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“If we tell someone now, they’ll bust her and get her booted from housing.”
“Jace,” her throat bobs, “she has a little doll that looks strikingly similar to me, with a two-inch lock of real blonde hair pinned to it which I suspect is from my head!” She whips a lock of her own from the side of her face and waves it in front of me;it appears to be slightly shorter. “I know what people like her do to those dolls. Youcannotcall anyone.”
I eye her with a frown. I’m dead set on reporting her, but it appears Brynn is adamant we don’t. Once again we’re at odds, and I have no idea what the hell to do with this mess. Brynn’s night has already been complete shit. The last thing I want to do is make it worse. Or make her hate me more than she already does by going against her wishes.
“Fine.” I sigh. “We’ll talk to the housing department first thing Monday. See what they can do. It’s summer. Surely, they can offer you another room.”
She nods, and the color returns to her cheeks as the tension drains from her face. “Yes, good. Thank you,” she says like I’m doing her a favor.
“But until then, I don’t want you going in your room by yourself. Got it?”
She nods, then crosses the hall and knocks on Charlotte’s door.
Her shoulders curl into herself and a wave of sympathy crashes into me as I watch her explain the situation and Charlotte take her into her arms and pull her inside. It’s been one hell of a night for her, yet she’s taking it like a champ. Most girls I know would’ve broken down after coming back to their dorm room to find their roommate snorting coke on their fucking desk.
I bid the girls goodnight, then make my way back outside with a sinking feeling inside my stomach I can’t extinguish. I don’t know what it is, but it reminds me of the gnawing ache I had in my gut the time I got food poisoning in ninth grade.
Brynn is fine.
I know she’s fine.
She’s safe and sound with her friends.
Still, I can’t help but hate the situation for her and wish there were something I could do to help.
CHAPTER 10
JACE
“What the hell doyou mean, she’s gone for the summer?” I shout at the man-child behind the desk of the AU housing department.
“As I mentioned, she left on Monday for maternity leave. She won’t be back until the end of summer.”
“And there’s no one else that can help us?”
“I’m afraid not,” the man says, and I want to rip the weird knit cap he’s wearing from his bald head. It’s in the middle of freaking summer!
“So, you’re telling me, my friend, here,” I say, waving toward Brynn who already plead her case but failed to secure a suitable solution, “is stuck with a roommate who’s fucking insane and who we caught doing drugs in their room last night, and there’s not a damned thing anyone can do about it? Including giving her one of thehundredsof vacant rooms I know you must have just sitting around empty since it’s summer?”
“That’s right.” The man purses his mouth, and I want to give him a fat lip. “Next time, I recommend calling the authorities.”
I shoot Brynn a sharp look that says,I told you,then turn back to him. “Look at her!” I point, taking in the giant bags under her eyes. “She had to sleep on the floor of a friend’s dorm room the last two nights. Does it look like she got any sleep to you?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but—”
I growl and turn my back on him as he continues to sputter nonsense, barking at Brynn, “Let’s go!”
“I told you I tried,” she says as she turns to follow behind me.
I palm the door to the housing department, pushing it open so hard it vibrates on its hinges. I’m too angry for words. So angry, in fact, I want to take my aggression out on someone, so I keep my mouth shut lest I take it out on her. Quite frankly, she deserves nothing short of an award for not going completely ballistic on the idiot from housing.
We step out into the sunshine and I tip my face to the sky, letting the warmth of it heat my skin and soothe my nerves. I’m sweaty and exhausted, and all I want to do is have a shower and ice my muscles, but I wanted to accompany Brynn to housing so I could ensure she fixed her roommate situation.
I found her after practice, looking like she hadn’t slept a fucking minute all weekend. When I asked her why, she explained she made it one night in Charlotte’s bed before she got a massive kink in her neck. She spent last night on the hard floor, and to top it all off, apparently, Samantha snores like a bulldog in heat, and Brynn is a light sleeper.
And now that the moron in housing is claiming no one can do a damned thing about her roommate until fall, I have no idea what to do.
I place my hands on my hips, taking a minute to think.
