The tears that have gathered in her blue eyes fall onto her cheeks.
“Oh, Claire. Please, don’t cry. We’ll…” My voice somehow makes things worse: she starts to bawl her eyes out. “I’m going to make Cross help, okay? His family’s part of the board. And you can appeal to Keller too. His uncle’s the most powerful man in town. It’ll be okay. In this town, it’s all about who you know, and you already know people. I promise, we’llmake itokay.”
Cross worked a miracle for me. Surely, between him and Keller, they could do one for her too.
She sniffs, but seems a bit less dejected.
“That’s it, Claire, just breathe. We’ll manage. I can vouch for you—I was there the whole time. We’ll make sure this doesn’t stick.”
“Okay. Okay, yes, we can—I can,” she bravely says. “Do you know Keller’s number?”
“No, but Cross probably does. I’m going to call him, okay?”
She nods.
“It’s all going to work out,” I soothe, determined as I grasp my phone.
Once I’m in front of the café, some of my confidence disappears. What am I doing? I know Cross. Everything works in deals with him. Yes, he helped me last year—for three blowjobs—and yesterday, he made a specific agreement not to make Claire pay for her mistakes. I know better than to think actually helping her out of her mess now falls under that agreement. I’m going to have to give him something else.
And?part of me asks.
It’s not like I didn’t enjoy myself this morning. The thought of finishing what we started certainly is no hardship. To be honest to myself, I fully intended to confront him and possibly make him lick me out again—until I scream this time—so this phone call doesn’t truly change my plans. It just gives me an excuse to call him today.
Plus, I like Claire. I’ll help if I can.
I’ve never actually called Cross, but I do so now, self-conscious as the phone rings.
He replies before I can second guess myself. “Lily darling.”
I don’t tergiversate. “Claire was expelled.Expelled, Cross.”
He takes a beat to answer. “Huh. Bold move.”
“Bold? Bold!” I repeat. “Classes haven’t even started. Can you do something? Anything. With all your contacts and stuff.”
I blush at the idea of asking him to use his influence like that, but he offered last year; that wasn’t different.
“Listen, Trueman?—”
“No, you listen,” I barge in, not letting him weigh in. “I like her. She’s sweet, and innocent, and clueless. She was trying to help me yesterday, you know that. She did CPR to that girl. You have to help. We agreed you would! I said I’d do anything and I meant it.”
He snorts. “That’s starting to become a recurring theme.”
“I mean it,” I assure him, flushing. “You don’t get what it means for someone like her—like me—losing an opportunity like studying at Rothford. It’s our entire future at stake.”
I’m getting flashbacks to my panic last year.
“Give me a second, I’m checking my messages,” Cross tells me.
I worry my lower lip as moments pass.
“Looks like she has a meeting set up this evening.”
“What?” I blink.
The email said nothing about any meeting.
“Your roommate’s not mine to handle,” Cross says. “Keller’s in charge here. I’m sure she’ll get the details shortly. She’s seeing the board at six.”