Min’s last class of the day was Dr. Warren’s score analysis class. Jeff and Bobby flanked her as they approached the lecture hall, but that didn’t stop every head from turning to clock her entrance. It didn’t stop Phoebe shooting daggers at her across the room, or Lucy from looking disgusted. It didn’t stop Maria from smirking with a self-satisfied eyebrow raise. It didn’t stop Dr. Warren from pursing his lips and looking as if he had already run out of patience for the newest scandal to rock the music department (never mind that the last scandal had been when he had married his former graduate assistant a mere two months after her graduation).
Jeff and Bobby guided her to three empty seats in the back of the lecture hall, but before she could sit, Dr. Van Aller poked his head into the classroom. Glancing around, he located Min. “May I?” he asked Dr. Warren, gesturing to her.
“Please,” Dr. Warren said with a wave of his hands as if he could shake off the whole business by evicting Min from his classroom.
Jeff started to rise to follow after her but she shook her head. She could handle Noah. If she could survive Maria and Phoebe and Lucy and the countless others who she had thought were her friends, then he could handle Noah.
“I’ll see you at home,” she said, squeezing Jeff’s shoulder on her way past.
In silence, she followed Noah out of the lecture building and across the quad to the department office building. Even if he was going to condemn her, too, she was so damn relieved to see him. Somehow seeing Noah made her feel closer to Liam, like if his best friend still wanted to speak with her, maybe there was hope for them yet.
Min followed Noah into his office, taking a seat when he gestured to the chair in front of his desk. He closed the door behind them and sat on the edge of his desk before he spoke.
“How are you?” he asked.
The bark of laughter, vicious and painful, escaped before she could clap her hand to her mouth, the bitter sound morphing into a strangled sob.
He hummed in acknowledgment, nodding to himself. “That’s what I thought,” he said.
Min looked at him expectantly, waiting, but the infuriating man didn’t say anything else, his eyes darting around the room as if he’d find the next words to speak scrawled on the wall somewhere.
“Noah,” she said. His eyes snapped to her at the use of his first name. “How is he?”
It was Noah’s turn to chuff out a laugh, scraping his hand over his chin. “He’s a fucking mess,” he said.
She squeezed her eyes shut against the new searing pain in her chest. She hated that Liam was hurting and she hated that she had any part in causing his pain.
“I didn’t call you in here to talk about Liam,” Noah continued. Min’s eyes flew open, confused.Then what the hell does he want to talk about?Noah slid off the edge of his desk and began digging through his briefcase. “I’ve spoken to the dean and he feels that given the extenuating circumstances of –”
“Of me sleeping with a professor,” she said.
Noah cleared his throat. “Given the extenuating circumstances of you being attacked on campus,” he said slowly, careful to articulate each word clearly, “and the significant trauma that must have caused, it would be best if you were excused from classes for the remainder of the term and allowed to sit your exams as soon as you are ready.”
“Who said I was attacked?” she asked, her throat going dry.
He avoided her eyes, continuing to thumb through the files in his briefcase. “The dean is aware that no report will be filed, but an anonymous source confirmed the circumstances of the altercation in your dressing room.”
“An anonymous source,” she repeated. Noah nodded. “I don’t understand.”
“The next two weeks are review anyway,” he said. Noah finally located the manila folder he had been hunting for and extracted it from his briefcase, leafing through before holding it out to her. “Study guides for each of your exams courtesy of your professors. You are to take your time preparing and, when you are ready, between now and the end of the term, you will let me know and you will sit for your exams. Here. With me.”
“I don’t need to go to class?” she asked, the pieces slotting together.
“Correct. You can finish out the term without being subjected to… further scrutiny.”
Min flipped through the folder in her hands, silently reading the names of each of her courses – even her English classes – to herself. “Why?”
“I told you. The university understands –”
“Not the bullshit reason, Noah. Why did the dean okay this?”
Noah sank down into his desk chair, his lips set in a grim line as he met Min’s eyes across his desk. “He’s afraid you’ll be a distraction to the other students. Or that you’ll inspire protests against the Dietrich name on the theater, or your presence on campus will anger the Dietrichs enough to revoke Warren’s precious endowment. He’s afraid of the scandal, and he’s hoping it’ll have blown over by the time everyone returns for spring term.”
Min shook her head in disbelief. She was being dismissed, sent away.Even the University doesn’t want me.
“Mostly, though,” Noah continued, “I think he’s trying to do what little he can to protect you since he can’t do a damn thing about Dietrich. Whatever you might think of him, my uncle cares about his students.”
“And why areyoudoing this?” she asked, her throat dry.
