Page 307 of A University of Betrayal

“Do you want this child?” I asked cautiously.

“I don’t know.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you deciding to abort it. Don’t feel bad. You’re young and should do something necessary before there’s no turning back, and you regret it.”

She looked down at the vegetables as if she was deep in thought. Her eyes looked watery, and I didn’t know if I had gone too far.

“I can’t... That’s all. I don’t want to kill it on purpose. Even if it’s going to die inside my body anyway.”

I was about to ask her what she meant when the door burst open and Bayla Adams entered the house. She was wearing her dark blue uniform sweater vest over the white shirt and the black skirt, and had a lot of books and folders in her arms.

I had seen her in the large Vanderwood library earlier.

“Julie, I’ve been looking for you,” she said with joy, pointing to the folders. “Since the exam period is over, I’ve had some time to do some more research. These are collections of newspaper cuttings from around the late nineties.”

Julie turned away from me and sighed – audible only to me – before joining Bayla and taking a few of the books from her hands.

These were obviously not just newspaper entries that some librarian had collected – for whatever reason – on top of them, there were also the books that Alarik had recommended in class today.

“Either you’re a suck-up, or you’re a copy of my uncle,” I sighed and picked up the law book again.

Bayla stared at me for a moment, but her enthusiasm for the newspaper entries was much greater.

“What do you think? Now all we need is the others and we can get started.”

I pretended to read while I cuddled Buddy, but I was actually eavesdropping on the two of them.

“Larissa said she’d be right there, and Julian...” I lowered the book and of course our eyes met at that exact moment. “…texted me. He’s on his way.”

It was obvious that they were sticking their noses into something again. I was just surprised that Julian was still with them.

We hadn’t spoken yet, and I even had the feeling that Julian was avoiding me on purpose.

Had I perhaps really overdone it? Caught him off guard with reality?

The door burst open and Larissa simply marched in without closing it.

“Finally,” hissed Bayla, who had just spread the papers out on the table and pressed a folder into Larissa’s hand, just before I realized the reason for Larissa’s mannerless behavior.

Miles entered the ground floor with his hands in his pockets as if it were his new apartment.

Things began to stir inside me. My heart was pounding, my stomach was twisting. And all because my enemy had entered the territory. Only my body remained rigid on the couch until I finally pulled up and couldn’t hold back.

“What’shedoing here?”

Miles, still maintaining his macho posture, wheeled around and looked me straight in the eye. Something he always did when we met, so I had gotten used to keeping my death stare ready for this arrogant prick.

But this time, his gaze traveled straight down my body, and he began to smirk mockingly.

I remembered the last time we had met, when he hadn’t been himself.

“It’s a miracle that I ever get to see you in baggy clothes and with a dog in your arms,” he laughed, confirming that I wasn’t prepared for this situation.

I demonstratively stroked my long, wavy, almost straight hair behind my ears, but the one strand didn’t want to stay – as usual – and slipped forward again.

“You shouldn’t even be here,” I said with a threatening tone, making my eyes glow.

He just grinned and looked at Buddy again when he spotted something else.

---