Page 76 of Lords of the Campus

Once we arrive, Lyric is sitting in the lobby looking shaken up. “Levi!” she calls my name as she throws herself at me. I envelop her in a tight hug, whispering soothing words to her.

“Did you find out anything?” she asks, looking up at Zane and Archer.

“You’re being investigated,” Archer says, mouth set in a grim line. “They’re accusing you of dealing drugs and shit.”

Lyric sighs. “I know. They told me as much when they brought me here.”

“It gets worse,” I add, stroking her hair out of her eyes. “They’re saying you’ve violated the student code of conduct. You have to go in front of a disciplinary board next week.”

A shudder passes through her, her eyes welling up with tears. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“It has to be Madison and Cameron and the Sigma’s behind this,” Zane mutters, anger in his tone. “They worked together to get revenge on you.”

“I’m scared,” Lyric admits. “I’m terrified that I’m going to be expelled.”

Archer rests a hand on her shoulder. “We aren’t going to let that happen, Songbird. We’re going to be with you every step of the way.”

We gather her things up from the guy behind the desk and head out to go get Eli. He’s safe at the daycare for now, but I know all of us would rather be able to keep an eye on him ourselves.

As we walk, Lyric clings to us tightly, as though afraid to let go. This entire situation is so ridiculous, so infuriating.

She doesn’t deserve this kind of attack. Even at our worst, we never stooped so low as to get her in trouble with the university or have her threatened with expulsion.

It puts our behavior into a new light, though, making me realize just how fucked up some of the shit we pulled on her must have been. We also isolated her from any kind of support, so I can’t even imagine how she dealt with it before now.

She sniffles, tears leaking out of her eyes and guilt seizes my heart.

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out, looking down at her. “We put you through hell and you didn’t deserve it. I guess I’m just now realizing how bad it was for you before.”

“As bad as it was,” Lyric begins, looking back up at me, “it was never as bad as this. I never worried that you would report me for illegal activities that I wasn’t doing or that you’d get me expelled. You threatened my scholarship, but even without that, I could have made it work. This is something I can’t come back from.”

“You won’t have to worry about anything,” Archer vows. We reach the daycare and I head inside to pick up Eli. Lyric has been crying and we don’t want our son to pick up on it. Lyric has added us to the list of people allowed to pick him up, so when I go inside, they recognize me right away and hand him over.

“Hey, little man!” I say, bouncing him in my arms and trying to pretend everything is fine. “How was school?”

“Hi, Dada Lee!” Eli says, a grin on his face. He’s got trouble pronouncing Levi so he calls me Dada Lee, which I find adorable. I bury my face against his little neck, inhaling his baby scent as I carry him back outside.

“Hi, baby,” Lyric says, reaching for him as soon as we emerge. Eli reaches for her and she takes him into her arms. “Did you have a good day?”

He nods, pulling himself to her shoulder for a hug. Lyric carries him as we head for her dorm, our place of refuge amid all this turmoil.

When we arrive, Zane busies himself getting Eli settled into his room to play quietly so the four of us can talk.

“What are we going to do?” Lyric asks, twisting her fingers together. Her face is lined with worry, anxiety nearly palpable radiating off her.

“We're going to deal with it,” Archer promises, his voice firm. “We’re going to go up and hear whatever bullshit they have to say about your conduct and point out all the ways they’re wrong and we’ll fight to clear your name.”

“We’re going to do whatever it takes to protect you, baby,’ I tell her, taking her hands in mine. “We’re going to throw everything we’ve got at this to fix it. You don’t need to worry about a thing, okay?”

Lyric leans into me, a sigh escaping her. “I trust you guys. This is just stressful.”

“I know,” I murmur, kissing her forehead. “But we’re going to make it go away. We’ll do whatever it takes.”

I hope I’ve calmed her with my words. I’m not sure she’ll be able to relax until this is resolved, but for now, all we can do is try to weather this storm, together.

44

LYRIC

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