22. Eli
22
ELI
M y meeting with the dean went about as well as I expected it to go. He was a fan of mine—or he was. Professor Ulbrich was a football lover, and it eased my mind and settled my nerves when he started talking to me about that, first and foremost.
But then he got down to business.
With a heavy sigh, he shook his head then opened his mouth to begin. Then he stopped, furrowing his brow. “Don’t you want your parents to sit in on this meeting?”
Fuck no.
I was surprised they hadn’t been informed yet. “No, thanks. I’m all right.” Telling him that I didn’t want them to know about my issues would probably be bad, though, so I didn’t offer anything else on that matter.
“I’ll be honest with you. This isn’t the first time that Mr. West has tried to interfere with situations like these.” He lowered his gaze to the papers in front of him on his desk. “I’m not saying that it’s bad that he personally tries to govern the acceptance or rejection of certain students, but I’ve long thought that he tries to police things according to how he sees fit.” He pursed his lips. “And that stays between you and me, Eli.”
I nodded. I knew how to keep my mouth shut.
“His request for immediate expulsion seems extreme.”
I didn’t speak. I couldn’t move. Holding my breath and waiting for him to say something after that, I stared at him and prayed he couldn’t see that I was sweating bullets.
“Seeing that you’ve been a good student with no other marks for bad behavior, I would go so far as to say that his request is asinine.”
I exhaled a long breath out my nose, willing my heart to slow with those words.
“However.”
Ah, fuck. I tensed all over again.
“That was an expensive vehicle to damage, you were intoxicated?—”
“No one can prove that.” I cleared my throat. “I’m not making excuses, but no one can prove that I was intoxicated at all.”
He nodded. “Sure. That’s true. No breathalyzer was used. No cops were called, either. There is no official trail of law enforcement about his car that night. But I’ll be frank with you, Eli. When it comes down to your word against his…”
I rubbed my face and blew out a long breath.
“You see what I’m getting at.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Mr. West has a lot of power here, and he is used to getting what he wants. So if he’s dead-set on getting you expelled, there likely isn’t anything you can do about it. Nor me.” He held his hands up like he was innocent.
“There’s nothing I can do?” I licked my lips, hating to sound desperate. “I just need to graduate. So I can get a job to pay back the scholarship he’ll have revoked.”
“Well, that’s not a done deal yet. One thing at a time.”
“I know. But that’s my worry, that I can’t graduate to be able to make the money to pay it back.”
“I understand. And it’s not my call. It will be a committee to decide, and a review will be completed. All I’m suggesting is that you not think it’s all over just yet.” He raised his brows at me. “It also goes without saying that you should really be on your best behavior until the end of the semester.”
“Yes. Absolutely.” I sure as hell wasn’t going near Preston or his parties again. The only things I wanted to focus on were passing my classes and spending as much time with Haley that I could before she left. Or when we left. That discussion wasn’t over.
After I left the dean’s office, I pulled out my phone to text her and see when we could talk again.
Finn rushed up to me down the corridor, though, and I frowned at his panicked expression.
“What’s going on?”
“Haley.” He skidded to a stop, grabbing my upper arm almost to halt and make sure he had my attention. Catching his breath, he shook his head. “She’s?—”
“What?”
He forced a rough swallow, then urged me to hurry with him down the way he’d come. “Davina saw her running through the parking lot and got worried. She saw that she looked scared and when she stopped her, Haley told her that Preston…”
I stared at him, willing him not to say my worst fear. “What the fuck did he do?” I pulled him to a stop as fear and rage built inside me. “What did that asshole do?”
“He didn’t. She got away, but she’s scared and it looks like he hit her. She said he cornered her, and she fought back but ran away.”
You’re dead, Preston. You are dead .
Running faster, I swore I’d end his life for daring to touch her. For wanting to hurt her. We had both been trying to avoid him at all costs. I hadn’t seen him directly bullying her anymore, but I doubted that meant he stopped when I wasn’t around. I’d noticed his attention on us.
“Davina texted me and I said to bring her to our room. To the dorm. Because she was too panicked and didn’t have a ride to her house yet.”
I nodded, sprinting with him the rest of the way to the dorm. The only thing that kept me sane was the reminder that I forced on myself that she was okay. That she was safe and unharmed.
She was at the dorm. No one could break into my room.
She wasn’t alone. Davina was with her.
Preston didn’t…
A growl of anger rose up within me at the thought of him violating her. Of touching her at all.
I ran up the stairs with Finn. Like a madman, I sprinted up to our floor, dashed down the hall, and stopped at our door. “Haley?” I pounded my fist. “Davina?” More knocks.
They didn’t wait to answer. Davina opened the door, and Haley didn’t give me long enough to fully enter the room before launching herself into my arms, jumping up for a hug.
She lunged at me so fast, I didn’t get a good look at her. But the first second I had her in my embrace, feeling her soft brown hair against my face, I closed my eyes and savored the feel of her with me.
Safe.
Mine.
Never Preston’s.
Once again, the fury escalated. I had never been more pissed in my life.
“What did he do?” I backed up, cupping her face as I pulled away. It was impossible to let her go, but I had to look into her deep, green eyes and see for myself that she was all right.
“We’ll leave you two alone,” Finn said, exiting with Davina and giving us privacy.
Haley stared up at me with wide-open eyes of alarm. But her panic faded. I saw it as she calmed down in my arms.
“He came after me. He was following me before and after my last class, and when I walked to the library, he cornered me and…”
When she tried to lower her head again, I urged her to face me. “Please.” It was destroying me from the inside out that she had suffered or been afraid of him at all. Now that we had found this deep connection neither of us wanted to give up, I couldn’t stand the idea of her in pain or being ashamed.
“He attacked and tried to…”
I ground my teeth together, losing control on my anger.
“He called me a whore.”
But that wasn’t anything different from what she’d heard before. She had built up resilience to that.
“And he was mad that I’d put out for you but not him.”
I let go of her and backed up, pacing. I teetered on a fine edge right now, so close to caving to the urge to kill him.
“He’ll try to use me to go after you, manipulating us both, but when he sees that you and I have something real, he gets jealous and tries to, what, take you from me?” It was ludicrous, but as I said it, she nodded, seeming to believe it.
“We know he’s evil.”
“And he’s also going to pay.”
She approached me, losing some of that shaken expression and getting firmer. “Eli. No. Don’t?—”
“I promise you, Haley, I will make him pay for this.” Looking her over again, I checked to make sure I hadn’t missed anything from what was readily visible on her skin. I noticed it all, the bruises and red, swollen spots where he must have grabbed her. “I will get revenge.”
“No. Don’t. Eli, not over me.”
I growled and ran my hands through my hair. “Not over you? How can you say that?”
“Because I don’t want you to get in any more trouble because of me.”
“Haley—”
She closed the distance between us. As soon as she reached up to grip the back of my head, she pulled me down to meet her in the middle.
Then she crushed her sweet lips to mine, distracting me from saying another word.