Sweet Dandelion

“I did have fun,” my voice is so small.

“Then what the hell went wrong? Was it because of what happened to you at your old school? Did you freak out? You could’ve told me, if that’s the case. I wouldn’t have cared.”

I blink at him. “Y-Yeah, it was … hard. You know … having fun. I felt guilty.”

It’s a complete lie. That night, I didn’t think about my past at all. I lived in the present. I let my anger, my hate, my fears, all go like flushing them down a drain.

Ansel must see something on my face, because his contorts with disgust and he looks at me like he doesn’t know me at all.

“Menteuse.”

Liar.

Lachlan’s door is closed when I arrive, which isn’t new, but what is new is the fact it’s locked.

I knock on the door. “Lachlan? It’s me.”

Nothing.

I press my ear to the door in case he’s in a private meeting to see if I hear the murmuring of voices. If he’s busy, I’ll wait somewhere else. But I don’t hear anything.

Nothing but eerie silence.

There’s no note on the door either.

With a sigh, I head to the indoor track to sit and wait.

He’ll find me.

But he never shows up.

On Tuesday, he doesn’t show either.

Or Wednesday.

Not even Thursday.

Since I hate dealing with the office people I spend each of those days at the indoor track.

I’m afraid he’s sick or something, but all texts go unanswered.

Rumors begin swirling about his absence, my name dangerously tied to his.

On Friday, everything goes to hell.

Chapter Sixty-Two

Getting called to the office is rarely a good thing, and my gut tells me when I show up to the principal’s office that this is bad. The rumors that have been swirling the past few days haven’t been good, all kinds of talk about Lachlan being fired for sleeping with a student—me.

I blame the stupid conversation in the bathroom during prom with Sasha’s big fat mouth.

Most of the rumors are far-fetched, about us having sex all over the school and all kinds of lewd remarks, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter, because we did have sex whether or not it happened at school. No one cares if the rumors are even true or not.

I knock on Mr. Gordon’s door and it swings open a moment later.

“Sage,” I blurt, finding my brother sitting in the same chair he occupied all those months ago when I was enrolled. “Why are you here?”

“I have no idea. What’s going on?”