Chapter 17 - Waylon

My heart pounded as I watched her bow to the man who kept on patting her shoulder. I stifled a growl and the urge to go over there and rip his hand off.

“Hey, Doctor Baxter.” She said sweetly.

“Hi, Wakely. I wanted to introduce you to my brightest student, Waylon. Ironically, you two are taking the exact same classes and have the same goal of graduating this year.” He said with a twinkle in his eye.

Wakely’s eyebrows rose. “Really?” She asked even though she knew my plan.

“Yes,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Do you think it’s too much?” Doctor Baxter asked Wakely. “Do you think you both can handle it?”

Wakely laughed. “I have no life. My sole plan is to study, and that’s pretty much it.”

Doctor Baxter laughed. “Then maybe you two can study together. I looked over your transcripts from the University of Seoul, and it is pretty impressive.”

She rubbed her arm. “Yeah, I enjoyed the program over there. I’m sure I will enjoy it here, too.” Her cheeks flushed.

“The program you are in doesn’t have a lot of ladies enrolled. If I’m being honest, you’re the only one enrolled. I’m sure if you need anything, Waylon here will be more than happy to assist.” He said as he patted my shoulder.

My free hand clenched at my side. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to set us up. I didn’t need his help, though. I had a plan.

Wakely looked at me and smiled. “Thank you.” She chewed on her bottom lip.

“Also, we didn’t know that you played the piano. That was amazing.” He said, roping me into his compliment.

I didn’t need him to do that either. I was going to learn about her on my own. And with the help of the internet.

“Oh, you know, a demanding parent will make you good at anything.” She gave him a nervous laugh.

“Oh really? What do your parents do?” Doctor Baxter asked.

I furrowed my eyebrows at him. Didn’t he know who she was? There were pictures of her all over the internet as the child of Bennett Gilford, the tech mogul.

“My father is into IT, and my mother died when I was five.” She left it at that. She didn’t say who she was, didn’t tell him who her father was. She was enrolled under a false last name. And she looked positively nervous now.

“Oh wow, I guess engineering runs in the family.” He laughed at his joke. “Excuse me, you two, I need to go chat with one of the other professors.”

“Thank you,” Wakely said.

I remained quiet.

“I think your father does a little more than IT,” I said as I took a drink.

She rolled her eyes at me and crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s not my fault that he doesn’t know who I am. And since he doesn’t know, it’s not my place to tell him.”

I nodded at her. “I’m sorry about your mom.” I wanted to fill the silence. I wanted to keep her near me so we could talk more. But I could tell she was looking for a way out.

“Cancer is a bitch.”

My heart sank. Her mom had cancer and died. My mom was currently struggling with cancer, and I feared that that was going to be her same fate. “My mom got diagnosed with breast cancer a few months ago.”

Her face dropped from anger to pity.

I hated it.

“I’m sorry. That sucks.” Her hands fell to her sides, and she chewed on her bottom lip.

“I didn’t tell you for you to pity me,” I said more sharply than I intended to.

She leaned back a bit.

Shit.

“I didn’t mean…” She exhaled. “I wasn’t pitying you. It just sucks.” She shook her head. “Never mind, I’ll just talk to you later.” She turned to leave.

I couldn’t let that happen. Not yet anyway.

“I didn’t…” I pulled my hand through my hair.

She stopped and turned back.

“Sorry,” I said through my teeth. “It’s a lot.”

Wakely crossed her arms over her chest again and waited for me to continue.

“My dad is busting his ass to provide and she’s out of commission. And you’ve met my brothers, they are useless.” I pulled my hand through my hair again.

I didn’t know why I was telling her all of this. It just came out.

Her eyes softened. “Your brothers aren’t helping?”

My head barely shook. “They pretend it's not happening.” I shrugged. I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I didn’t want to think about my mom in the hospital getting treatments and looking frailer each time I saw her. “Anyway, I wanted to say you play well. Great choices on songs.”

A smile spread across her face. She was smiling because of something I said. She was smiling at me. I committed this to memory. “Thanks.”

I had a million things to ask her. Why did she flinch when she played? Why were her eyes filled with concern in all of her pictures on social media? Why did she want to graduate early?

“There he is!” One of my brothers yelled. My heart sank as I slowly turned. I wasn’t prepared to talk to them now. I wanted to talk to Wakely more. To show her that I wasn’t a complete asshole. To maybe ask her out on a date.

But that plan was foiled.

Wakely had fire in her eyes as she looked over my shoulder. She hated my brothers almost as much as I hated them.

Was it hate?

Yes.

Without a doubt, I have grown to hate my brothers. Their mere presence made my blood boil. And now it was threatening to boil over. They interrupted my conversation with Wakely.

I turned around slowly. Anger coursed through my veins. My hand remained clenched at my sides. “What are you doing here?” I growled at them.

“We thought we would come to this little party,” Wynn said as he looked around. “It seems kind of dull, though.” Wynn had his arm around Zoey, she was wearing a pair of short shorts that showed her ass and a crop top.

“We figured you showed up here,” Whittaker said. “We wanted to support.” Scarlett was clinging to his arm, she at least was wearing a sun dress.

I knew what Whitt meant when he said he wanted to support. He wanted to find out why I was here and figure out a way to fuck me over.

That was how my brothers operated now. They never had good intentions, even if they said that they did. Maybe they thought that they did at the time, but then it would ruin it.

I turned around to apologize to Wakely, but she was nowhere to be seen. My anger surged again. Without doing anything, they fucked me over. There was no point in staying here any longer.

“I was just about to leave,” I said through my teeth. Maybe if I could get them to leave, they wouldn’t torment Wakely and Cora.

“Why did you come in the first place, Way?” Whitt asked, his head tilted back knowingly.

“My professor asked me to make an appearance so the other students in my program felt included.” My jaw clenched, hoping they would drop it.

“Interesting, but you asked about this event at lunch. Why would you need to ask if you already said you were going to come?” Wynn asked.

Fuck.

He was too smart for his own good.

My jaw clenched harder. My teeth threatened to crack. “I forgot about the event until lunch.” I stared at them, praying that they would accept my bluff.

“That’s not like you, brother,” Wynn said as he patted my shoulder. “School hasn’t even started, and you’re stressed out.”

“Mmmhmm.” I nodded.

“Let’s get out of here. I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink,” Zoey said as she pulled Wynn behind her.

Thank fuck, they dropped it. At least for now. I followed after my brothers but stopped and turned.

Wakely was standing with Cora, talking to another student. A male student. I ground my teeth together. I didn’t like that, not one bit.

My girl turned and looked at me for a moment. She chewed on her bottom lip, I nodded at her. I wanted to make sure that I left on good terms because I didn’t want to backtrack with her.

My heart sank as I left her with the other students chatting away. Even though I wanted to talk to her more, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to if my brothers were around.

They have been making my life a living hell.