Semua Bab Tamed By The Campus Bad Boy: Bab 61 - Bab 70

LEON'S POVHe opened the door before I knocked, which meant he'd been watching for me, which meant whatever he had to say had been sitting in him the entire drive over, building pressure.He looked different than Wednesday. Not disheveled exactly, but worn down at the edges, like he hadn't slept either, the composure he wore like a second skin pulled thin enough that I could see the strain underneath it."You talked to him," Aaron said. Not a question."Yeah.""At the library.""You knew.""I guessed." He stepped back from the door, and I came inside, the house quiet around us in the same way it had been Wednesday, except now the quiet felt different—charged, waiting. "He likes an audience. He wouldn't have done it anywhere private."I followed him into the kitchen. The book was still on the table, exactly where it had been two days ago, like nothing in this house had moved since. He didn't sit. Neither did I. We just stood there, a careful distance apart, and I realized this was the

LEON'S POVI read it three times.Then I was out of the car before I'd consciously decided to move, the cold hitting me in the face as my feet hit the pavement, crossing the street toward Aaron in quick, unsteady strides."What do you mean it's Marlowe's car," I said quietly. "You said he was gone. You said you didn't know where he was.""I didn't." Aaron's eyes were still fixed on the car, something raw moving across his face in the streetlight. "I don't. I haven't for two years.""Then how do you know it's his car?""Because I bought it for him." His voice was very quiet. "Sixteenth birthday. I saved for eight months." He paused. "I'd recognize it anywhere."I stood next to him, looking at the dark, empty car. A decade-old sedan, unremarkable in every way except that it was here, parked across from Rose's house, which made no sense in any direction I tried to approach it from."He's not in it," I said, stating the obvious, needing to say something."No." Aaron finally moved, circlin

LEON'S POVI sat in the car for five minutes without moving.Just me and those four words glowing on the screen and the distant sound of Aaron's engine starting somewhere behind me, pulling away, his taillights disappearing around the corner without him knowing any of this had just happened.*Keep him safe. Please.*The please was the part I couldn't get past. Not a demand, not an instruction from someone who felt entitled to make demands. A please, small and unguarded, from someone who'd been gone for two years and had apparently spent at least some of that time learning that asking for things directly was its own kind of courage.I looked at the account again. No posts. No followers except me, now, because I'd accepted without thinking. Following only Aaron, who didn't know his brother had found him on Instagram, who was driving home right now to a house with a porch light he'd leave on in case Marlowe decided to walk up to the door.My thumbs moved before I'd fully decided what to

LEON'S POVMy hands went cold on the steering wheel.I sat in the parking lot staring at the screenshot for a long time, the engine running, students thinning out around me, the decade-old sedan three rows back still unmoving.The DMs were all there. Every single one. *Keep him safe. Please.* The photo of Aaron at the school entrance. The conversation about the argument before Marlowe left. *He reads them.* All of it, laid out in Reid's message like evidence at a trial.How.I went through it fast, methodically, the way Aaron had taught me to handle pressure—stay still, think first, react second.Marlowe's account was new. Private. Following only Aaron, and now me. I'd accepted the follow request from my own account, which was—Public.My Instagram was public.Which meant anyone who knew to look could see that **@marlowe** followed me and I followed back. Reid had apparently known to look. Which meant Reid had been watching Marlowe's movements, had noticed the new account, had connect

LEON'S POVI read the message four times.*Yeah. We are.*Three words, twelve fourteen in the morning, sent to a group thread that included Damian, which meant Aaron had just answered a question about us in front of a witness without hesitation, without qualifying it, without the usual layer of careful distance he put between himself and anything that could be taken from him.I locked my phone. Unlocked it and Read it again.Then I typed in the group thread, before I could talk myself into something more measured: *Yeah. We are.*Damian's reply came back in under thirty seconds.**Damian:** *okay cool. good. I'll handle Reid.*Then, after a beat:**Damian:** *also for what it's worth Aaron you could have just said something instead of making me watch you two be weird about each other for like a month***Aaron:** *Go to sleep Damian.***Damian:** *I'm just saying***Aaron:** *Goodnight.***Damian:** *congrats tho genuinely* 👋The thread went quiet.I lay in the dark for another few mi