56

Here I was again, barging into the house while my emotions break through. I felt like crap walking home since everyone passing me, gave me weird looks. As if they'd never saw a woman running away from her fears, sobbing, before.

My tears fogged my vision, making it blurry and difficult to see.

I threw my bag down, jogging upstairs while panting. My hands reach out to the railings for support.

Just in time, Adeline walked out of the room. My dad was outside, working on his car. So I had to get her far away as possible, or somewhere quiet.

She stood in front of me, as I stood in front of her, trembling. Her lips slightly parted as she scanned my face. Probably taking in how shitty I look-- lips, nose and cheeks red and puffy.

She almost looked sympathetic for a second.

That was until I grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back into the room. Closing the door with my foot. It was so fast that neither one of us processed my actions. I just did what felt right in the moment. I wanted to feel something other than guilt and pain.

She tripped back over the bed, my hands still on her, making me fall with her. I laded on her, straddling her lap.

"Fuck you!" I yelled, my voice breaking in between words.

It was almost like spitting the words in her face. Maybe that's what I should've done. Spit in her face.

She let me yell at her; scream at her, taking each word in. Her face, inches away from mine, was blank as her eyes roamed between my eyes. There was a slight frown visible.

And after I was done yelling at her, surprisingly, her embrace was soft as she wrapped her arms around me. She pressed my head down against her shoulder, my cheek almost touching hers.

I wanted to pull away. But it was nice being comforted after breaking down from time to time.

But she was the reason for more than half of my bottled up emotions and tears.

Her one hand held the back of my head, her other rubbing soothing circles against my back.

"I've got you now." She whispered softly against my ear, oddly lovingly.

My sobs slowly died down, turning into quiet hiccups being muffled against her shoulders. Every now and then sniffing.

"I never wanted to hurt you." She whispered. "I wanted to hurt her."

My mind processed her words, making me pull back to look her in the eyes. I swear I saw her eyes flick down to my lips for a second before looking back into mine.

"What?" I whispered shakily.

"I hate people that know how to love. Because I never did." She spoke, her breath hitting my face. "You and Daniela loves so easily. Why can't I?"

I stared at her a little longer before sitting up straight on her lap. Her hands fell off me the second I climbed off her.

I stood there at the foot of the bed, looking down at her resting on her elbows. The back of my hand came up to wipe my nose off, after that letting go of a sniff.

"Why..." I choked. "Why did you leak the video?"

She frowned. "What video?"

I chuckled dryly, a sarcastic, weak sound. "You already won, Adeline. Why are you taking it further?"

Her frown deepens. "Honestly, I don't know what you're talking about."

I mimic the same confused frown as her.

Yesterday night I got a text from Cameron, asking what the hell is going on on the university's blog.

I left him on seen.

When I arrived at university with Iris, a lady working at a front desk somewhere in another building on campus, walked a journey to hunt us down. She caught us outside law before we could enter the class and dragged us along with her.

We were on our way to the chief.

The chief.

The chief, the board, the head of the university. Call it whatever you want. I have no idea what they are since I never in my life had any problems to go there.

Not even when my mom worked here, had I ever walked the path we're walking on now.

We entered a huge building in the middle of campus.

The lady lead us through a ton of corridors. There was a few special rooms that caught my attention walking past. Like the councilor's room, the meeting room, board room and then the Chancellor's office.

Shit.

If we're walking through here, we should be in deep shit.

Me and Iris were left in a waiting room, too scared to even talk. Then a door opened next to us and we were called in by a man.

Who he is, I have no idea. What he does, I have no idea.

I stepped in first, Iris following behind me like a scared, lost puppy. The man, old and skinny gestured to the two seats opposite from his desk where he was sitting.

We sat down.

It was awkwardly quiet as we waited for him to talk. But before he did, he studied us. He leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs other each other. His glasses that began sliding off his long nose were pushed up by his middle finger.

He clasps his hands together, placing it on his knee.

He took a deep breath in. "Well, girls, I assume you know what's been posted on the university's webpage, correct?"

Too scared to speak, we both nodded subtly.

The man, around his 60's, nodded too. "Now, I know that university and High school isn't the same thing. But you can still get a crucial punishment no matter where you are." He said, his voice very scratchy. "It's seen as a violation to post disturbing, unwanted sources on our website. And unauthorized personal and students are not allowed to post any media on it without permission from me. The founder of the website."

I gulped. So he's the person who started NYU's public media page online.

He stood up from his chair. "Now, I really don't care about what you posted. That's your own personal problems. It's simply the fact that you did post without consent. That you hacked into the university's account, which is an offense."

Me and Iris sent each other a glance before my eyes met the man's again. "Sir, with all due respect... we did not hack into the university's blog. We had nothing to do with it."

He hummed, leaning against his desk. "But it was you two on the video, correct?"

"Yes sir, but--" I got cut off.

"Then tell me why your faces are on there." He glared me down.

"Wha-" I frowned. "I- we don't know. Someone leaked the video and posted it on the blog. I swear. It wasn't us."

He stroked his white, long beard, seemingly not believing us.

Then Iris spoke up. "Why would we want to put a video on the internet where we get arrested?" She scoffed.

He shrugged. "Attention."

I shook my head, "We didn't do it, sir."

"Then care to tell who did?"

Iris was clearly getting annoyed. "We would've already told you if we knew."

His eyes linger a little longer on Iris, her attitude clearly getting to him too. Then he walked to the cabinet, opening it and getting out two files. His body turned back to us, but he looked down, his eyes going over whatever in that folder was.

"I've seen your records. Both in your third year, do extra classes, a lot of credits, participate in activities. You're good students." He set the files down on his desk and looked at me. "You're Lauren's kid, right?"

"Yes." I whisper. "Sir."

"She was a good woman." He said and got back on topic. "We had many cases where students got drunk, ended up behind bars. This is completely normal. It's really just the fact that it's gone public. Parents and students wanting to transfer sees that footage, and they want nothing to do with us anymore. I need that footage off, girls. It's giving a bad name for the university."

Iris leaned forward, her frustration barely hidden. "It wasn't us, okay? We're not stupid enough to post something like that and ruin our own lives."

"Fine." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Say I believe you, who could it be? The board is breathing down my neck, and I don't have the patience to deal with this mess."

"We're working on it, sir." I told.

He studied me for a moment, his sharp eyes scanning my face. Then, with a sigh, he straightened up, nodding slightly. "Alright," he said, his tone softer now. "If you're truly working on it, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt-- for now. But I need results, and I need them quickly. The university's reputation is at stake, and I don't need to tell you what that means. Try living a low profile and ignore comments, okay?"

"Yes, sir," I said, relief flooding through me. "We'll handle it."

Iris stood as well, her expression still tense. "We'll figure it out," she added, her tone firm. "And we'll prove it wasn't us."

The man waved his hand dismissively. "Good. Now go. And don't waste any more time."

We turned to leave, but just as we reached the door, his voice called out again. "Oh, and one more thing." We both turned around, seeing him sit back down on his chair.

"We spoke to Professor Garcia earlier." My heart sunk as he spoke. "The board is questioning her role in what happened, especially since it was her students involved. Some are suggesting she's to blame for not keeping better control over the group."

"That's not fair," I blurted out before I could stop myself. "She didn't do anything wrong. None of this was her fault!"

He raised an eyebrow at my outburst but didn't comment on it. "Whether it's fair or not doesn't matter. What matters is perception. The board doesn't care about the details-- they care about damage control. If this doesn't get resolved soon, she could face serious consequences."

"She's a good professor," he added after a pause. "One of the best we ever had. It would be a shame to see her career ruined over something like this."

His words remained in my head as me and Iris walked out. Once the door was shut, I then notice what's written against it.

Dr. C. Cummings.

I'll keep that in mind next time.

Iris rolled her eyes, muttering some words under her breath. Probably cussing this entire situation. She was the first one to walk down the hallway as if she knew this place. But, I followed her, because I'd definitely get lost here.

"Do you know where you're going?" My eyes dart around, trying to memorize every corner.

"Of course I do. I've been here plenty of times." She said as if it was something to be proud of. "I'm basically a celebrity around here."

We walked past a door that swung open. An older man stepped out before he spotted Iris. "Hey, Mr. P, what's up!" Iris greeted.

He froze in the doorway before turning around in his office, slamming the door shut.

Iris chuckled. "He loves me."

"Whatever, let's just get out of here." I mumbled. "We need to get to Eleanor. Update her."

With that being said, we were now walking outside, trying to find Eleanor.

My thoughts spun as Iris walked beside me, hands in her pockets. She wasn't cracking jokes or throwing out her usual sarcastic remarks, which told me she was taking this as seriously as I was.

I really just hope Daniela's okay.

We checked the library, but she wasn't there. Classes ended for her, so the last place we checked was the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was filled with noise as we stepped inside. Students were scattered around, chatting, laughing, and occasionally sneaking glances at their phones. A few turned to look at us--great, more stares—but I ignored them.

We split up, scanning the tables. I could hear Iris muttering to herself as she went through the crowd. "Not here... not here either..."

That's when I saw Cameron. He was sitting alone at a table near the window, poking at his food with a distracted expression. His phone sat on the table beside him, screen dark.

Iris followed my gaze. "That's definitely not sad." She whispered to herself.

"Come on, let's go." I said, walking to him and Iris jogging over like it was a race.

"Hey, Cam," Iris greeted, plopping down across from him. He looked up, startled at first, but then his expression softened.

"Jeez. None of you ever replies to messages." He mumbled, looking at me as I sat next to Iris. "What the hell is going on? You guys were arrested in Greece?"

"It was a long time ago." I took a deep breath in as I got ready to sum everything up within one breath. "We went with Professor... Garcia for the Spanish Olympiads. Me and Iris didn't go through to the next round, long story short, we got drunk out of self pity. Some dickheads brought cocaine to the bar and police came. Before we could leave, they stopped us and took us in for questioning."

"Yeah, like, we were in jail for what, maybe, six hours." Iris nodded, "My longest was almost a full day."

Cameron blinked, leaning back slightly in his chair. "Wait, wait, hold on. You've been arrested before?" His question was directed at Iris, his eyebrows raised in disbelief.

Iris had a proud smile on her face and before she could say something snarky, I held my hand up. "She can tell you about that later." I glared at her then back at him. "Do you know where Eleanor is?"

"I think she said she's going to see Mr. Robertson. She wants to go through his student's computers to see if anyone posted that video of you guys." He's smart enough to know that we didn't post it.

Iris nodded. "Oh yeah, that's right. The photography kids are the only ones allowed to go on the blog with permission. Maybe it was one of them."

"But we have no enemies in those classes. We don't know anybody." I whisper.

"No." Iris sprung up from the seat. "But maybe they know us. Let's go."

She patted my shoulder and I got up.

Cameron quickly spoke up. "Wai' before you g--" We were already rushing away. He sighed. "...and they're off."