"Nothing," I said, rolling my eyes. "Everyone just thinks there is."
"Whatever," Noelle said. "Little Miss Brightside here likes to believe everyone is created equal. You'd think she'd be over that by now."
"What dorm are you guys in?" Graham asked, turning sideways in his chair, his sport jacket falling open to reveal his somewhat wrinkled white shirt.
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"Billings House," I replied.
"The best house on campus. We'll introduce you to our housemates. We have a few single girls on the prowl," Noelle added with a wink, taking a sip of her mimosa.
"Noelle? Could I see you for a moment, please?" Mrs. Lange asked from the other side of the table. Her cell phone was open and she held her hand over the receiver. "I'm on with Bliss and they need to update your information."
"Coming, Mother," Noelle replied.
I watched her go, wondering for the millionth time at the oddities of Mrs. Lange's behavior. Here she was, hosting a brunch--a celebratory brunch, as it turned out--and everyone was busy chatting up the guest of honor while she was on the phone booking spa appointments.
"You know, Noelle's dad and my dad were talking about Billings last night," Sawyer said, pushing his eggs around with his fork. "They were in my dad's office on the phone with someone on speaker. I could only hear one end of the conversation because the volume wasn't cranked up that loud, but the word Billings definitely came up a few times."
"What were they saying?" I asked.
"I don't know, but it didn't sound good," Sawyer replied, glancing warily at his dad and Mr. Lange. "Noelle's dad seemed pissed and my father kept trying to calm him down."
Suddenly my heart felt like it was shrinking inside of me, bouncing around like a Ping-Pong ball. What could this possibly
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mean? I leaned closer to the tabl
e and Sawyer, and kept my voice down.
"Can you remember anything specific? Were they talking about splitting us up?" I asked, my hand flat on the table, my palm sweating. Sawyer's eyes darted around, like he was suddenly nervous. My tension was rubbing off.
"I don't know. My dad kept saying, 'We understand,' over and over again. And there was something about a media crisis. . . ." He shrugged, but then his face lit up. "And oh yeah," he whispered. "Toward the end I definitely heard Noelle's dad agree it was for the good of the school. Although he didn't seem that happy about whatever it was."
I swallowed hard. Usually "for the good of the school" was not a good sign for the Billings Girls. I looked up at Noelle, who was chatting merrily with her mother, and a chill went through me. What had her dad and Mr. Hathaway decided with whoever was on the phone? And did she know about it?
I decided right then and there that I was not going to ask. If she didn't know about it, she would grill me for information I didn't have. It would be better to just wait until we were back at Easton. I was sure that whatever it was, we would find a way to fix it. We'd have to. There was no way I was going back to Pemberly. Not now.
Besides, maybe Sawyer had misheard. Or I was misinterpreting. Anything was possible. And it wasn't worth getting all stressed over without knowing the details.
"Hey."
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Upton's warm hand touched the back of my neck and his other hand clasped Sawyer's shoulder.
"Mind if I steal her away?" Upton asked.
Sawyer turned back to his plate, his spine curling forward slightly under Upton's grip. "Go ahead."
"Thanks, mate." He slapped Sawyer once on the back. "Let's go for a walk," he said, offering me his hand now. "It's gorgeous out, and I want you all to myself for a little while before you leave."
I took a deep breath and exhaled, blowing out all the stress about Billings and Easton. There was nothing I could do about it now, and I wasn't going to let potentially imaginary drama ruin my last couple of hours with Upton.
"Sounds perfect," I said, taking his hand.
I gave Sawyer a smile as we walked away, but he was looking in the other direction.