Page 93 of A University of Betrayal

I winced and before Julian could respond to my mum’s words, I put a hand over his mouth and hurriedly pulled him out of the room. He seemed puzzled, but I didn’t let myself be put off, closed the door and took my hand away from his much too warm, soft lips.Verysoft lips, which he now pressed together as if I had hit him.

“Bayla?”

Into the woods

DOLKINS

“Yes, Mum?” I called quickly and hurried down the stairs to where my mum stood in a dark blue blouse, bent over the mess on the kitchen counter.

“Is that...”

“Yep, it’s school uniforms. Thanks to the nice lady with the red hair, I have the honor of experiencing this crap for once in my life.”

“Rebecca?” I wasn’t surprised that Mum knew her personally. I walked over to the counter and put the clothes back into the box. “What’sshedoing at Vanderwood?”

“You’re asking the wrong person,” I said quickly, blushing when I realized I was still holding the pages of the book. I hastily threw them into the box between my clothes. Luckily, Mum didn’t notice because she was busy reading the letter.

“Hey,it’s addressed tome.”

Mum looked at me with a laugh. “Toyou?What’s that supposed to mean? Is your mother not even allowed to know what’s going on at your university anymore?”

“I think your daughter wants to spare you some drama,” I heard a laugh from behind me.

Oh, no.How was I going to explain to her that Julian had just come from upstairs?

The blush on my face intensified.

“Julian…”

My mother seemed surprised and then looked at me questioningly.Oh, great.She was thinking wrong.Sowrong.

“Julian brought me home so I could get some things.”

“I can see that,” she said with a laugh, and the embarrassment must have been written all over my face.

“My stuff is still upstairs...” I added quickly.

Julian, who didn’t seem to notice any of this, came over to us and leaned casually against the fridge, which had a magnet with a barn and another one with my university’s logo on it.

“I’m surprised you got them sent home, and the rest of us all found them in our campus room.”

“What?” I looked at him, startled.

Mum cleared her throat. “Rebecca brought it over herself.”

My jaw dropped.

Interesting to know.

“Could you please not call her that?”

“I’ve known this woman for ten years.”

I paused.

Mum had just started to continue packing up the ridiculously expensive-looking uniform. Now she looked at me as if she hadn’t just told me yet another new piece of information about her past.

“Ten years?”

---