Ever After (East Raven Academy Book 1)(60)

“You want to be a doctor?”

“No,” he answers. “I want to be an architect. I haven’t told my dad that, yet. He’s basically got my life planned. College, pre-law major, of course. Then law school. Eventually, he wants me to be president.”

That’s really sad.

I’m suddenly thankful my parents don’t care what I do, as long as it makes me happy.

To be honest, I have no idea what will make me happy.

“What about you? What do you want to be when you grow up?” Estaine asks.

“Ask me again later, because I have no idea right now,” I answer. “I just know that I want to be happy.”

And alive.





Saturday, September 2





This is not good.





I got a text from Estaine earlier that simply said, “Dress casual. I’m coming to get you at ten” I hope that means we are going somewhere that is not on campus.

I am dressed and ready by nine, so I’m just sitting around, bored, while I wait for him.

There is a knock on my door, so I jump up, excited that he’s here early. I am so excited for whatever he has planned. But when I open the door, it’s not Estaine on the other side.

“Brooks,” I say.

“Hey,” he says.

I stand there, just looking at him, not knowing what to say. My heart is beating fast and I’m having problems forming a coherent thought.

Brooks is here.

At my dorm.

Isn’t he supposed to be in The Hamptons?

Why is he here?

I thought he hated me.

He probably does hate me.

I hate me for what I did to him.

Brooks.

Is.

Here.

“Can I come in?” he asks, breaking the silence.

I push the door open and take a step back. I still can’t say a word, so I just nod my head.

Brooks walks inside, shutting the door behind him.

“You know, your dorm room actually isn’t what I expected,” he says.

He’s seriously going to talk to me about my dorm room?

“What did you expect?” I ask.

“For it to look like your roommate’s side,” he answers.

Teagan’s side of the room is very girly. It is various shades of green and some white. It screams school spirit. My side, however, is black and white. At least we match. I have a huge fuzzy black rug in between our beds that is super soft. And we have a white futon in the middle. So far, nobody has slept on it, but I figure through the year that we will have people stay in our room.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in The Hamptons?” I ask him.

I seriously hope he didn’t come here to talk about the decor in my dorm.

“I was. I mean, I left yesterday. I made it all the way to New York and then I turned around,” he says.

“Why did you turn around?” I ask.

“Estaine called me.”

Estaine called him?

Oh, my gosh.

“What did he say?”

“Not a lot,” Brooks says. “He was actually pretty cryptic about the whole thing. He just said that whatever I thought about you two was wrong—that you’re not really dating, even though you’re telling everybody you are, which makes no sense. I almost hung up on him when he said that. But he said that the reason you’re here is because your life is in danger...”

I cut him off. “He said that?”

What the heck was he thinking?

I put a hand on my forehead as I pace back and forth.

Now I am going to have to leave.

“He also said something about getting permission from... Uncle Matty or something... to tell me a limited amount of information,” Brooks says.

I let out a breath. “Oh, thank goodness. I was about to freak out.”

“So you know what that means?” he asks. “Because that confused me.”

“I know what it means,” I say.

“Why is your life in danger?”

“What did Estaine tell you?”

“Just that it had something to do with your biological father. Apparently your parents aren’t dead and that your real last name isn’t Underwood. He said that I can’t know who you really are,” he says. “How does he know? I mean, why does he get to know and not me?”

“Estaine caught me in a pretty big lie,” I answer. “Do you remember when I told you I was avoiding him?”

He nods.

“Well, I was avoiding him because of the lie I was caught in. I eventually told Estaine everything,” I say. “I was trying to hide it from the secret service, but when...”

“Secret service?” Brooks asks, cutting me off.

“Oh... Uncle Matty and my cousin Jake are really secret service,” I say, waving a hand like it’s no big deal. “Anyway, I got a text and ran out. Estaine followed me. The lie was that my cousin died, but really we stayed on campus the whole time. Uncle Matty and Jake have a house hidden in the woods where they are staying.”

“Why were you on campus? Why not go back to class?”

“Well...” my voice trails off. “I can’t really tell you all the details. But my mom’s house in Malibu got burned down. They had to go into hiding and they were worried the... um... that... well... they were just worried. They kept me there in case we needed to run. I asked Estaine to stay the day because I was upset, then Uncle Matty called the school, and the story was that my cousin died and Estaine went to the funeral with me. It didn’t make sense for him to go to the funeral unless we were dating, so...”