Page 43 of Notorious Man on Campus

“We need to find out who’s doing this.”

“Checking now… and… what do you now? I followed the link back to IG and guess who it is?”

“Willow Ford.” He snaps his head up.

“You knew! Smart girl.”

“I’m going to report her post.”

“IF you do that she’ll open a new account and we won’t be able to follow her vids and we need to be able to do that.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?”

“Tell Brick. He’ll talk to Willow. It’s the only way,” Dooley says and my stomach turns because I know he’s right and I have a bad feeling about it.

Chapter 17

Brick

As soon as I get back to BMOC House, I collapse on my bed and try deep breathing to loosen the vice clamping my chest tight. It works enough so my emotions are under wraps, shoved back in the closet of my battered soul where they belong. The only way I’ll manage to keep from feeling that deep hurt is to avoid Nyla.

Exactly what I knew I should do from the very beginning.

Far harder to do than I expected in the beginning.

But the emotional exhaustion combines with my lack of sleep last night and I fall.

* * *

The banging on my door wakes me and the yelling of my name makes me wince as I jump from bed to open the door.

Dylan storms into my room, irate and bothered. Judging from the setting sun, it’s late Sunday. He turns in the center of my room and demands an explanation about what’s going on. “Dooley says Nyla is devastated. What did you do? First you almost ruin Kace’s wedding and then you take Nyla, Majik’s hands-off protégé, to bed? What’s with you man? Are you out to destroy everyone who cares about you? Am I next?”

“Fuck no. I’m not trying to destroy anyone. What’s with the melodrama? I slept with Nyla because …” This is where it gets tricky, because he’s right that she was supposed to be off-limits.

“Because why, fuckhead? Because you had too much to drink and you let your dick take over? Because I know you’re not into messing with innocent girls. What’s got into you? I thought you hated her? I thought she ditched your brother?

“Is that it? Is it about revenge? She ditched your brother and now you ditch her to get back?”

“No.” My answer is more adamant than I meant it to be. “Fuck no. I want nothing to do with her. It’s just… we have this crazy connection.” Some of my confusion and pain seeps into my words and he hears it. I’m afraid it shows on my face too when he sits and the anger disappears.

“Tell me about it.” Simple plain words. Not a question. Not exactly a command, more like a strong suggestion. Compelling enough for me to talk, even as I shake my head.

Dylan’s a good friend and I trust him.

“If I tell you anything you need to swear you tell no one.”

“I swear, bro. I know how private you are.” I snort.

“Seems that’s something about me that’s eroding fast.” All because of her. “Maybe it should’t be a big secret, but my family never talks about it, so it’s habit for me.”

“What, for fuck’s sake?’ Dylan’s patience is wearing thin and I contemplate dragging it out just to annoy him. But I let out a breath and talk.

“I never told you the story about how my mother died. Or about Nyla coming to work for us. About the connection.”

He shakes his head and settles into my King chair. I let him as I pace around.

“My mother was a French pastry chef and an overall fantastic baker. When I was a kid she used to bake every day and we had all kinds of French pastries and assorted baked goods waiting for us after school every day. until one day when I was in third grade, at the beginning of the school year when I was seven, I come home from school and the smell of chocolate hits me as soon as I walk in the kitchen door. She hugs me and kisses me and presents me with a plate of brownies. I eat four or five of them before Jimmy gets home and he eats almost the rest of the plate. Mom laughed about it and put aside a couple for dad before they were all gone. I remember telling her they were the best brownies in the world and begged her to make brownies every day. Jimmy laughs at me, but says he wouldn’t mind. He was eleven, in sixth grade and already a burgeoning football star.