“She was a participating party and not once did I make any promises.” Our fraternity president was a whore. “Besides, I think you’ve got bigger problems than her friend hating me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, brother―” He slid forward and patted me on the shoulder almost sympathetically. “It would seem that you’ve developed a little crush on the Dean’s daughter.”
My stomach felt like it dropped and my legs went weak. No fucking way.
“I can see that conversation now.” Isaac could barely contain his laughter. “Dad, I’d like you to meet Jay, my boyfriend. He’s known around campus for his special dance moves, you may have heard of them. Hashtag, dicksaswinging. It was all over campus social media. He’s famous.”
I said nothing as he stood up and walked out of the room hollering to anyone that would listen that Jay’s girl is the Dean of the school’s daughter.
Like I said before, nothing in my life is ever fucking easy.
Chapter Eighteen
Ruby
“There was a fight in the movie theater?” I nodded, doing my best to hide behind the fallen hair that was shadowing my face. “Over what?”
“A girl, I think, I don’t really know.”
“How did you manage to get in the middle of it?”
I’d lied before, but this one was so out there. I had told him I was going to dinner and a movie with Darcy. He’d not really liked that idea, but he never argued. The story I’d fed him wasn’t too far off from the original, except I exchanged the party for the theater and left out Jay.
“They were right behind us and it was dark.” Slow and steady, that is what I kept chanting in my head so I didn’t screw up this story and get caught. “It all happened so fast. First they were just talking to each other in hushed tones and then it escalated. Before I had the chance to move out of the way one of them swung out and instead of hitting the guy they connected with my cheek.”
I looked up when he said nothing in return and found him staring at me with a disgusted look. Either way, this story or the real version, it wasn’t my fault. You’d think he’d ask me if I were okay, but no, he was far too worried about how this would all look instead.
“You can’t go out looking like that.” There it was. “What will people think?”
“Maybe that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He made a huffing, displeased sound. “More like I’m raising a troubled girl who can’t manage to keep her head down and not embarrass me.”
I bit my lip because inside I was screaming things I knew I shouldn’t say. Heartless ass was one of them.
“I’ll talk to your professors, tell them you are under the weather. I think it would be best for you to work from here until this,” he waved his hand in the direction of my face and I flinched, “heals. I can’t have people seeing you looking like this.”
And with that he spun on his heels and walked out of the kitchen, leaving me staring behind him. My chest burned with the emotions that were now starting to churn inside of me. I was humiliated, saddened by everything, the idea that I was even feeling guilty for getting into this mess. Guilty, as if this was all my fault. But then again in a way, had I just gone to the movies like I’d said I was, I wouldn’t be dealing with what I was now.
So I guess it was my fault after all.
***
“It looks better actually.” I used my hair to hide my face. With my head tilted down, it made it easier. “Yeah, the purples and blues are now more of a mustard yellow and even an off shade of green, but better.”
I’d considered staying home for a few more days but I was already going stir crazy. I needed to get out of the house, out of the stuffiness I was constantly surrounded with. It was weird really, but I missed Darcy, and that alone was proof enough that I needed human contact.
“Do you want me to put a little concealer around the area to help it blend?”
“Not out here in the open where everyone can see.” I already felt like everyone was staring at me. Leaving against my father’s advisement, I wished now that I’d given it a little more time. We stood in the middle of the quad, students hurrying past us on their way to their next class and I’d done so well at remaining unnoticed. Before I could suggest we find the nearest bathroom, Darcy grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off toward the parking lot.
“Get in.” She motioned to her now opened car door. “It’s this or the bathroom, where fifteen other girls are staring and ready to ask a hundred questions. You choose.”
She had a point.
Ten minutes later she was admiring her work and I was feeling a little less like a Cyclops.
***
My day was over, or at least the portion where I sat in a classroom and everyone whispered. I even caught my professor staring at me a time or two. Some looked as though they felt sorry for me, which was ridiculous. Others laughed, as though they thought I’d gotten it during a brawl I’d lost. In a way they were right, I was the loser, but mostly of my dignity.
Hanging my head and focusing more on the ground before me, I put one foot in front of the other, slowly moving my way through the halls and out of the building.
Living so close to campus was a godsend in this sense and
