Lilah groans. "Oh, thank God it's you."
"That is an incredibly concerning thing to say." Axel points out.
I immediately start fixing her hair, her dress, her smudged lipstick.
Axel points at us. “Question.”
“No.” I interject.
“I haven’t even asked yet!” He says loudly, then points again. "You two trying to start a rumor that professors are sleeping with students because if so the current optics are aggressively terrible."
Lilah chokes.
I let out a laugh.
Axel looks between us with a smirk, then up at the stars, then back at us. “Hmm, interesting.”
“What?”
He shrugs. “Higher stakes than I thought.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
"Nothing." He just keeps smiling. "Just wasn't expecting either of you to actually commit to the bit, you know?"
My eyes narrow. “The bit.”
"Yeah."
Axel gestures vaguely.
"The fake relationship between you two because we all know you’re not dating you were ready to kill each other less than forty-eight hours ago, so what gives? Trying to throw people for a loop? Hide from the many undergrads?"
I say nothing.
Lilah just shrugs. If he knew it was for The Dean’s List and about my mom he’d want to involve himself and I wasn’t sure I could trust him yet. Back in the day he’d been at the funeral with me but he’d looked up to my dad like he was his hero and while I loved him, money made people do crazy things.
"Unless it isn't fake anymore." He says in a teasing tone.
Silence.
Complete silence while Lilah looks away from us like she couldn’t be more fascinated by the room we’re in. She stares at the telescope, the walls. “Oh look, the moon.”
I clear my throat. “Be annoying elsewhere Axel.”
"You're annoying."
"I know." Axel shrugs. "I'm just saying, seven years of hatred, prison, your mother's death, a revenge plan worthy of a psychopath..." He shrugs. “And what? All it takes is one kiss? Pussy? I don’t get it.”
I rage.
I don’t see anything. I simply lunge for him and start hitting. “What the fuck did you say?”
He smiles through the blood on his teeth. “That all you got?”
“Fuck you!”
I grab his shirt and slam him against the wall. For a second all I can see is red.
