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“Establish dominance. It’s what all dogs do, right?” He winked at me and then headed back into his room. I was barefoot, in the long, flowing skirt that I was keeping, not returning or donating, and his t-shirt that had his number on the front and back and his last name, Manchester, across the shoulders. I walked out of that room and down the hall to the living room.
Tituss took one look at me, his eyes went wide, he zeroed in on that t-shirt, and when I looked at his face again, I thought his head was going to explode. He was turning red from the neck up, angry. His eye was twitching. I asked, “Where is the laundry? There was a water situation in that room.”
“I’ll show you.” Some guy indicated.
Tituss stepped his way toward me, took the heavy bag of wet towels, and said through gritted teeth, “Follow me.”
I did. I followed him down into the basement of this ridiculous house and asked, “Who the hell owned this land and these properties before the Cocks In Cunts?” He cringed a bit. “You prefer the extra-large extras?”
“I prefer you quit.” He was serious.
“No way I’m quitting now. I need the money. I’m pretty sure my best friend and I won’t be sharing a room much longer—”
“You’ll both move into the guest house, which is set up as the bunny house. It’s out by the pool. We have our own yards, but there is a common area. It used to be a retirement community, but old money, so as the college grew, they grew tired of being here and decided to sell it. Frat bought it. We get off campus, some freedom, some property that is already set up for entertainment and activity. Then we realized it is a lot of fucking maintenance, and no one wants to do it. A couple idiots later, we’re interviewing people to be house bunnies.” He was loading the washing machine through this whole speech. He looked at my bag of clothes and said, “Leave, Harper. This is…going to be bad. You don’t want to be here when—”
I could feel the anger roll up from my heels and into my shoulders. “You have no idea where I want to be. I didn’t either. Until I got here. I belong here, and we both know it. I’m white trash, poor, fucking my way to the top. Any of that sound familiar?”
His dad had said those things to him about me. In the hall at the courthouse, everyone heard it. Tituss defended me then. He did not now. He looked hurt and then impassive as he said, “Fine. Have it your way. It’s always your way. The hard way. The way someone ends up getting hurt.”
“I’m not getting hurt this time.” I steeled my spine, lifted my chin, and said as he looked down at me, “But I might just live up to some of those accusations.”
“Yeah?” he asked and glanced at the shirt I was wearing. “Did he fuck you?”
“Do you care?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yup. We all had an agreement about today. About the bunnies. About tryouts. No one can fuck any one of you until I say so without a penalty.”
“Penalty?” I asked. Totally explained why Dane went hands-off. Probably. Maybe. He might have still been hands-off. I just…didn’t know what the fuck I was doing here.
“House business. Not yours.” He shrugged. He looked at the number or my breasts again. I couldn’t tell. Maybe he was looking at both.
“Does that rule apply to you, too?” I asked and tilted my head. He shook his head. “No rules ever do, do they?”
That got me a glare, and I instantly regretted saying that to him. It wasn’t my fault, or his, or theirs, but someone did that to us, and the weight of it landed on them in the legal sense and on me in the reputation arena.
“You know, I’m doing my best to make sure that the guys in this house don’t ever go through what I went through. What I go through. And here you are, not even twenty-four hours inside that door, and you’ve got one of my best friends already on the ladder, ready to climb it. Just so he can fall. Totally unaware of the fact that it only takes one wrong move and everything you had…poof. And for him, that includes his family’s rep, so I may just have to break the rest of your story, our story, to him—”
“Shut up.” I held my hands up. “Just…shut up, Tituss. I didn’t—”
“You didn’t what? Tell anyone? I don’t believe you anymore, Harper. You had to have told someone.” He frowned down at me. I looked up at him. I could feel the surge of the emotions, the embarrassment, guilt, shame, then the fear and worry, only to culminate in a strained and forced bond between us that he eventually severed. My heart bled almost all the way out from that cut, but I slowly got it healed, and—what the fuck was I doing here? Why was I here?
Maybe it was to tell the truth. “I told myself. In my diary. I didn’t even tell Cassidy about it. I…wrote it down.”
My mother had been the reason all this came to light. I found that out after Tituss broke up with me. When she went into a fit of rage about how I had let him use me, abuse me, and still came out with nothing to show for it. He took a step back and asked quietly, “What?”
I shrugged, looked at the washing machines. They had three and three dryers. The really nice kinds. We did not have a washer and dryer at home. We lived in an apartment and used the ones in the laundry room. It was a shithole of a place to live, so I usually took my clothes to Cassidy’s and did laundry there. This…whatever this place was…might still be better for me than the alternatives. Cassidy was right. There were a lot worse places I could be on this campus. In my life. I could be back home.
I admitted to the appliances, “I guess she found it, read it. Called the school. Had some idea that…I don’t know what she was thinking. I…stopped talking to her after I found out she was the one who called in the complaint. I talk to her now about mandatory stuff. I came to Crossbow because it’s cheaper than staying home and going to a community college, thanks to the scholarships, financial aid, and work-study. You’re right, Tituss. I should go. It would make things a lot easier for you if I just…put you first. I did that already. I know you suffered—”
“Suffered?” He balked. “Suffered? You know—you don’t know the half of it, Harper. Only the parts I told you about. You—she did this to me? Your mother?”
My mother had always been really sweet to him. She adored him. Thought he was our, not my, but our ticket out of poverty. I didn’t realize she was so desperate she would try to cash that ticket in no matter how much it would hurt me, him, us. I tried to rationalize it, but he was getting angrier by the second, and I had never seen him look like that…toward me. I gulped. “Tituss.”
“Everyone thinks I did it.” He was processing some serious thoughts if his expressions were any indication. I was trying not to take a step back. I stood my ground. Tituss would never really hurt me. He may be mad, may hate my mother and me, and who could blame him? We ruined his life. He…she…we…ruined mine, too, but not in the same way. I was about to say his name when the scariest thing he ever said to me slipped past those gorgeous lips of his. “Why not just do it then? Everyone believes I did it. Thinks you’re lying because you’re just a sweet, innocent girl who couldn’t possibly want—”
I wanted too much and was far from sweet or innocent. He was sweet and innocent before he met me. I knew that. I was feeling all the flight signals rolling through my body, but my feet were somehow glued in place to the floor. Tituss was a step closer, his hand coming up to touch me…somehow, some way, and I heard Dane say, “There you are.”
Tituss looked from me to him and said, “What do you want?”
