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“Don’t patronize me,” he snaps.
“I’m not,” I say, surprising even myself by meaning it. “Family is just the people who get a chance to hurt you before anyone else can. When they reject you, it makes it easy to believe that’s all you can expect from life.”
He just stares at me for a long moment.
“I guess you’d know something about that,” he says finally.
“I guess I would.”
Vaughn continues to hold my unblinking gaze for another long moment before he huffs out a laugh. “We’re not friends.”
I roll my eyes. “Thanks.”
“That’s not what I mean…” He lets himself trail off, hesitation in his voice. “I’m just saying that I wouldn’t have expected you to put any time into understanding me. Especially after everything that happened.”
“There are definitely pieces of the puzzle missing for me if you want to fill some of that in.”
His expression gives nothing away, but his voice lowers. “What has Olivia told you?”
I hate that I have to admit that she didn’t tell me much of anything at all. It somehow seems like the same thing as admitting that we’re not close enough for sharing secrets. Even if that’s the truth. “Some things.”
He rises smoothly from the pew, expression almost pitying. “But not everything.”
I turn in the pew, gaze tracking him down the aisle. It annoys me he would just walk away, especially on that note. “Did you know she was coming back?”
His expression shutters, like he definitely doesn’t want to tell me the truth, but also doesn’t want to lie. “I know as much as you do.”
“Did you know she got Drake arrested?”
Vaughn doesn’t flinch. “Like I said, I know as much as you do.”
“And you don’t care?”
He actually looks offended at that. “Of course I care. But you act like any of this has ever been under my control. I couldn’t help him if I wanted to.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“You can believe what you want.”
Vaughn obviously won’t tell me shit. I shouldn’t bother getting annoyed because it’s about what I expected. But I still allow myself a parting shot.
“All these secrets are going to bite us in the ass, eventually. I hope one of you asks for help before we all end up regretting it.”
He walks away without a backward glance. I resist the urge not to chase after him. Annoyance wars with apprehension as I watch him go. Instead of the outrage I expected, Vaughn had just looked defeated when I told him Drake had been arrested. Defeated, but not at all surprised.
Whatever he might know, Vaughn has made it clear that he won’t get involved. Without Drake, I only have one other source of actual information.
Olivia.
Chapter Four
It doesn’t take me long to track my sister down.
All I have to do is follow the excited chatter back to its source. Barely a day has passed, but Olivia-as-Evangeline has definitely made an impression.
Several guys, some of them Havoc pledges, stop to ask if I’ll put in a good word or if Evangeline is seeing anyone. I even passed a pack of girls in the quad who didn’t notice I was there as they loudly wondered if Olivia and Evangeline are really identical because Evangeline is so much prettier.
Shouting at them that we’re IDENTICAL would absolutely be a wasted effort, but I had to force myself not to do just that.
