Page 36 of Don't Look Away

I ask the driver to stop at the pharmacy on the way home, which he does without question. I buy about fifty dollars worth of tests, every brand they have, and thankfully, I have enough money in my account to do that. With Roman paying for everything lately, I haven’t needed to dip into any of my own money.

When I get home, I thank the driver, then head straight up to Roman’s room with my plastic bag full of tests. Then it occurs to me—what if he’s home? How am I going to explain all of these pregnancy tests?Shit.I’m not ready to confront this myself, let alone deal with Roman’s reaction.

And maybe it’s nothing, right? Just a false alarm. Why worry him until I’m sure?

Spinning on my heel, I head back downstairs and make a beeline for the front door, before anyone can stop me. Thankfully, no one does, and I head out the door, straight for Wyn’s place. On my way, I text her frantically.

Where are you? Need to talk ASAP.

Her reply comes a couple of minutes later.

I’m in class until five. What’s up?

Five?Damn.

Meet me at your place when you’re done with class.

Thankfully, her sorority house is close by, and no one even questions why I’m there. Her room is locked, though, so I just settle in on the beat-up couch in the living room. Despite fifteen girls living here, the house is quiet, because everyone is either working or in class.

I must drift asleep at some point because a second later, I’m being shaken awake. “Lux, wake up.”

I blink open my eyes and sit up a little straighter on the couch. Wyn takes a step back and studies me. “Are you okay?”

I stretch and grab my phone. I have several texts from Roman and five missed calls. All the texts are asking me how the doctor’s appointment went, and later, when I’ll be home.

Tossing my phone aside, I glance at Wyn as she sits on the couch next to me. “I went to the doctor today to get on birth control, and she gave me a pregnancy test that came back inconclusive,” I say all together in a rush.

Wyn’s face shifts from concern to abject horror in the span of a millisecond. “Inconclusive? What the hell does that mean?”

“I don’t know. But she took my blood, and told me we wouldn’t have the results back for—get this—a couple of days.”

“Oh, my God. What are you going to do?” she asks, not even attempting to hide her alarm.

I grab my bag of tests and hold them up. “I thought I could pee on a few more sticks…”

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

Roman

She’s not answeringher damn phone.

I glance down at my texts for the millionth time in the last hour, my anger growing. Why hasn’t Lux responded? According to my mom’s driver, they left the doctor’s office hours ago, then he took her to the pharmacy before bringing her back to Rush House.

I can see on the tracker app that I installed on her phone that she’s at one of the sorority houses, where she must be visiting Wyn. But why not just text me back? Why ghost me for fuckinghours?

“She’s fine,” Christian says. We’re in the study, and he’s throwing a dart at my great uncle’s portrait. It’s a priceless piece of art, but my great uncle was a fucking cunt, so the boys and I enjoy using his face as target practice. “She probably just has her phone on silent.”

“I should roll up to the sorority house and see what’s going on,” I say, staring at the leather spines on my bookcase. Reaching over, I pull out a first edition of The Great Gatsby, blindly flipping through the yellowed pages.

“If you do that, then she’ll know you have a tracker on her,” Jackson says wisely. “Then you’re fucked, because she’ll just delete the app, and turn off her phone’s location. Then you’llneverknow where she is.”

I purse my lips and nod. “Fair point.”

Fuck this is hard.

Lucas clears his throat. “So we’ve got three days before the hearing,” he reminds the group, though I know his comment is more directed at me. “Any updates on how this is all going down?”

“I think I have an argument for getting James into Lockly instead of doing jail time,” I say.

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