LOGINSEBASTIAN'S POV"Did you know?"Those three words sat in the corridor between us and I looked at Eli standing there with his phone in his hand and Devon's voice still echoing in the air and felt everything I had been building crack straight down the middle."Eli." I started."Answer the question." He said quietly. Not loud. Not angry. Just flat and direct and completely still the way Eli got when something had genuinely landed."It is not what Devon is making it sound like." I insisted."I did not ask what Devon is making it sound like." He pressed. "I asked if you knew."I looked at him.He looked back at me.The corridor was empty around us. Late afternoon light coming through the far window. The whole building quiet."I knew Devon was planning something that night." I disclosed. "I did not know specifically what. I did not know about the drink." I paused. "I knew something was going to happen and I did not stop it."Eli said nothing."I was laughing because Devon made a joke." I co
SEBASTIAN'S POV"Close the door."Mr George did not look up from his desk when we walked in. His reading glasses were on, a thick folder open in front of him, three different documents spread across the surface with handwritten notes in the margins.Eli closed the door.We sat down.Mr George still did not look up. He turned one page. Then another. His pen moving across the margin in that small precise script of his. The office completely quiet except for the scratch of it and the heating and the clock on the wall."Sir." I pressed carefully."One moment." He said flatly.We waited.He turned one more page, wrote something, capped his pen, and looked up at us over his glasses."The fraternity investigation documentation." He disclosed, tapping the folder. "Specifically the section relating to the Hale family's institutional connections with this university." He paused. "Your mother has three named positions on this university's external advisory board Sebastian."I stared at him. "Thr
ELI'S POV"Sunday dinner."Jasmine repeated it slowly across the cafeteria table, her fork suspended halfway to her mouth, her eyes wide."Sunday dinner." I confirmed."Selena." She pressed."Selena." I confirmed."Arranged it after Bianca cancelled Thursday lunch." She pressed."Within twenty minutes." I confirmed.She put her fork down."Eli." She whispered. "That woman is terrifying.""I know." I acknowledged."Like genuinely." She pressed. "Clinically. Terrifyingly strategic.""I know Jasmine." I said flatly."And you are going." She pressed."We are all going." I disclosed. "Sebastian. Bianca. Lucas. Me. Sunday evening."She picked her fork back up slowly, chewing thoughtfully, watching my face with those sharp eyes of hers that never missed anything."How is Sebastian handling it?" She inquired."Tightly." I replied."Meaning?" She pressed."Meaning he has that jaw thing happening constantly." I replied. "And he keeps checking his phone every four minutes waiting for her to chan
SEBASTIAN'S POV"Alternative arrangements."I stared at Bianca's message on my phone and felt something cold move through my chest."What does that mean?" Eli noted from beside me, reading over my shoulder."It means she knew." I noted. "About the dissolution. About Bianca leaving. She knew this morning before she called me.""Before she suggested Thursday lunch." Eli noted."Yes." I confirmed.We were standing outside the east lecture building where Bianca's message had reached us mid conversation and the campus was moving normally around us completely indifferent to the fact that everything had just shifted again."She planned the lunch knowing Bianca was already leaving." Eli noted."Yes." I confirmed."Which means the lunch was never about finding out how much I matter to you." Eli noted. "She already knows that.""Yes." I confirmed."So what is it actually about?" He pressed.I looked at him."The clause." I noted. "Bianca told you about the clause.""Yes." Eli confirmed."Then y
BIANCA'S POV"She called him this morning."I dropped onto the bench beside Eli outside the literature building and he looked up from his book with that specific expression he wore when he already knew what somebody was about to say and was deciding whether he wanted to hear it."I know." He closed his book. "I was there.""On speaker." I noted."Yes." He confirmed."In the middle of the courtyard." I noted."Also yes." He confirmed.I looked at him for a moment. He looked back at me with those steady eyes of his that gave very little away and I had learned over the past weeks that the less Eli gave away the more was actually happening underneath it."You told him Thursday works." I noted."Word travels fast." He noted."Sebastian called me approximately four seconds after you walked away." I told him. "He was not calm about it.""Sebastian is never calm about anything involving his mother." Eli noted."He has a point this time." I insisted. "Selena does not do casual lunch Eli. She d
SEBASTIAN'S POV"Put your phone away."Eli whispered it without looking at me, his pen moving across his notebook, eyes fixed on the board at the front of the lecture hall.I put my phone away.Professor Daniels was halfway through something about post colonial narrative structures that I was making a genuine effort to follow and failing at completely because Eli was sitting beside me and his knee was exactly three inches from mine and I had been aware of exactly three inches for the past forty minutes."You are not listening." Eli whispered."I am listening." I whispered back."Four words in twenty minutes." He whispered, eyes still forward.I looked at my notebook.He was not wrong."The lecture is not that interesting." I whispered."Write it down anyway." He whispered.I picked up my pen and wrote two more words then put it back down and looked at the side of his face instead because that was considerably more interesting than anything Professor Daniels had said all morning.He ha
ELI'S POVHe had walked in with a brown envelope in his hands and a frown on his face. I stared at the strangely familiar envelope as I waited for him to explain what it was all about.“You changed the mail address already?” He asked, and I frowned. Change my mail address? I wasn't expecting any m
ELI'S POV I could not even process what was going on before he had picked me off the ground in one swift move. My mind immediately went blank as my eyes widened in shock. Did he just fucking pick me off in a bridal style like I was a ‘bride?’ what the heck was going on? I couldn't even speak,
SEBASTIAN'S POV My eyes burned with fury as I stared at him. That dirty punk was just a pain in the ass. It's not enough that he's annoying but now, he also goes ahead and spread rumours about me. Now mom is involved and his fucking dad is also there to defend him too. I don't even know what to
ELI'S POV I left his car feeling overwhelmed with anger. How could he had done something like that, yet act so nonchalant about it - like he had wanted me to believe whatever I wanted too.I wasn't sure what to feel, I wasn't sure if I wanted to believe him or not. He acted like he did it but yet







