Page 675 of Filthy Elites

Kelsey put the bag up to her mouth and tried to rip it with her teeth.

Janie pulled a pair of scissors from the knife block and held it out to her. “Here.”

Kelsey tried once more to rip the top off the bag before accepting defeat and the scissors. "Thanks."

“Must be bad.” Janie motioned to the handful of Swedish Fish Kelsey was stuffing into her mouth. “A small bag wouldn’t cut it?”

Kelsey dropped the bag onto the counter. “Ugh. It’s nothing. Just a rough meeting.”

Janie’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not telling me something. You said you had a student government thing. Aren’t they usually boring? You normally come back from those meetings with a double espresso to wake you up, not a bag of gummy fish. That’s your go-to cheer up candy for when you’re stressed out of your mind.”

Kelsey stalked over to the fridge, pulled it open, and grabbed a Cool Blue Gatorade. “Maybe I was just in the mood for Swedish Fish?”

Janie leaned against the counter. “I’m not buying it. What happened?” She paused. “You don’t have to hide things from me. I know you’re still upset with me for keeping things from you. I should have told you what Eric and Parker had been doing, but I couldn’t. They were going to hurt you or my brother if I told anyone and I couldn’t risk that.”

Kelsey twisted the top off her Gatorade and took a sip to stall. “Janie, they treated you like a slave for almost a year. You did whatever they made you do all the while pretending you were still dating that jerk! What am I supposed to think? Why didn’t you trust me? I could have helped you. We could have gone to the dean or someone.”

Janie stared at the floor. She had allowed a guy she had been dating to manipulate her and set her up to look like she was plagiarizing, all to blackmail her into basically being his slave. Eric had made her clean their rowing team house, do his laundry, and be on call for his errands whenever he wanted her. “They threatened you and I couldn’t live with myself if they hurt you or got you expelled from school. They were so powerful. I didn’t think they would ever be taken down or caught.”

“You trusted Drew Maxwell.” Kelsey shoved more of the candy into her mouth. “Why him?”

Janie focused on her best friend. She hated the rift between them. “He’d been the only one to ever stand up to them. He also introduced me to his military friends. It was the first time I felt as if there could be an end to all of it.”

Drew Maxwell was the star soccer player at Blackstone University even though he had only been at the college for a short time. He had transferred to Blackstone after his brother had been killed, determined to discover who did it. It turned out Janie and Drew both had a common enemy in Parker and Eric.

Kelsey dropped the bag and her Gatorade on the counter and moved closer to Janie. “I wish I could have helped you.”

Janie gave her a sad smile. “You helped me every day. You gave me the only normal I ever got.”

Kelsey pulled Janie in for a hug. “Never hide things from me again. Promise.”

Janie pulled back. “I promise. Now, tell me what you did this morning to rile you up so much.”

Kelsey busied herself with uncapping the bottle and taking a long drink. “Just a boring council meeting with some professors and staff.”

Janie folded her arms across her chest. “Are you going to make me ask you a million questions?”

Kelsey smirked at her. “It’s much more fun that way.”

“Kels.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes. “I was on a student disciplinary council.”

“Oh, wait. You lied to me?” Janie glared.

“No. No. I didn’t. I was the student government representative on the council, and it was part of my duties as vice president.”

“What else aren’t you telling me?”

Kelsey popped a few more red gummies in her mouth. “Alright. It was Adrian Colton’s hearing.”

“Are you freaking kidding me?” Janie began to pace. “Why? Why would you want to be on that? I thought we were putting this all behind us.”

“There was no way I was going to let that jerk get away with hurting my best friend!”

“Oh, Kelsey, what did you do?”

THREE

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