The change in her was swift and complete. Her mouth turned down. The light in her deep brown eyes fluttered out. Her expression shuttered. The muscles in her body tensed, bracing to fight or run. “Just because I’m poor doesn’t mean I’m not responsible. I haven’t had anything handed to me. I work for everything I have, including being here at this university. So yeah, I’m forsaking a couple orgasms for good grades so I can stay here.”
My hands flexed. I could have said a lot. A whole lot. But I chose to say one thing. “I haven’t had anything handed to me.”
That was most of the truth. As much as I was willing to get into.
Her eyes rolled, sensing the bullshit in my statement. It wasn’t what she thought, but Iwasfull of shit. I may have grown up rough, but I’d lived on easy street for years now. Still, my memory of the hunger might have dulled, but I hadn’t forgotten it.
“Okay.” She pushed off me, and I let her go. “Text me if you’re going to pick me up tonight. It’s cool if you’re not. I’ll take the bus.”
She trotted down the steps like I wasn’t going to follow her. It was crazy how we could go from making out to being miles and miles apart. But that was my decision. I could give Helen my history so she’d understand me, but she’d already taken the majority of my headspace. I couldn’t give up anything else to her and walk away whole.
We were outside when I was through chasing her. Taking her shoulder in hand, I spun her around to face me. “I pick you up every night.”
“I don’t take anything for granted.” She reached up to cup my face. “I like you, I’m not going to take advantage of you, and I don’t want to fight. We’re really different people and we think differently.”
“We’re not that different.”
“We are, and that’s cool. I still like you. But a lot of the time, I’m in survival mode. I get that it’s hard for you to understand, but I need you to try. Because I really would like you to be someone I can just be chill with, you know? I don’t want to feel like I’m fighting when I’m with you.”
“I can do that for you, Tiger.” Dipping down, I touched my mouth to hers. “I actually have to go see my father anyway. I think I was hoping you’d offer me an out. But you’re right, your grades are important, and I’m not going to mess with that for you.”
She poked at my chest. “Your grades are important too.”
I waggled a brow. “Sure they are. Now, leave before I forget everything I just said and drag you back to the stairwell.”
Helen pulled away easily, tossed her board on the sidewalk, and skated off. I stood there, hands on my head, reeling. The messy, crazy, wild, reckless girl I’d caught smashing my car had herself more together than I did. I didn’t quite know how to wrap my head around that, so I didn’t. Turning in the opposite direction, I dragged myself to President Whitlock’s office.
My father had lost his mind. He was absolutely bananas. Needed to be committed. The cuckoo’s nest had been flown over.
“I’m not an escort service.” My fingertips dug into my knees. “This isn’t happening. You can’t pimp me out.”
He exhaled heavily through his flared nostrils. “This isn’t a discussion.”
I’d been summoned to President Whitlock’s office. It was never a good sign when my dad wanted to see me, but I knew I was in for pure delight when he requested my presence in his office.
Today was no different. My father, the exalted president of Savage University, was now my pimp. That he was trying to force me on my ex-girlfriend made no difference. He wanted Abby’s father to make a donation to the university’s art program, so the Fitzgerald family had been invited to the art and design school’s annual fundraiser banquet. Daddy Fitzgerald accepted, the caveat being me acting as Abby’s date.
“Abby and I aren’t together anymore.”
I’d successfully avoided seeing her face since the library. What she didn’t seem to understand was that she may have been the one to end us, but I wanted nothing to do with her. I’dlovedher. Two years, I’d been fully committed, and she’d ended it like what I had to give wasn’t enough. I was done with her. There was no going back for me, and whatever she wanted to say now was months too late. Rehashing something that was in the past held no interest for me.
My father clasped his hands on his desk, his fingers turning white from pressure. “Be that as it may, Abby wants you to be there with her, and since I’m unaware of any valid reason that can’t happen, it will.”
“And if I say no?”
He leaned forward, leveling me with a gaze that brooked no argument. “I played golf with Dr. Marino over the weekend. Imagine my utter shame when he mentioned my son got a D on a paper worth ten percent of his grade.”
My muscles locked as my brain rattled around in my head. “That doesn’t sound ethical. I’m an adult. Can professors legally divulge grades to parents?”
He slammed his hand down on his desk, then immediately smoothed out the scattered papers. “Toe the line, Theo! I take care of your tuition. Every one of your teachers is aware of who your father is. If Marino gave you a D, then know this, you earned an F. He was being generous with that D because of who you are. I don’t even want to think of what kind of drivel you must have turned in to get a goddamn D, but it’s unacceptable.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I knocked my fist against my forehead. I’d fucked up on that paper, completely forgotten it was due until the night before. Then I’d scrambled to write it, pick Helen up, fuck Helen, then go back home to finish it and catch a couple hours of sleep. I’d known it was drivel when I handed it in, but there was nothing I could do at that point.
“Okay. I screwed up. I have time to turn that grade around, and I will.”
His brows raised expectantly. “And your other courses?”
“You don’t know?” I countered.