The Girl I Was Before (Falling #3)(9)

“My dad speaks it. He’s a lawyer, and he’s done a lot of foreign contracts. He was learning the language when my sister and I were kids. So, for a year, he made our house completely bilingual. It made Spanish in high school a piece of cake. I tested out for full credit here,” she says.

“That’s so cool. I would give anything to have that luxury. I think the only thing I could test out of would be wrestling. And that’s not going to happen,” I say. Her eyes widen when I mention wrestling, and I answer the question before she asks. “I’m not on the team or anything. I had a chance…to wrestle in college. But, it just wasn’t the right fit. I want to focus on computer science and programming, and sports take up too much time.”

Her enthusiasm wilts so fast, I’d swear she punched me if I didn’t know there was no way she could get her arm out from that pile of stuff in her lap.

“You have a sister?” I ask. She was already looking out her window when I spoke, but something makes her focus away from me even more.

“I do,” she says, her voice softer. “We’re twins.”

“Wow. Twins. Did you do that thing in grade school where you switch places with each other and trick your teachers?” I ask, and she pulls her things in close to her body, bracing her hand on the door.

“It’s right there. You can just drop me out front,” she says, looking at the brightly-lit brick house, the bushes out front cut in perfect squares, outlining a long, green lawn. I slow as we approach the front walkway. She smiles with a closed mouth as she turns to face me. “Cass and I are fraternal. That wouldn’t work, we’re too…different.”

She reaches for the handle, pushing the door open and stepping out quickly. She turns on her heels at the curb, her hand stretched out, but barely touching the door.

“Thanks for the crash course,” I say, realizing the knots in my stomach from the anxiety over my test are gone—totally gone.

“Thanks for all the sandwiches,” she says, flinging my door closed and walking away. I indulge in watching the sway of her ass, and even though she was doing her best to insult me just then, she lifted the back of her shirt just now, and she knows exactly what my eyes are looking.

After a few seconds of being a perv, I push the car into drive and head home, flipping the lights off before I hit the driveway so I don’t wake up the house. I tiptoe inside, turn the locks, and climb the stairs—smiling at the small light I still see spilling from underneath my mother’s door. All these years, and she still has to wait up for me to make sure I made it home safely.

I’d love to shower, get the smell of salami out from my hair and fingernails, but I’m too tired. It’s almost midnight, on a Saturday. I haven’t been out this late for anything other than work in months. And I can’t say it was for a party or a date. No, it was for studying. Maybe I am one of those convention dorks. I rub my eyes and pull my pants and shirt off, tossing them by my door in the pile that I secretly love my mother picks up for me every day. I crawl on my hands and knees to the pillow, letting my face collapse into the coolness, and fall asleep with Paige’s voice rolling R’s in my head.





Chapter 2





Paige



When nothing happened Sunday, I chalked it up to the weekend. But then Monday came and went. And Tuesday, too. The anticipation of confrontation was almost worse than shit actually hitting the fan.

I’m so consumed with finding Chandra’s name on the campus news website’s gossip page, I almost miss it—almost.

ASSOCIATE FACULTY MEMBER FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST SCHOOL FOR WRONGFUL TERMINATION



The headline couldn’t be more wrong, and the story is total bullshit. The home page of the news site is dedicated to my sister’s attacker. I scan it quickly, my heart racing that Cass’s name might be in there.

It’s not.

Paul Cotterman is my sister’s physics professor. He got a little touchy-feely during a tutoring session a few weeks ago, so Cass kneed him in the nuts and punched him in the temple.

Paul Cotterman is also Chandra’s ex—of course he is. Two gross people dating; what’s more perfect than that? I can’t believe they broke up.

I read the story all the way through, laughing out loud by the end over how innocent the quotes make him sound.

“Oh my god, did you read that? Isn’t that guy the one Chandra dated? I feel so bad for him,” says Ashley, a freshman who joined Delta when I did. Keeping my back to her, I let her glance over my shoulder at my laptop. I know if I turn around, I’m going to tell her to get the f*ck out of my room, but I’m going to need allies when Chandra’s story comes out.

“Yeah, that’s the guy. But…I don’t know. I get a real sleazy vibe from him,” I say, my eyes penetrating his name on my screen.

“Huh,” Ashley says. “Not me. I think he’s super hot.”

I twist in my chair, but Ashley’s back is to me as she’s walking out the door—probably a good thing, because my rebuttal was perched on my lips, and it wasn’t nice.

She pauses at the door, and leans into my room with her hand gripping the frame; her head tilts so she’s looking at me upside down, like she’s about to start a back bend. “Delta meeting in ten minutes, by the way,” she smiles, then flips upright and rounds the corner.