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“I was still here.” Piper made her way out onto the stage and plopped down on Emma’s other side. “The dressing room needed a little cleaning. It was a bit disorganized.”
“Right.” Leo made furtive eye contact with Piper behind Emma’s back and started to rise from his sitting position. “So, I think I’ll leave so you two can talk?”
“No!” Emma yanked on Leo’s arm and pulled him back down. He sat obediently.
“You want me to stay?” he asked.
“C-can you?” Emma’s voice cracked. Piper’s wide blue eyes were flicking between the two of them, trying to read between the lines. Leo wished he could prepare Piper, but he had a feeling that whatever Emma was about to say, it wasn’t something anyone could prepare for.
“Of course.” Leo nodded. “I’ll just be here for moral support.”
“I’m here,” Piper said in a soothing voice. She grabbed Emma’s hand and waited quietly while Emma took a few deep breaths.
“My… my grades are still not where I would like them to be in our business management class,” Emma sputtered. Leo exhaled. He could help with that. Piper could help with that.
“Okay,” Piper said. Whatever relief Leo felt, it was clear to him that Piper did not feel the same.
“So, like I told you before the break, I scheduled a meeting with Professor Hornbill. But it was just to see how I could improve my grade, I swear.” The defensive tone Emma took on made Leo’s stomach drop. He suddenly knew exactly where this was going.
“What did he do to you?” That sickening feeling he always had around Hornbill might not have had any merit before, but his hunches had never been wrong.
“Leo, let her tell her story at her own pace,” Piper scolded.
He snapped his mouth shut and gave a quick jerk of his head. “Sorry.”
“He…” Emma trailed off, and the tears started to come down harder.
“It’s okay.” Piper tucked herself closer into Emma’s side. “Right now, you’re safe.”
“I think I gave him the wrong impression,” Emma sobbed. Leo wanted to scream or blurt something resembling no, you absolutely did not, but instead, he clenched his jaw and both fists in his lap and took Piper’s advice to stay silent.
“And what impression is that?” Piper asked. Leo had no doubt that Piper was on the same page as him. He hadn’t realized it before then, but Piper knew, too. Piper had never once swooned over the cunning professor. If anything, she always looked uncomfortable in that class. In the last few weeks, she hadn’t even sat in the first row.
“That I wanted something more than help with my grades,” Emma croaked. “Please don’t tell anyone. He said he’d drop my grade more if I told anyone.”
Fucking bastard. Leo couldn’t sit any longer. He got up from beside Emma and started to pace, wearing a path into the floorboards of the stage. He needed to hit something—Waylen Hornbill, to be exact.
“Okay.” Piper nodded slowly. “I won’t tell anyone unless you want me to. Neither will Leo, right?”
Leo didn’t respond. He wanted to tell everyone. He wanted to fix it, to bring it straight to the administration and get Hornbill fired. No, fuck being fired—he wanted to set fire to Hornbill’s classroom and bring the bastard down with it.
“Right, Leo?” Piper reiterated with a scowl.
Leo cleared his throat and steeled himself against his anger. Sitting on his hands was a skill he would have to learn. “I won’t tell a soul.”
“Whatever he did is not a reflection on you,” Piper stated, turning back to Emma. Piper’s voice was calming enough to draw Leo back from his tumultuous thoughts. She only ever allowed her true emotions to show when she wanted them to, and up until then, he had thought the skill was more deceitful than useful. But while Emma cried and he fumed, Piper kept her kind face and soothing tone. “You did nothing wrong, Emma.”
“But maybe I—”
“No,” Leo interrupted. “People in positions of power don’t use their power to scare or threaten unless they know they did something wrong.”
“He’s right.” Piper gave Emma a sullen smile. “Now, I have to ask, do you need medical attention? Are you physically okay?” The question made Leo want to upchuck the entire contents of his stomach.
“No—I mean, yes, I’m okay. He didn’t get far enough to… do anything like that. It’s stupid that I’m even bringing this up. Nothing even happened.” Emma let out a harsh laugh and flicked her hand in the air as if to dismiss the whole thing.
“You are not stupid,” Piper enunciated clearly. “He crossed a boundary, and that’s not nothing.”
“He made you cry, Emma.” Leo’s voice wavered as he sat back down beside her. He was still restless, every thought bouncing around in his head, but he didn’t want to spook Emma by wandering anxiously behind her.
