20. Eli
20
ELI
S kipping classes on Monday was the right thing to do. It meant I could spend the whole day with Haley, and that was what I needed more than anything else.
It wasn’t just for sex.
It was her company. Knowing she really got me and that she knew the real me from long ago. She was the only person I wanted to spend this fluke day off with. No assignments were due today, and one of my professors actually ended up canceling at the last minute, too. If there were ever a day to skip and take off, this was an ideal one to take advantage like that.
There was something restorative about being with Haley and just… being. We talked. We made food. We cuddled. And yeah, we made love again. For as fast as this relationship was going, we were hurtling along into something really serious.
Finn came to pick me up before Aunt Cindy would be back, though, and it wasn’t easy leaving Haley. I’d see her tomorrow on campus, but that absence was already too much to bear.
“Well?” I asked him as I buckled.
“Yeah.” He winced.
With this being the first full day of offices open and campus running as usual, I counted on something happening from the Wests. I hadn’t stayed with Haley all day with my phone off as a way to avoid having to face reality. I stayed because it soothed my soul to be with her. Now, it was time to face the music.
“Go on. Tell me.”
Finn drew a deep breath. “Your parents came to the dorm room. Scott had to call security to get them to leave because they were trying to get into the room when it was locked.”
I rubbed my brow at the fact that the guy in the room next to ours had to deal with them. “What the fuck for? What did they think they could do?”
“Scott said they wanted to come in and wait for you to return so they could speak with you.”
I laughed once, bitterly. “Not fucking happening.” I had already planned to accept that this was the final straw. They wouldn’t forgive me for fucking up with my college education. And they wouldn’t offer me help to deal with it. In a way, it was freeing to be done with them now.
“Preston told his dad about the car,” he added. “People were talking about it. Posts were being shared about the car from that party. Like… everyone knows.”
I nodded. “I still say he was going to tell his dad anyway. That dare was just a way to mess with me. He never intended for me to avoid punishment for that car.” I’d grudgingly accepted that I was at fault, for at least half of it. I had gotten in the driver’s seat at Drake’s insistence, but I didn’t put the car into gear. It was still his damn fault, but there was no way he’d take the blame at all.
“Probably,” Finn agreed. “So, yeah. Lots of emails came in for you.”
He had my password, and he told me yesterday when he dropped me off that he’d keep an eye on any news so I could focus on Haley.
“Multiple offices. The scholarship board. They are all requesting meetings with you.”
I nodded again. “As I expected.”
“But maybe you can salvage the situation. Or drag it out and delay anyone making actual decisions.”
I scowled. “No one’s going to talk West out of revoking my scholarship.” That was a fact.
“Probably not. But I mean about graduating at all. If they don’t expel you before the end of the semester, you could still graduate then look for a decent job to be able to pay back the money.”
That was what I was hoping for.
All night, I dove into seeing whether that was possible. I spent hours reading through the emails, calling and leaving messages where I could with the offices that had contacted me, and then looking for jobs. I’d still need to double down and focus on keeping my grades up to be done here, but I had to do all this legwork first.
“I’ll go grab us some food,” I told Finn later that night. My back ached from sitting so long, and this tension headache that set in from the stress was aggravating me more. All that peace I felt with Haley in my arms was gone. Every second of that forbidden bliss of her crying out in pain and pleasure from my cock deep inside her had vanished.
“No, I’m good. I ate too much Chipotle at lunch,” he said, waving me off.
I got my coat on and headed out to get something in the cafeteria.
On the way there, I realized my parents weren’t giving up that easily. They’d come back. Standing up from a couple of chairs in the lobby of the dorms, they crossed their arms and scowled at me.
For fuck’s sake.
At least my dad wouldn’t be able to smack me around or hit me here. Too many cameras were anchored on the wall. Witnesses wouldn’t look good for him.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve screwing up like this,” my mom said.
I shoved my hands in my pockets, hoping I could stick with silence. They’d give up eventually if they saw that talking to me was like lecturing and whining to a brick wall.
“You think you can be a stupid slacker and accomplish anything in your life?” my dad asked, his face contorted in an expression of pure hatred and disappointment. “Huh? You think you can skip classes all day when you’re barely passing and you’ll turn out to be something?”
Wait a second. Something wasn’t adding up. I furrowed my brow and gave up the silent treatment. “You’re mad that I skipped classes?”
“Of course, we are!” my mom hissed. “Why wouldn’t we be furious that you’re slacking off and throwing away your future?”
Ah. They were only mad that I hadn’t gone to classes. They must have tracked me all day, seeing that my phone hadn’t left one location, and were so upset about my one and only day of skipping that it prompted them to come here and wait for me to show up.
They didn’t know about the fate of my scholarship likely being revoked yet. They were ignorant of the threat of being expelled for ruining Mr. West’s car.
“You were at that house,” my mom sneered. “The whore’s house.”
I gritted my teeth, livid to hear her say such a thing about the woman I was falling for. Haley wasn’t a whore. She never had been, going so far as to cover herself up to avoid attention. She never would be one, either, too pure-hearted and smart to cheapen herself like that.
And she’s mine .
I kept forgetting the mandate that I had to stop thinking of her like that. She wasn’t. She had plans. She was getting out of Marsten. But until then…
What if we got out of here together?
The allure of that idea gave me the strength to wait out my parents bitching me out. While my mom warned me to stay away from her and my dad belittled me for letting a girl interfere with the “few brain cells” I had, I let all their words go in one ear and out the other.
Instead, I counted down the seconds until I could see Haley. Regardless of my parents talking down to me like this, she was the only person I wanted to see and listen to.
Because she cared. She genuinely gave a damn about me, and not just for sex.
As a friend.
I’d thrown away too much time bullying the one sweet girl who was a true friend who would stand by me.
And I prayed that it wasn’t too late to convince her to stick with me until the end of the semester… and much longer afterward.
“I’m…” I shook my head, fed up with my parents’ invading my life with nothing but complaints, criticism, and derogatory insults.
Backing away from them as they told me to stop, I walked away and headed toward the library instead of the cafeteria, desperate to see my girl.
I wanted to be patient with her, I really did.
I was her first everything, and this was all new to her. But I was vulnerable too.
I needed her now . And I wondered how I could suggest that we team up and think about something more long-term, too.
My life was crashing down. Everything was falling apart around me, but Haley was a rock, an anchor I could cling to, and I would for as long as she might let me.