True Blue (Imperium Coast #1)

Chapter 37

37

A xel’s leg bounces in the seat next to me. I place my hand on it, stopping the motion as I turn to look back at the open doors at the top of the room again. “She’ll be here.”

He nods, biting his thumbnail and staring at the clock across the room from us. “She’s never this late.”

“I know,” I say, tapping my pen on my laptop again. We’d been here for the last twenty minutes, each of us getting up early to ease Janette’s performance anxiety. We’d each texted her asking where she was. Neither of us got a response.

“What if she freaked out? She’s been so nervous about this presentation. She’s probably still in her dorm having a panic attack.” He starts to pack his laptop into his bag.

I put a hand on his shoulder, keeping him in his seat when he tries to get up. Howards closes the doors, walking down the center aisle toward us.

“What are you doing?” Axel hisses. “We need to go find her.”

“I don’t know why she’s not here, but we need to do this presentation for her. She needs this class for her degree.”

Howards greets the class, clapping his hands once as he reads out the presenters list for today.

“We’ll say she’s sick or something and explain it all to Howards after class, but we need to do the presentation.”

Axel grits his teeth, nodding once after a moment of searching my face. He shrugs my hand off his shoulder and faces forward again. Howards calls up the first group, and I glance at the back doors again before settling into my seat.

The presentation goes quickly, two of the presenters talking fast while the other keeps a more measured pace. I prop my chin up on my fist, pulling my phone out a bit under my laptop to check if Janette has texted. My hand under my chin falls away as I sit up, pulling the phone out fully when I see a text and three missed phone calls from Mira.

Mira A.

SOS. Christopher is in our dorm. Get here now.

“ We have to go,” I say, tapping Axel’s chest before I toss my computer into my bag. Axel follows suit, standing with me without question.

“Mr. Marshall, Mr. Clifford. Please sit down. You will present after this group.”

“Family emergency,” I call over my shoulder as Axel and I head up the aisle to the doors. Bursting out of the room, I turn toward the stairs.

“Where is she?” Axel asks over my shoulder.

“In her dorm.” The sound of our shoes on the steps echoes through the empty stairwell. “Mira texted me. Christopher’s there.”

“ What the fuck ?”

We power walk out of the building doors, the sun momentarily blinding us as it reflects off the snow covering everything in front of us.

“Why the fuck is he even in the state?” Axel exclaims.

“I don’t know,” I say as we jog down the path toward West Tower. “But I don’t want him anywhere near Janette either.”

We pass a few people on campus as we rush toward the dorms. Axel pushes up to jog beside me, pulling out his phone and checking it as well. His eyes widen as he reads a notification on the screen and we both slow down.

“What is it?”

“I just got a text from my ex-boyfriend. He said ‘tough luck losing out to Bentley Marshall. Let me know if you want to talk about anything’ with a winky face.” He looks up at me. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

I pull out my phone, seeing some random notifications and then a text from my parents’ PR manager, Molly. Call me. We can fix this. I furrow my brow. “We need to get to Janette. Then we can deal with everything else.”

Axel nods and we continue across campus, taking the stairs once we make it into West Tower, rather than waiting for the elevator. Our steps echo again in the stairwell, crashing against my ears as we get closer and closer to Janette and Mira’s suite.

Axel pants behind me as I knock on their door, pounding a little harder than I should.

I hear Mira’s muffled voice on the other side as her voice comes nearer. “That better be them.” The door shoots open, and Mira stands on the other side. “Where have you guys been? I texted you a half hour ago.”

I walk past her and Axel rushes toward Janette’s room once he’s around Mira. “What happened? Where’s Christopher?”

“He left. Right after berating Janette.” I head toward her room, heart clenching. Mira’s hand lands on my forearm. “He outed you guys, Bentley.”

I turn toward her. “What?”

“He had pictures of you with Janette and Axel with her too. He sent them into tabloids. They’re saying she’s cheating on you.”

My hands ball up at my sides as a restlessness whips through me, a need to do something. But too many thoughts pop up and disappear before I can grab one and run with it.

“He read her the comments on a video about it.” Mira looks down, releasing my arm. “It was brutal.”

I spin and walk straight into Janette’s room. She sits on the floor, head between her knees. I notice a tremor in her shoulders and step closer. Axel is sitting beside her, running his hand over her hair while he tries to coax her to look up at us.

“Come on, Blue. Bentley’s here now.” He looks up at me with worry lines indenting his forehead. “We can deal with this together.”

I nod. “Mira told me what Christopher did.” Axel sits forward and Janette’s eyes peer out timidly over her knees. Tears dampen her face and leak from her red rimmed eyes. She looks up at me with so much fear, making my stomach turn. I kneel in front of her, cupping her cheek and turning her head up further to look at me fully. “This is not your fault.”

She tries to shake her head out of my hold, but I bring my other hand up to trap her face between them.

“It is my fault, Bentley!” Her voice comes out dry and off pitch. “Neither of your ex-boyfriends decided to ruin everything.” She pulls her face away, tucking it into her knees and tightening her arms around them.

“What did he do?” Axel asks in a low stony voice.

I give him the brief explanation Mira shared with me and his jaw tightens with each sentence.

“I’m going to kill him.” He moves to stand, but I reach out and grab his arm, nodding down to Janette when he glares at me. His face falls, arms reaching out to wrap around her. “It’s okay, Blue. We can fix this.”

“How?” She laughs listlessly, lifting her head again. “Everyone thinks I’m fucking you both behind the other’s back. My phone has been going off nonstop since the news dropped. They already know it’s Bentley in the one picture. How long do you think it will take for them to figure out who you are?” She looks at Axel with fire in her eyes. “How long until they start berating Layla and Gwen? Uncle Jack? Anyone they can to try to get a quote from that they can use to fan this flame into an inferno. And they’ll twist whatever we say to try to fit whatever scandalous narrative they want. Why do you think I did everything my mom wanted me to? This is exactly what I wanted us to avoid!” Fresh tears stream down her cheeks as she huffs at the end of her speech.

“We can fix this, sunshine.” Her eyes turn to me, glaring. “Together. Remember?”

“You’re both better off walking away now. Save your reputations and leave me to salvage whatever’s left of mine.”

“We are not leaving you,” Axel insists. He looks over at me and I nod, mouth closed as I run through every solution I can think of.

“Christopher ruined everything, Axel.” Janette turns, facing him. “If you stay with me, the press will only get worse. They’ll start hounding us every time we step off campus, and I refuse to make fools of either of you publicly so unless you want to stay behind closed doors forever, I don’t see how this is going to work.” Axel’s face pinches at her words and my heart falters in my chest.

I grab her chin, pulling her face up to look at me. “Do you want to be with us?”

She gasps, eyes widening. “It’s too late, Bentley. People already think?—

“I don’t care what other people think.” I lean in. “Do you want to be with me and Axel?”

“Of course, I do.” Her voice breaks and she moves her eyes to the side, trying to look over at Axel too. “I love you.” Her eyes meet mine. “Both of you.”

“Good.” I release her chin, standing up. “Then we're staying together. This will blow over. We just have to wait it out.” I cross my arms, contemplating how far Christopher could have gotten and if my Mercedes could catch up to him.

“It’s not going to blow over, Bent. The minute any of us are seen together, it will just start up again. Christopher already got a photo of us on campus. How many other students do you think will cash in on a pic of us together? I'm sure your parents aren’t going to want to answer questions about your relationship status every time they’re interviewed for something.”

I shake my head. “Campus has strict rules on paparazzi and exploiting students for tabloid photos. They won’t let people take photos of us on campus without legal action. Plus no one around here wants to start that war. I doubt I have the most famous parents here. And I doubt the Coast won’t be looking into how that photo got taken.” I run a hand through my hair. “I’m going to call Molly and see what we can do.”

Axel pulls Janette closer, leaning his head against hers as I pull out my phone. “Don’t ever think we won’t fight to stay with you, Blue,” he whispers. His voice becomes harder with his next sentiment. “And please don’t ever give up on us like that again.”

She chuckles, more tears falling past her lashes. “I’ll try not to, promise. But I don’t see a way out of this. Everything outside right now can ruin this.”

The sound of my call trying to connect rings in my ear as I frown down at them. “Nothing outside of this right here can ruin it, sunshine. When this is fixed, I’m drilling that into you.” She stares up at me with wide eyes while I start to pace.

Molly finally answers my call. “Bentley? I take it you’ve seen the news?”

“No, actually. But I got a rundown of what’s going on. What are our options?”

Axel starts whispering to Janette as she releases her knees, leaning against him. Her phone starts buzzing on the floor near us, and I glance over, seeing a call coming in from her mom.

“Well, depends on the outcome you want.” I reach down, picking up Janette’s phone.

She sniffles, chin shaking when she notices the name on the screen. “Right when we started making progress,” she whispers, and Axel squeezes her shoulders.

“Can you give me a second, Molly?” I pull my phone away without waiting for an answer, swiping Janette’s phone to answer the call. “Ms. Davidson? It’s Bentley.”

“Is she okay? I’ve been trying to reach her, but she wasn’t picking up. We had no idea this was going to run.”

“She’s panicked. Christopher showed up to rub it in her face. He’s the one who took the photos and sent them in.” Janette buries her face against Axel’s shoulder.

“Son of a bitch,” Sandra murmurs.

“We need a new angle. Hold on I’m going to bring you in on a call with my parent’s PR rep.” I hang up Janette’s phone, pulling my own back up to my ear. “Hang on a second, Molly. I’m going to bring Sandra Davidson into the call.” I put the phone on speakerphone, adding Janette’s mom to the call.

“I have Pietro here with me,” she says once she’s connected. “He handles most of my press.”

“I was explaining to Bentley that we need to figure out what result we want from this situation. Right now, the media is framing Janette as a cheater, which I’m assuming you’re calling to try to change directions on?”

“Of course,” Sandra asserts. Janette’s head picks up. “My daughter is not getting branded by a ridiculous rumor.”

“Molly, have mom and dad filled you in on the actual situation?” I ask, keeping my eyes on Janette.

“Yes, I know you’re all together. We can try to spin this, but there’s only two options that I can see that might work.”

Axel nods. “What are they?”

“Well, we can try to bury the story. Give the press something juicier to latch onto.”

“I might have something,” Sandra pipes up. “And it would be the perfect way to untangle myself from Christopher and his father during this whole mess.”

“But if we do this,” Molly warns. “It won’t completely get rid of the attention on you three. And it won’t restore Janette’s reputation. You three would need to be careful in public and wait a few years before you could ever hope to have any sort of normalcy. This would just take the majority of the heat off you.”

“What’s the other option?” I grit out.

“You three go public.” Silence follows her words, the three of us looking between each other as my breathing cuts off.

“I’m thinking a social media campaign. Some posts about how you’re all together and whatever else you guys want to share, but the gist being that there is no cheating and you three wish to keep your private lives to yourselves beyond this. We can manage a press release, something encouraging from each of your families and close friends. But you three would do the brunt of it.” Axel and I each turn toward Janette. “There’ll be even more eyes on you and I’m not saying this will definitely garner support, but it’s the only way to kill the infidelity rumors.”

I nod and Axel does the same. “What do you want to do, Blue?”

Janette stares at the phone in my hand, clinking her nails against each other. She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath and my hand unclenches.

Her eyes pop open, looking at Axel and me in turn. “We decide together.” Her face softens as she smiles at us. “Right?”

Axel beams, hugging her tighter. “Right.”

“Right,” I finish, feeling the rest of the weight above me start to give.