Chapter 7
7
EVELYN
O ver the rest of my second week, I settled into classes, finding that while the course load was intense here, it wasn’t much harder than what I’d experienced at my old college. The students, on the other hand, were so vastly different that at times I felt like I’d stumbled into a foreign world.
Despite that, I noticed how a new tension held the campus in its thrall. There was something brewing between the various very-important factions here, I was sure of it.
“What the hell is going on?” I murmured to Nina as we waited in the dining hall line. Thursday’s lunch was fresh wood-fired pizzas which was both slow and popular. There were more students in the dining hall than I’d ever seen, and the daggers being glared around were forceful.
Nina arched a brow as she grabbed a side salad. “Rumor has it, Connor made a pass at Laura.”
I blinked a couple of times. “Andrew’s girlfriend? Why would he do that?”
“Probably just to piss Andrew off.” Nina shrugged. “Connor doesn’t really need a reason to go after other guys’ girlfriends. He could have been bored. Or maybe it was too cloudy. I don’t know. But Laura apparently tried to make Andrew jealous, and it’s turned into a thing.”
Huh. Okay, yeah, I could see how that would create tension. Most of the college seemed to be either Team Andrew or Team Connor. The only people I’d encountered who didn’t show a clear bias were Brodie Keller…and the maintenance guy. Even Nina had made her allegiance known—she was Team Andrew purely because Connor scared her a little.
I peered over my shoulder to where Andrew’s group of friends sat, having already received their pizzas. Laura was positively glowing under all the attention, but Andrew scowled. His fucked-off expression directed right at me . What the hell?
“Uh…are you sure that’s all that’s going on?” I asked nervously, my gaze tracking around the room until I found Connor. Thankfully, he was engaged in a broody conversation with his heavily tattooed friend, Hawk.
Nina shrugged. “Nope, not sure. But that’s all I’ve heard about, and I have really sharp ears, you know?”
I chuckled, turning back to the pizza line. “Yeah I know. Queen of Meadowridge gossip. Did you ever hear who caused the chemistry lab explosion?”
She nodded. “Yup, it was Haze. Totally un-shocking, and apparently Dean Attworth can’t decide on a suitable punishment because nothing like this has ever happened before, and he can’t send Haze off campus. Like at all. It’s a safety thing.”
This was all news to me. “Okay, hold up. Who is Haze and why can’t he leave campus?”
“Um, something to do with him being wanted by a couple of European countries on espionage allegations or some crap? I dunno, it’s probably just hearsay and rumor but he’s super mysterious so it’s plausible.” Nina dropped that information so casually, then got to the front of the line and placed her pizza order.
I waited my turn, then right as I started to order…all hell broke loose.
The tension that had been holding the school hostage all week exploded into a mass of students inside the cafeteria. Nina and I were five tables away from the initial chaos, so I couldn’t immediately see who was involved, but I already had my suspicion—which was confirmed when she dragged me closer to the action.
“Shouldn’t we be running the other way?” I gasped as Connor slammed his fist into Andrew’s face, the pair center of the ruckus, between the tables.
But they weren’t not the only ones.
At least half a dozen other guys were shouting and shoving, fists flying so fast that I couldn’t keep up with who was smacking who in the face. The noise grew louder and louder as more students circled the group laying bets.
To my surprise, it was fairly even odds for Connor versus Andrew.
“Where the hell is security?”
Nina took the briefest look around before returning her gaze to the fight. “Someone would have paid them off to stay away.” She squeaked as Andrew tackled Connor to the ground, slamming his knee into the big guy’s gut.
A shudder raced through me; violence was a trigger, but I was keeping it mostly under control from where I stood. Only Nina kept edging us closer, until I could feel the breeze from swinging fists, which was far too close.
“What are you doing?” I shouted at her, and she just shot me a brilliant smile. Crazy bitch was enjoying this.
I mean, not to say that there wasn’t a certain poetry in watching these perfect specimens of the male species getting down to their base instincts. There was so much testosterone, I was surprised we couldn’t literally smell it, but all I got was fresh sweat and expensive cologne.
I blinked as I noticed the janitor guy who’d been tinkering with the vending machines in the mix, standing out as the tallest out of an already tall bunch of guys. He moved like a ninja though, ducking and diving, all the while annihilating anyone who gets in his way. And was that?—
“Is that Brodie fucking Keller?” Nina choked out. “Oh, bro, his agent is going to wring his neck if he damages his pretty face.”
Sure enough, the blond actor was in the midst of the chaos, cackling loudly as he threw punches left and right. I had no idea he could fight so well, and it didn’t look as if anyone had landed a blow on him yet.
“How’s he moving so fast?”
Nina shot me a salacious side-eye. “Girl, have you not seen how powerful his thighs are? They need their own fucking movie. I’d watch ten hours of him just flexing them.”
I was about to ask her when she thought I would have had a chance to see his thighs when she let out a muttered curse and, to my utter shock, raced into the midst of the fight.
“Nina!” I screamed after her, worried she was about to get herself killed. None of these guys were in their right minds to know who they were swinging at.
Cursing impulsive friends, I raced around the outside, my heart slamming in my chest as I dodged a few of the tables to keep her in my line of sight. Somehow, she didn’t encounter any of those swinging fists, and I had no idea what set her in motion until I saw Laura sitting at a table right near the edge, frantically waving and calling to Andrew.
At that stage, a lot of the other guys had cleared out leaving just Andrew, Connor, Brodie, and the big janitor. Oh, and Laura.
Nina snuck up behind her and, when she was close, fisted a handful of Laura’s hair and slammed her face straight down into the cafeteria table.
The bang was so loud that everyone turned in that direction, to find Laura with her hand over her busted nose as blood trailed between her fingers…and no sign of Nina.
Somehow, she’d vanished, and as I bounced up on my toes, I thought I caught a glimpse of her down on the floor, sneaking away.
When Laura’s shock wore off and she finally looked around for her attacker, I was the only one close by, and she screamed and pointed my way. “I’ll have your head for this, new girl. You’re fucking done here at Meadowridge.”
I held both hands up, silently professing my innocence, but it was too late. A few seconds later security finally made its way into the room, and I was still frozen in place, unsure if I should run or just face the music and explain I wasn’t remotely close enough to her to have carried out that attack. Fuck, I’d been twenty feet away. How fast did she think I could move?
In the end, I didn’t get to make the decision, as the four main instigators of the fight, Laura, and I were dragged off to the dean’s office. He was already waiting for us, and when security ushered us inside, they took up sentry at the door, ensuring no one was escaping their fate.
Dean Attworth stood behind his desk, expression thunderous as he glared at each of us. For the most part, there weren’t that many signs of the fight. Connor and Andrew were a little worse for wear, with bruises already forming, and Connor had a small cut above his right eyebrow that occasionally dripped blood onto his cheek. Brodie and Janitor boy sported busted knuckles and a few torn shirt buttons, but otherwise their faces remained completely untouched.
Oh, and then there was Laura. Who had two black eyes forming and what looked like a broken nose, which was a fucking excellent look on her .
“Can someone please explain to me what the hell just happened in my college?”
The dean didn’t shout. Nope. His voice was calm and reasonable, but there was an undertone that told me he was two seconds from losing his shit.
“That bitch slammed my head onto the cafeteria table,” Laura said, pointing a red-tipped finger at me. “I want her expelled and charged with assault.”
“What!” I gasped. “I wasn’t anywhere you, Psycho Barbie. Not even I could move twenty feet in a few seconds. I think that blow to your head might have rattled your few brain cells out of your broken nose.”
Laura lurched for me, but Andrew stepped into the way. “Laura had nothing to do with this,” he said shortly to the dean. “She shouldn’t even be here.”
To my surprise, the dean didn’t question that statement, waving toward Laura as if to say you’re dismissed. Laura looked like she was about to start raving again, until Andrew leaned down and whispered near her ear. She calmed almost instantly, and with a final dirty look shot my way, she flounced out the door.
No doubt she was off to regale her sycophants with the harrowing tale of her attack.
Good for her.
But also. Why the fuck was I still in here?
“I had nothing to do with the fight either,” I said as I hold both hands out in front of me to do a spin. “See, not a drop of blood, sweat stain, or wrinkle in my clothes.”
Outside of the normal wrinkles, because only lunatics ironed their clothes.
“If Laura said you attacked her, we’re believing it,” Andrew said shortly, blatantly lying about what happened. Which proved my point about ironing. That lying, perfectly pressed asshole had all but agreed with his insane girlfriend .
“I wasn’t anywhere near her. And I wouldn’t attack her anyway. I have absolutely no reason to dislike Laura, and I’ve never hit anyone just for the fucking fun of it.”
“Language, Ms. Lewis,” the dean admonished. “If Andrew isn’t verifying your story, then that leads me to believe that Ms. Sandiconte, who is an exemplary student from an even more exemplary family, is telling the truth.”
I had barely opened my mouth to express how utterly unfair this was when he pointed a finger and said, “You’re in just as much trouble as these four, so it’s in your best interests to remain quiet and accept your punishment.”
Punishment. Was he for fucking real?
If he punished me worse than these rich douchebags who actually started the fight, I would lose my shit and start smashing up his fancy office—starting with the shelf of awards sitting in a brown cabinet right behind his desk.
Meadowridge was so prestigious, it had dozens of glass plaques dedicated to its greatness.
They’d look great in pieces.
My revenge plans were put on hold when I realized I’d missed some of the dean’s next words. “…feud between two of our best and brightest students has to come to an end. We’ve tried mediation, we’ve tried to bring your families in”—he glared particularly hard at Connor—“which was an even worse disaster than the initial fight. It seems, I have to try a new tack now.”
Connor remained silent, his face stoic, but every now and then, he leveled a glare on me. Which made absolutely no sense. How was any of this my fault?
Andrew, on the other hand, spoke up. “You could just expel Connor. I can dig up a dozen or more rules he’s broken just this year alone.”
Connor’s lips twitched, but weirdly, he didn't bite back at his enemy .
The dean, on the other hand, paled a touch and cleared his throat as he said, “That is not an option, and you well know it, Mr. Knightsbridge. But I have devised a different plan, and it’s not going to please any of you. But drastic situations require drastic measures.”
I had no idea what sort of punishment he was about to dish out, but I already knew that I was going to hate it. “You five will be moving into Bluebell House. You will live there for the rest of this semester, and even longer if I feel you haven’t learned your lessons. You will work together to make it habitable, to the standard you enjoy living; otherwise, you will live in a hovel and not one contractor in this state is going to help you get those repairs done. This will require the sort of teamwork that builds bonds and friendships. You all have more in common than you realize.”
There was a stunned silence in the room, and I was fairly sure I was the only one not familiar with this Bluebell House. Judging by their expressions, it was not a nice place to live.
I waited for the guys to object. Three of them hadn’t said a single word since we entered the office, and it appeared that Janitor Boy was napping. His eyes were closed as he perched against the wall. Wait…why was the janitor even here getting this sort of punishment? Shouldn’t he just be straight-up fired? Maybe I’d misread the entire situation when I’d found him “fixing” the vending machine. He was just another rich-ass punk who thought he was above the law.
I decided to speak up, not that it had done me any good the last time. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t think you allowed coed dorms here? Maybe there’s another punishment for me? I’m happy to clean the kitchens or write an essay on the dangers of violence in college.”
See, I could be the voice of reason in a room filled with stupid men.
The dean acted as if he only heard the first part I said. “ Right, to ensure the school board remains happy with these mixed living arrangements, I’m going to add a teacher to the mix. To keep an eye on everything.”
He tapped his finger against his chin briefly, and before he said it, I already knew what was going to come out of his mouth. “Professor Ethan Sullivan is the only one who doesn’t appear to be afraid of you four and, therefore, won’t let you get away with murder.”
For the first time, a scowl formed across Connor’s handsome features.
Not that I had a chance to worry about that, since I was about to find myself sharing what sounded like a shithole of a house, with five men.
One of whom was the professor I was crushing on and had already crossed far too many lines with. Fuck.