’ve already paid for what happened by having my life restricted for five weeks.”
“What you did could have gotten you raped.” Her father’s voice dropped, becoming something worse than anger — fear. “Or worse. You could have been killed.”
“How did you — “ Kelsey’s stomach lurched. “Did Ana — “
“I talked to Ana when she came over a couple days ago. She told me what happened because she was concerned about you.” He rubbed his face, suddenly looking older. “I can understand maybe a little drinking, though that’s bad enough. Wearing something provocative — “
“Everyone wears that kind of stuff now! It’s the norm, Dad!”
“You threw your underwear onto a stage.” Each word landed like a hammer blow. “In front of a crowd of drunk men who were looking for girls exactly like you. What did you think was going to happen? And then you got into a car with a stranger — “
“Jason isn’t a stranger! He’s — “
“A member of a rock band who you don’t know and who doesn’t know you!” Her father’s voice rose. “Kelsey, you’re not seeing the problem, and that’s the biggest problem of all.”
Kelsey felt tears burning behind her eyes. “You’re ruining my social life! Nothing happened!”
“I’ve signed you up for tutoring. Two hours a day, all summer. Oxford Learning Center.”
The world tilted sideways. “What? Dad, you didn’t!” The tears spilled over. “I have cheerleader practice!”
“You won’t miss practice. I scheduled it around your commitments.” His voice softened slightly, but his resolve didn’t waver. “I’m doing this because your grades are slipping. If you do well, I’ll consider lifting some restrictions. You can hang out with your friends as long as it’s sanctioned and approved. But no beach trips, no Friday or Saturday nights out. These tutoring sessions are costing me three thousand dollars a month, so I expect you to take them seriously.”
“Why should I?” Kelsey was crying openly now, her voice breaking. “I didn’t sign up for this! You’re ruining my summer!”
“We’re still going to buy you a car. But not until college.”
“You’re the worst dad ever!”
She ran to her room and locked the door, throwing herself onto her bed. Behind her, she could hear her parents’ muffled voices.
“Aren’t you being a little hard on her?” Her mother.
“No, I’m not. Honey, she almost got raped.”
“I know. I guess I have to agree with you, but you do have to let her have a normal life.”
“I will. But she has to change her attitude and her behavior first. It’s reckless, and as long as I’m able to right her course, I will. I love her too much not to.”
Kelsey pressed her face into her pillow and let herself cry. Her senior year — what should have been the best year of her life — was going to be a prison sentence.
The Oxford Learning Center smelled like new carpet and desperation. Kelsey sat in the waiting room with her arms crossed, radiating hostility to anyone who might consider approaching her.
“Hi, my name is Adam.”
She didn’t turn her head. A guy had slid into the chair beside her — tallish, dark hair that looked like he’d attempted to style it but given up halfway through, glasses that were slightly too big for his face. She recognized him vaguely from school. Junior class. Definitely not in her social circle.
“I have you in one of my classes,” Adam continued, undeterred by her silence.
Kelsey stared resolutely at the wall.
“We’ll have post-tests throughout the summer, and I can help you with subjects if you need it. I’m also prepping for the SAT if you want a study partner.”
She finally turned to look at him. He had hopeful eyes — earnest in a way that made her almost embarrassed for him. “If I need your help, I’ll ask for it.”
Adam blinked, then nodded slowly. “Okay. Sure. Just… offering.”
He was kind of nerdy, Kelsey decided. Not unattractive — he had decent bone structure under the awkward styling — but definitely not athletic. Not cool. Not someone she would ever be caught dead hanging out with.
She turned back to the wall and tried not to think about how this was going to be her entire summer.
Behind her, Adam opened a textbook and started reading, apparently unbothered by her rejection.
Somehow, that annoyed her even more.
The two-hour session felt like an eternity. Vocabulary flashcards and trigonometry problems blurred together until Kelsey’s brain felt like mush. An hour in, her stomach growled audibly.
“I’m hungry,” she announced to her tutor. “I need something to eat so I can concentrate.”
Her tutor nodded sympathetically and suggested she take a five-minute break.
From a couple seats away, Adam’s voice carried over the dividers. “I have trail mix if you want some. I brought extra.”
Before Kelsey could respond — or more accurately, ignore him — a ziplock bag sailed over the partition and landed on her desk with a soft thump.
She stared at it like it might bite her, then slid it to the edge of her workspace. When her tutor stepped out and Adam disappeared for his own break, Kelsey opened the bag.
Nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, and what looked like crushed Butterfinger pieces. She told herself she’d just have a handful.
She ate two-thirds of the bag.
The rest she tucked into her backpack for later, trying to ignore the small flutter of guilt in her chest.
When Adam returned for another session, he walked past her desk on his way to the Starbucks in the lobby. He glanced at the empty space where the trail mix bag had been and smiled slightly.
“It’s good, isn’t it?”
Kelsey’s face heated. “One of the girls here was hungry. I gave it to her.”
“Oh. Cool.” If Adam knew she was lying, he didn’t say so. “Hey, my parents bought me a car. I can give you a ride home if you want — looks like we finish at the same time. It’s not fancy or anything. Just a Toyota Echo.”
The words came out before Kelsey could stop them. “In your dreams. There’s no way I would get caught dead hanging out with you.”
Adam’s expression didn’t change much — just a slight dimming of that hopeful light in his eyes. “That’s okay.”
He walked away, and Kelsey felt something twist in her stomach that wasn’t hunger.
Forty-five minutes later, Kelsey sat in the lobby, checking her phone every thirty seconds. Her brother was supposed to pick her up at 5:00. It was now 5:47.
When he finally pulled up at 6:15, Kelsey threw herself into the passenger seat. “Where the hell were you?”
“And that’s the thanks I get for picking you up?” Her brother didn’t even look at her. “You know I’m working before college starts, right? I’m the only one who could pick you up today, so next time, try saying ‘thank you.’”
“But — “
“You’re a brat, Kels. My life doesn’t revolve around you.”
The next day — after waiting twenty-five minutes for her brother to finish his shift — Kelsey reconsidered her options.