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I flip to the next picture. Her shy smile has turned to a laugh as he leans into kiss her.
Vaughn dated Olivia, and he didn’t tell anyone about it.
He didn’t tell me about it.
Olivia hadn’t wandered into the Bacchanal that night like some curious freshman who didn’t know what they were getting into.
She went there for him.
Which means that if Vaughn didn’t hurt her, then there is a very good chance that he knows who did.
My mind rolls back over every instance I can remember of seeing them together since the year started and “Olivia” returned. There aren’t many. It hadn’t seemed strange at the time, but now that I’m really thinking about it, it’s almost as if Vaughn was deliberately avoiding her. He seemed more than happy to let me take the lead on our plan to get her out of St. Bart’s.
I hadn’t questioned his reticence about it at the time, but maybe I should have. I should have asked why he was so sure that the alumni would want her gone.
He must have been more surprised than anyone when she strolled back onto campus for the next term like nothing had even happened.
Until he figured out that it wasn’t really Olivia, after all.
And Evangeline would have had no idea that she was stepping onto a landmine by coming here and pretending to be her sister.
I look back at my best friend as he lies unconscious on the hospital bed, hooked up to machines that are doing his breathing for him.
“What the fuck did you do?”
Chapter Four
How do you know when you’re losing your fucking mind?
That’s the problem with trying to figure out if you’re going crazy. Most of the time you won’t realize that you’re slowly descending into madness because your messed up brain has you convinced that everything is fine. It’s just the rest of the world that’s turning into a madhouse.
One minute you think you’re the only sane person left on earth, and in the next you’re rocking back and forth in the corner of a padded room while eating your hair.
It doesn’t take a degree in psychology to recognize that I am spiraling out of control.
I try to ignore the guilt over Evangeline as I drive back to campus. That girl seems to have more than a tendency to go off half-cocked, so hiding information from her is just a way to protect her from herself. Just because I think I’m about to become a mole against my closest friends doesn’t mean I have to tell her about it.
At this point, I have to know the truth.
But the best thing for her is staying far, far away from all of this shit.
When Vaughn wakes up, he is going to tell me everything he knows before I knock him unconscious all over again. I doubt there is any explanation in the world that is going to satisfy me at this point.
The campus is quiet when I get back. Winter break has officially started. Most of the students have already left for home or are packing up to go. I pass a handful of people, but I don’t recognize any of them.
All the Havoc House seniors are staying on campus, along with all of our accepted pledges. It’s supposed to be a bonding experience or something, but usually just involves a lot of drinking and immature hazing rituals.
I’ve already bought Felicia a plane ticket home for break months ago. She’d texted me before getting on the flight this morning, but I’d been too caught up at the hospital to respond to it. I’m sure she’ll forgive me, and I’m just happy to have her out of the picture while I deal with all this.
When I park my bike on the little grassy knoll next to the faculty lot, I faintly hear someone call my name over the rumble of the idling engine. Then I flip off the ignition and hear it again, practically screamed in my ear.
“Drake!” Anya strides toward me with murder in her eyes.
“Can I help you?” I ask casually as if she didn’t just scream my name literally at the top of her lungs.
She stops short right in front of me, crossing her arms over her chest. Her stance reminds me of how Mama would look when she was about to lay into me for stealing cookies out of the pantry.
“Where the hell is Olivia?”
