Page 61 of Our Ruined Beginnings

“Nothing,” Evan answers for her, and it pisses me off, even knowing I did the exact same thing to him. Is this what we fall out over? Who has Harper? He never fucking once expressed any interest in her before the summer, not once. He knew—hell, everyone knew what we were to each other. It feels like a complete betrayal that he’s acting this way, regardless of how I might’ve treated her.

“Harper?” I implore, keeping my eyes only on her. She looks upset—really upset—even if she does have Evan for comfort.

“Mr. Dickens?” someone calls from inside, and Evan turns before looking reluctantly between us.

“I won’t be a second,” he huffs, letting his hand fall from her waist and striding over to the dean, who summoned him. Evan watches us still, his eyes barely leaving us, even as he has a conversation with the dean.

“Lily?” I ask, desperate to get something from her before he returns.

“I don’t know,” she says softly. “I think I fucked up again.”

“How?” I want to grab her, take her into my arms. She looks so lost, but I don’t want to encourage Evan to come back too quickly. He won’t let her fucking speak. As if he has to protect her from me… What have I turned into to make my best friend question Harper’s safety with me?

“They said there were drugs in my system. I swear I would never, but I guess I have before…” Before. Graduation night, when she crashed the car with drugs in her blood.

“What do you remember?” I ask. I watched her like a damn hawk at the party on Saturday, and I didn’t see her take anything but alcohol.

“Nothing,” she says with a frown. “I don’t remember anything, but I assumed I’d just got really drunk.” She had, and I’d thought she was acting that way because she’s a lightweight, but maybe that’s not right either.

“Have you been expelled?”

“No,” Evan answers as he rejoins us, and I grind my teeth together. That’s really starting to grate on me. “I spoke to the dean. Vouched for Harper. It was clearly just a slip up after a very stressful time.”

“I swear—” Harper starts, but Evan soothes her.

“Don’t worry about it, babe.” The pet name makes me flinch. “I sorted it for you. I’ve got you. See you later, Madden.” He steers her away, and she goes. With him and away from me.

I don’t like that someone else knew about Harper before I did, before I could even try and help her. How did he know? Had she called him when she was in trouble? The thought puts an ache in my chest. In another life, I’d have been the person she went to first, always.

When I finally wrench my attention from watching them walk away, I notice the dean still watching them, a weird look on his face. Has Harper got a target on her back now? After the mess we blamed her for before, and now this, I wouldn’t be surprised.

He heads off in a different direction, and I decide to do some investigating of my own. Making my way to his office, I’m relieved to see Todd working.

“Hey, dude,” I say casually as I approach, and he looks up with an easy smile.

“Hey, man, what’s up?”

“I just heard about Harper.” He looks wary, knowing full well that she’s officially off limits now and seemingly worried he’ll be implicated in her near downfall.

“Yeah. What are the chances, eh? Everything’s called off and she takes herself down.”

“Nearly,” I remind him. Evansaved her, remember? “What happened?”

He shrugs. “The dean got a call straight through to his office, and then he called for Harper. She was escorted to the nurse, then they came back and all hell broke loose.”

“What do you mean?”

“Evan came barreling through, shouting about her being protected by his father and all that shit—it was totally dramatic.” What the fuck? Would they have let her call him? Probably because of my own fucking pride, but I can’t fathom that he would be the person she’d go to.

“Do you know who the call was from?”

“Nah. Like I said, it went straight through.”

“Is that normal?” If it was a student who wanted to snitch on Harper, would they have his direct dial?

“It’s not rare, but enough to be unusual.”

I need to know who it was.

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