I shook my head, not sure what to say, or how to say it. “I’ve been here before, Wrenn. We’ve met before. That first day in school I knew you. You were so familiar to me, but I just couldn’t place you. I assumed it was just from class, but it wasn’t. You remember telling me that my mom probably knew your mom? Well, they did! We met at a party. You would’ve been about seven, and I was twelve.”
She shook her head, looking at me like I was crazy, and laughed. Yes, I sounded insane, and that was okay because this was fucking unbelievable. What were the odds? I mean, considering our connection with Layna, it wasn’t that farfetched, but for this woman I was in love with to be the same girl who’d changed my outlook all those years ago...I was stunned.
“You don’t remember me at all, do you?” I chuckled.
“No, sorry. You obviously left a lasting impression on me,” she joked.
I walked over to her and took her hand, kneeling down in front of her. She parted her legs, allowing me between them. I hugged her body, my lips nuzzling the nape of her neck.
“You did exactly that with me,” I said softly. “Not in a creepy way. You just spelled it out to me, so innocently, that I was wasting my life waiting to get sick.”
Wrenn looked puzzled. “How did I know you were going to get sick?”
“We came out here to get away from our parents. They were talking about me, and Dad’s illness. You looked up at me and said, ‘So what? We’re all going to get sick.’” I smiled, squeezing her hand. “You said something nobody had ever bothered to say. You made me realize that just because I might get sick one day, it didn’t make me special. Or different.”
“Wow,” she mumbled, furrowing her brows together. “That’s pretty incredible, huh?”
“No,” I replied, kissing her lips. “You’re pretty incredible.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
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Dalton
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I collapsed into bed late Sunday night, too tired to bother showering, or even undressing. I was exhausted.
I’d barely gotten any sleep the night before. I’d spent most of it lying in bed with Wrenn curled up in my arms, watching her sleep. I loved the way her lip twitched, and how every few minutes she’d sigh. It was like I couldn’t let myself fall asleep because I wanted to remember every second with her.
Now we were back on campus, back to reality. It was ironic that being back in the real world meant going back to pretending to be I was something I wasn’t. We only had to get through one more week, and then things would be easier. I still didn’t know how we were going to break the news to Layna—or even if there was any news to break. Wrenn had a lot of thinking to do, and I didn’t want to assume she would decide to be with me just because of last night.
***
The following afternoon, I was sitting in the teacher’s lounge when Layna came in. “Dalton, can I see you for a moment. In my office?”
I nodded, eyeing her expression. She wouldn’t meet my eyes.
God, she knows. Fuck.
I followed her into her office, all the classic signs of a panic attack beginning to manifest inside me: the shaking hands, the rapid heartbeat, and the pit in my stomach. I took a seat at her desk, trying to hide my shaking hands by positioning them under my thighs.
What was my best move here? Wait for the accusations to begin, or get everything on the table now, first?
“Dalton, there’s no easy way to say this . . . ” She sighed as she sat down, her hands clenched together on her desk. “There has been an accusation made against you.”
“An accusation?” I repeated, shocked. My mind wandered to Wrenn. There was no way in hell . . . would she? I mean, she was confused about us right now, but she would never do that.
“A student has made a claim against you . . . ” She stopped and took a breath. “Gosh, I don’t even know how to phrase this. Have you had any inappropriate dealings with Paige Warner?”
“Paige?” I almost shouted. Part of me felt relief. The rest of me wondered what the fuck Paige had told her. “Never. I’ve never even been alone with her, other than a minute or two before or after class. What is she saying I did?”
“Ms. Warner is saying that you asked her to your room last night. She claims that you forced yourself on her.”
“She told you that I raped her?” I said, incredulous.
What the fuck? Last night I had been with Wrenn, fifty miles from this place. I’d worked myself up so much expecting this to be about Wrenn that my body was in panic mode. It was Paige’s word against mine, and the only way to clear my name would be to admit my relationship with Wrenn.
Fuck. Once these things got out, it didn’t matter if I was innocent or not, my career would be in the shitter.
“She said that you intimidated her into having sex with you. She is not saying you raped her, but she is saying she felt she couldn’t say no, given your position.”
“And that’s not rape?” I asked sarcastically. “What happens now?”
“I need to notify the school board and let them know. Then I will have to inform the police.”
Holy shit.
This was crazy. I had no idea what the fuck was going through that girl’s head. Why the hell would she make up such lies? Was this all because I shot down her advances?