Page 36 of Somewhere Between Falling

“Who?”

“He’s one of the RAs,” she said as she typed out a text message.

“Okay. Why?” I asked, thoroughly confused.

“I’m going to find out which dorm she’s in, and we’re going to have a little chat,” she said casually, not looking up from her phone. A moment later she shoved her phone in her back pocket and said, “Got it. Room two-oh-four in Carlton. Let’s go.”

Alex has always been a force to be reckoned with, but following behind her as she marched over to the building next to ours, took the elevator up to the second floor, and then proceeded to bang on the door of room 204—well, I was a little scared.

Julie opened the door angrily, ready to confront the crazy person who was banging on it, only to be taken completely off guard as Alex shoved her back and followed her menacingly into her room.

“What the hell?” Julie exclaimed as she stumbled backwards.

“Listen to me very closely, you little, nosy-ass bitch,” Alex snarled. “You are going to keep your mouth shut about what you saw today.”

“This is about your skanky friend?” Julie scoffed. “Maybe she should have thought about the consequences of her actions before she slept with the TA.”

Alex grabbed her by her shoulders and pressed her up against the wall.

“If you tell anyone, just know that your actions will have serious consequences. For you,” Alex threatened, shoving her harder against the wall she had her pinned up against. “Do you understand me?”

Julie nodded and looked like she was about to pee herself.

“Good.” Alex released her hold on her, and Julie scampered backward out of her grasp.

“She took a picture,” I told Alex.

She turned to me in surprise before returning her attention to Julie. “Give me your phone.”

Julie scrambled to get it off of the desk where it was charging, then handed it to Alex with shaking hands.

“Pass code,” Alex demanded, holding it out for Julie to unlock.

Within seconds Alex had located the picture and deleted it completely from her phone. She threw it back to her. “Remember what I said.”

Julie just nodded, still trembling, and to be honest, I almost felt a little bad for her. Almost.

As we left the building, she turned to me and nonchalantly asked, “Coffee?”

“You are kind of scary.” I said each individual word slowly, unable to hide how impressed I was. I could never do something like that.

“No one messes with my friend,” she said with a shrug before laughing. “That was kind of fun.”

“Oh my god, Alex,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief. “I owe you big time.”

Her eyes narrowed slyly. “And I know just what I want.”

“Anything,” I promised.

“Details. All the freaking details you have been holding out on me.”

“There’s nothing to say now,” I said, tears brimming from the corner of my eyes. “It’s over.”

“Aw, but, Tamsin, it doesn’t have to be. I fixed the Julie problem,” Alex said reassuringly.

“No, I think it has to be. This is exactly what I was afraid would happen.”

Even if Alex had managed to scare Julie enough to keep her mouth shut, we couldn’t just keep on pretending that what we were doing wasn’t wrong. I realized that I had let my feelings for him cloud my sense of judgment. And that made me no better than my father when he let his feelings for Blair justify him throwing away twenty years of marriage. This was my sign that we were making a mistake, and one of us was going to end up hurt if we didn’t stop.

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