Fallen Crest University (Fallen Crest High #5)(70)

“Tell them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” It would be game over. I was in a stall-and-evade battlefront right now. I asked her, “What did you tell Sebastian?”

Her jaw hardened. “Nothing. He doesn’t deserve to know a damn thing.”

That sounded good to me, and there’d been no sightings or even a phone call from him since I left their parents’ house, but I knew my luck would run out at some point.

When I got home from my class one day, that day came.

I opened the door, and there he was. Park Sebastian was standing inside our dorm room, looking at something on my desk. His hand reached out, and he turned a piece of paper over.

“Get out.” The door was about to slam shut behind me. I stuck a foot out, stopping it, and folded my arms over my chest. “Now.”

A slow grin was his response. “Long time no see, Samantha.”

“Step away from the desk.”

He laughed but did as I’d asked. I pulled a shoe out to keep the door propped open, and I went to see whatever he’d been spying on. It was a note Summer left.

Sam,

Went to eat with my mom. Be back tonight.

Summer

P.S. I called campus security. They’re going to change the locks.

I looked up at Sebastian, whose smile turned smug.

I read the rest of the note.

My brother won’t have a key anymore.

XOXO

“Give me the key.” I held my hand out.

Crumpling the note up, I tossed it in the garbage as Sebastian made a show of leaning forward and inspecting my hand.

Another irritating chuckle came from him. “My sister forgot that I have the same connections she does. She should remember to use a different key guy the next time she wants to pull a fast one on me.”

“You shouldn’t have a key anyway. I could report you.”

He studied me, pursing his lips together, and shook his head. “No, I don’t think you will. Kinda like I don’t think you want anyone to know I’m in here.”

As he said that, he kicked the shoe out from the door. It went into the hallway, and the door shut. He turned around now, blocking the door, and I was a captive in my own room.

My nostrils flared. “Get. Out.”

“No.”

I grabbed my phone and unlocked the screen. “I’m not bullshitting. Leave, or I’ll call 911.”

“Mason will find out.”

My shoulder lifted. “Game’s over. Get ready for a new kind of fight.”

Suddenly, whatever teasing attitude he’d had was dropped. A dangerous glint showed in his eyes, and the air in the room seemed to drop five degrees. I felt a chill graze over my skin.

“I’m not the bad guy here.”

“Yet, you’re in my dorm room, blocking my door, telling me you’re not the bad guy?” My chin lifted. “Like I already said, get out.” I waved the phone at him. The threat was still there.

“Fine, I’ll go, but just remember that your boyfriend was the one who burned my house down. He got away with that.”

“Really?” I rolled my eyes. “Do we have to list off who’s worse than the other one? Oh, and by the way, it was so nice of you not to tell your sister everything you had done. You tried to control Mason first. You started all of this.”

He grew quiet. “You might think you have my sister on your side, but you’re forgetting another thing.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“She’s family.” He opened the door, his gaze trailed over my shoulder. “You’d be surprised by what you do for family.”

He left.

I had a sick feeling as I glanced behind me. Right there, in the smack center of my desk, was a picture of Mason, Logan, and me. The picture was taken at David and Malinda’s wedding. All three of us had our arms around the others with wide smiles facing the camera. It’d been on my shelf among the rest of my photographs.

Sebastian put it there on purpose. A shiver wound down my spine.

Pins and needles.

That was the feeling over the next few weeks.

Everyone was waiting for the big explosion because it was coming. Everyone could feel it. I was waiting. Mason and Logan must’ve been waiting. Sebastian and Summer, too. And even Heather. When we went back to Fallen Crest for Thanksgiving, she’d asked if anything had happened yet. Nothing. It was the calm before the storm.

When we went back to school for the last month before the long holiday break, it was more of the same.

Waiting.

Tension.

There were whispers of a threat. People heard that Logan set fire to a car. He and Mason weren’t saying anything, so I assumed that was a rumor. The next gossip claimed that Nate tried to get Sebastian expelled from school, but again, Mason and Logan didn’t say a word to me.

What did I do?

What I was doing right now. Studying and wanting to rip my hair out because there was no way I could memorize every famous psychologist, all of their theories, laws, and principles, and every tiny function of the brain.

The door to our study room in the library was kicked open.

Logan had a pizza in one hand, his bag thrown over his shoulder, and a grocery bag filled with energy drinks in his other hand. He proclaimed, “I’m here, bitches. Let’s get the studying going.”