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“I’m sorry Dean Pritchard,” I say. “I’m not really following where you’re going with this?”
“Colt, you’re an adult, and I obviously can’t tell you what to do in your own time. But it seems to me you’ve gone from being an excellent student with perfect attendance to someone who’s barely passing classes, or even turning up to them. And it all seems to have begun when you started seeing Miss Bennett.”
I have whiplash from the change of subject. I was convinced this was going to be about what me and Sassy did on his desk, but he doesn’t appear to know about that. Instead, he seems to be drawing a line between my poor attendance and my love life. My head spins with outrage. Why is my relationship any of his business?
“Are you trying to insinuate that because Sassy is a stripper, she’s a bad influence on me?” My voice drips with anger.
“Look,” Pritchard holds his hands up. “I rarely get involved in the lives of students, but someone specifically asked me to do a welfare check on you. A fellow student seems very concerned that you’re headed down a rocky path and that it’s directly linked to your new relationship.”
“Hold up.” My fingers dig into the armrest of my chair. “Someone came to you about me?”
“That’s right,” he nods solemnly. “So, I looked into your records and honestly, she has a point.”
“She?” The penny drops and a fresh wave of anger rips through me. “Let me guess, the student who came to you is Dani Costello?”
“I can’t confirm that.”
“You don’t have to.” I growl. “This is bullshit. Dani is jealous of me and Sassy. That’s why she came to you. She’s trying to cause trouble, and you’re just a pawn in her messed-up game.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” Dean Pritchard looks unruffled. “Whatever her motives are, her concern is warranted. If you don’t lift your grades, you’re in danger of not passing a lot of your subjects this semester.”
“That’s on me. It’s got nothing to do with who I’m dating.”
“You’re a good student, Colt. Don’t go off track for a girl. That’s all I wanted to say.”
I fume silently, my brain ticking over the fact that Dani has been in here talking to the dean about me. She’s a menace and he needs to know.
“Dani Costello has been busy making memes about Sassy’s job and spreading rumours around campus that she’s a whore. She’s making Sassy’s school life hell. If you want to talk about anyone being bad for someone, it’s Dani, and she’s bad for everyone. She’s toxic.”
The dean exhales.
“This is the kind of thing I was afraid of,” he mutters. “Having a student who’s a stripper just comes with trouble. I’m worried about how this looks for our school.”
“The stripper isn’t the one doing the damage!” I slam my fists on the armrests of my chair and stand up. This man is too obnoxious for words. “It’s the other students who are targeting her. They’re bullying her. They’re the ones doing the damage to the school’s reputation, not mentioning defacing the property as well.”
“Calm down, Colt.” Dean Pritchard raises his voice and gives me a stern look. “I’m sorry she’s going through that, but it’s all the more reason for her to move on from her job. If she’s not stripping, there’s nothing to mock.”
“I won’t encourage her to do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
“That’s your choice. In the meantime, I want you to focus on lifting your grades and turning up to classes occasionally, before you find yourself repeating this entire semester.”
I glare at him for a moment. I’ve never met such an arrogant asshole. He cares more about the reputation of his precious university than he does about his students being bullied by other students on campus. There’s no reasoning with him, and I’m done with this entire conversation.
“I’ll lift my grades.” I say through a clenched jaw. Then I turn and leave his office, slamming the door behind me.
Chapter21
Sassy
Ican tell Colt’s in a bad mood, but he won’t admit it. We’re on the afternoon shift at the shop, and the cloud over his face hasn’t lifted since I got here.
“You had your meeting with the dean,” I say, as it finally dawns on me. I completely blanked that was happening this morning. I guess it slipped my mind while I was busy battling another fun-filled day of being called a whore. “That’s why you’re in a bad mood.”
Colt shrugs and continues to refill the straw container.
“He can’t know what we did the other night, or I’d have been called in by now. So, what was it about? Are you in trouble for something?”
“It was just about how many lectures I’ve been missing lately.”
