Page 115 of Apparently, I’m Trouble

“Just frowned on.” I dropped my fork and put my head in my hands. “I know. I checked the handbook.”

“When?” Shawn asked. His smooth, deep voice was oddly reassuring. I couldn’t believe we didn’t get along once. Now, he was one of my favorite people.

“Months ago. Back when I was worried about this whole universe thing. It’s not a fireable offense, but I should’ve handled it better. I should’ve kept it in my pants.”

Lilly leaned into my shoulder, and I looked up. Sure enough, her big green eyes were locked on mine. “We’re going to be fine. Don’t worry.”

“Liiiilly,” I whined. She was being too good about all this. “Rutton didn’t just demote you–she made you take my program too. You don’t actually think that’s okay, do you?”

Her smile was enough to make me groan. This wasn’t the reaction I expected when shit hit the fan. I thought her chronic anxiety would turn her into a ball of pukey stress.

“You should be mad at me,” I muttered. “You should tell me to shove, I don’t know, a pool stick up my ass and twirl on it.”

She winced. Just winced. Ugh.

“You already did the hard part,” she reasoned. “You bundled their best essays and sent them off on Friday, right?”

“They should get their results in a few weeks.”

“Then all I need to do is prep them for the exam, which is only twenty percent of their overall grade.”

“But you were counting on me, and I just blew up our department. And hurt Kira. Oh god.” My face dropped back into my hands. “Kira must hate me.”

Between my fingers, I watched Shawn lift a shoulder. “I’d hate you if I were her.”

“Gee. Thanks.”

“But Theo will handle it.”

“That’s if he wants to see me again after all this.”

And this was where my two closest friends fell silent, because neither of them knew where Theo and I stood.

Theo had one goal, and we all knew what that was. He was focused on building a future for Kira. A future I made worse by falling for him.

“I should’ve walked away,” I muttered into my palms. “Why didn’t I walk away?”

Lilly sighed and pawed at my shoulder as Shawn’s voice rumbled across from me. “Because you knew you would’ve regretted it if you did.”

Monday Night

Theo’s deep, gravelly voice made my stomach flip.

“Hey. Are you okay?”

I rolled over on the couch and murmured into my phone, “I’m fine. Is Kira okay?”

“She’s asleep. But no. Not really.” He blew out a breath. “I didn’t think any of this through.”

Burrowing deeper into the cushions, I whispered, “Me neither. She wasn’t supposed to find out.”

Fresh anger edged his tone as he said, “I want to know who took that picture.”

“I think we both know who took it. Amber had a copy and sent it to their entire grade.”

“Fucking Ashley.”

“Yep. Fucking Ashley.”