My body flushes. A rush of scorching heat washes over my skin like a warm summer’s rain.
What does she mean bymy father? Is he blasting my business to anyone who will listen?
The next few minutes of the meeting are a blur. I nod and agree to things that I want no part of,yet somehow, I leave with my name listed with the others understudent tutors for peers.
As soon as I’m around the corner and out of sight, I dial his number with a vengeance.
It rings once before he picks up. I don’t even take a breath before laying into him.
“Are you serious, Dad? Do you want everyone at Shadow Valley to know that I came home from Yale with my tail tucked between my legs? Not to mention telling my academic advisor that I’m friendless!”
That’s right. She said the wordfriendless.
I have friends! They’re just back at Yale.
My father sighs, waiting for a beat before speaking. I lean against the stone wall and stare out into the courtyard.
Shadow Valley is so much different than Yale, and I’m not just speaking about the architecture. The air is fresher, the students less uppity. I can’t say I feel at ease here, especially not at home with my new housemate, but I’m not looking over my shoulder every few seconds or hiding from a cluster of guys, wondering ifhe’llbe in the mix, so at least there’s that.
“Sweetheart.” My father sighs again, his breath loud inside my ear.
I can picture him now, squeezing the back of his neck where most of his tension settles.
“What did you tell her?” I ask.
He pauses.
“More importantly, what did you tell Cross?” I roll my eyes even though he can’t see me. “Why didn’t you tell me that we’d be housemates?”
“I didn’t think it mattered…” His sentence trails off.
Cross and I have an unspoken pact to put our differences aside when we’re with our parents, so of course my father doesn’t see the issue with it. In fact, he probably thinks I feel better with Cross there.
But I don’t.
“I didn’t tell Cross or your academic advisor anything other than you transferred to Shadow Valley to be closer to home.”
Which I suppose makes sense, considering he doesn’t actually know what happened at Yale.
I raise an eyebrow. “And…”
“And I asked Cross to watch out for you, maybe take you to a campus event if he happened to go to one.”
I scrunch my nose. “A campus event?”
“You know.” He chuckles. “Somewhere you can make a friend or two.”
I choke on a silent laugh. Cross does not want me to be friends with his friends and vice versa. I’d rather never see Cross ever again, thank you very much.
“You don’t have to worry about me. I know how to make friends,” I argue. “I don’t need my stepbrother’s help with that.” I lower my voice and mutter, “If anything, he needsmyhelp.”
A faint laugh comes from around the corner, and I peek forward to see who’s listening. A girl with pretty auburn hair, holding a similar paper like the one in my hand, slaps her hand over her mouth. She lowers it to mouth the wordsorryat me before rolling her lips together.
“I’m not worried,” my dad argues. “And what was that about helping Cross? I couldn’t quite hear you.”
I shut my eyes and shake my head. “It’s nothing. Listen, I gotta go, Dad. I just got my schedule and–”
He interrupts me. “Right! Okay, well, just give me a call later. I, uh…installed some alarms at the house, by the way. Cross has all the information. I told him to pass it along to you.”
