“You can have more than one if you want,” says the guy, “but each one has to be fifteen minutes or less.”

“Really?” Lance frowns. “I thought that ‘one phone call’ thing was like…official.”

Now, the attendant looks a little nervous. “Uh, I don’t know? But I’ve worked here for eleven years and we always let people make calls if they want to. But each one has to be—”

“Fifteen minutes or less,” Lance finishes for him. The attendant nods. Lance sighs and admits, “I don’t have anyone to call.”

“Is it because you don’t have any phone numbers memorized? Because I can give you your own phone.”

“Really?” Despite having had the three longest and worst days of his life in rapid succession, Lance is incredulous. Maybe he’s just seizing on any distraction from the prospect of spending the night in jail, and the surrealism of being under arrest in the first place. He offers the attendant a lopsided smile. “They’d never allow that on TV.”

The attendant just shrugs. Lance lets his head fall back, all of the energy leaving him with the full weight of his next words even before he speaks them. “I still don’t have anyone to call.”

There are a few people he’s fairly sure would answer, but he rules them out one by one. His aunt would help him however she could, but he does his level best never to ask her for anything. He can’t bear to call her from a jail cell.

Maisie would hitchhike halfway across the country if he called her, ditching classes without a second thought even after busting her ass to get into her grad school program. But he’s not clear on what she’d be likely to accomplish if she were there, except yelling at a lot of people—Lance included—and possibly protesting his arrest on the courthouse lawn.

He thinks about calling Niall and demanding, What the fuck? He knew Niall was mad at him, but this? Seriously? If Niall had just called and asked for the car back, Lance would have returned it.

Probably. Eventually. He isn’t sure he actually checked his phone during the whole drive from Chicago to the Nebraska state line.

If Lance calls Niall, though, he’ll be giving Niall the ultimate satisfaction. It wouldn’t surprise Lance if that’s all this was to Niall: a ploy meant not to punish Lance, but to make Lance need him. Depend on him. That would be just like Niall.

Once, knowing how Niall craved specific things from him had been useful—information that informed Lance’s approach to their two-year relationship. Now, thinking of trying to pull Niall’s strings makes Lance’s skin crawl. It wouldn’t be worth it if Niall took the opportunity to get his hooks back in.

Honestly, Lance would rather stay in jail. Even if the idea of being locked up in here for much longer is making his heart race. As the light has been fading outside the window, he’s begun feeling worse and worse.