I jokingly asked her at one point when she swore that she’d defy them no matter what, what she’d do if they cut her off. How would she take care of herself until I made enough money to take care of us both since that was one of her main concerns? At least she’s not stupid enough not to look at the big picture, but her answer floored me.
Apparently, she had a few hundred thousand in savings, yes savings, and she could cash in some stocks that were worth millions if push came to shove, and there was something else about a rainy day. I stopped listening after that because I realized my little rebel had no concept of the real world, though she’d fight me to the death if I even hinted at it.
The things she complained to me about her mom were glaringly similar to the person she was. She didn’t see that her going after Susie was her way of protecting someone she loved, the same way her mother protected her. Or that when she claimed her mom was clueless about how the real world worked, she was guilty of the same, and I’m not the one to tell her because she tends to get huffy if I even look like I’m about to defend anything her mother said or did.
We also have one other problem I realized, and it’s one that we’re not going to be able to shy away from for long. It seems like the things she hated most about her life are the very things I’m beginning to see the need for.
Protection is just the beginning, people like her shouldn’t be left to the devices of others, and I’m sure the assholes would come out in droves if they so much as got a whiff of who she was. Honestly, I’m surprised her parents had left her here with me or that they’d even let her come to school this far away from home in the first place.
Our school is one of the top universities in the country, sure, but there are a few better and probably more in line with where someone like her should’ve gone. I say that while most of our peers are the offspring of dignitaries and politicians. The movers and shakers of the world, and still she was heads above them all. And I, Cody Baxter, was the one she chose.
That one still hits me in the gut every once in a while. It seems so damn preposterous I can’t even wrap my head around it, but I’ve been thinking about it all weekend. Every time I imagined the conversation that I’m sure to have with her parents at some point in the near future.
LISA
As soon as Cody left me in the doorway of my first class, I felt the way I imagine a tire feels when someone has let the air out of it, completely deflated. I’d jumped a lot of hurdles and crossed many bridges in the last couple of days, and he didn’t even realize. The hardest is yet to come, but the fact that Jarvis was here to pick us up this morning was a pointed message from mom.
If I get rid of Jess and Alexis, I’ll be stuck with a car, and driver slash bodyguard was part of that message, but the other part was that she knew we’d spent the night together in the hotel, two in fact. If I live through this day with my head intact, I’ll know we survived. But now I’m on tenterhooks, waiting for the other shoe to drop, or more like for the phone to ring.
I can’t tell Cody what’s going through my mind, not all of it anyway because he’d either think I’m exaggerating, which most people would think in this situation, or he’d run scared. Since I want him in my life for like ever, I’ve decided the best course of action is to head them off at the pass until I can come up with something.
We made it through lunch; in fact, we made it pretty much to the last class of the day, which is still pretty early, before the call came. Crazily enough, it came from the president of the university’s office. I do not know this person, I had no reason to, but after what had happened over the weekend, I can’t say I was surprised. It was better than getting the call I’d been dreading.
“They called you too?” I asked Cody, whose phone went off at about the same time as mine just as he reached my classroom door.
“Yeah, let’s go see what they want. Are you scared?” He held my face in his hands and read my eyes. I could have ten of his babies from just that look alone. Swoon!