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Piper leaned in. “We’re doing this.”
“It needs to be done,” I confirmed, pushing open the door.
The two of us took our place in their dorm, a hell of a lot nicer than ours, and found June painting her toenails with her hair in a towel too.
“Matte finish or gloss?” June beamed at us, holding up two bottles.
“June,” Piper said and swallowed. She tried to say something else but she only exhaled.
What the fuck am I going to say?
June smiled so sweetly, it made my stomach hurt. “What is it?”
Fuck. This was harder than I thought.
No words came to me. All I could do was fish out my phone and swipe to the picture. Piper and I stood like two kids who’d gotten in trouble in the principal’s office while June frowned, tugging the phone back to her. She scanned it quickly. Only her eyebrow raised.
Did I even take a picture?
Oh shit. Maybe I didn’t take the picture.
The color drained out of her face. Her hand flew to her mouth and hit it. Hard. Not that she seemed to notice. Her entire body shaking scared me the most. She literally couldn’t stop shaking. Zariah tried to ask what was happening, but June was already in tears and collapsed on the comforter, sobbing hard.
Holy shit.
“What the fuck?!” Zariah pushed me aside and grabbed my phone. She swore even louder. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, that bastard—”
June crumpled. She cried so hard, she couldn’t breathe.
There was nothing I could say. There was nothing to say.
I thought I would’ve come up with something to smooth everything over, but nothing came to me, and Zariah shooed both of us out of the room. June didn’t even want details.
Piper and I found ourselves in the little lounge outside of their room, sitting on two shitty chairs with the fabric halfway ripped off, silent. It didn’t feel right to go back to our dorm.
My hands felt too cold, and no matter how hard I rubbed them on my pants, the circulation didn’t work. A headache pounded right behind my eyes, and I knew without a doubt, if I went to sleep, all of that would go away. But I couldn’t do that. Why? I didn’t know.
Or maybe I didn’t want to admit it to myself.
This other side was the shittiest place in the world to be in.
“I want to beat the hell out of Xavier,” I managed to say, my voice a rasp.
Piper was listless. “They’d know it was you.”
“I know.”
We were quiet again, and she nodded, slowly. “Me too.”
“This is my fault,” I admitted. “Xavier gave me that list, but I didn’t know he’d be hanging out there.” I opened my phone and stared down at the list of the bars he typed out and his cousin’s address for his Clemenza. I clenched the phone. “If I hadn’t said anything at all—”
“This isn’t your fault,” Piper mumbled.
“What the hell am I going to tell King?” I put my head in my hands. “Their relationship might be for the cameras but they’re best friends. King might actually kill Xavier.”
It wasn’t like that made me feel any better. King had his run-ins with the law before he got to Marrs. If he as much as laid a finger on Xavier, there’d be hell to pay. Especially from how much the football program covered for him and expected him to stay on his best behavior.
I shook my head. “I want to do something.”
