Page 53 of Personal Foul

Turning from my scan for Charity, I meet his eyes, my eyebrows raised. “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. You were stringing her along for weeks. You knew she was crushing on you, and you never rose to the bait until she put Charity up to asking me to talk to you about a double date.”

Caden holds out a hand. “Whoa whoa whoa.” He looks up, one finger moving back and forth in the air like he’s counting something imaginary. “Right. Okay. That’s some complicated shit, but I’m following now. Go on.”

Laughing, I shake my head. “Thanks, man. Glad you could catch up.” To Andrew I say, “If you’re not actually interested in her, just break it off and let her go. Quit stringing her along.”

“Who says I’m not interested in her?”

“Are you?”

Caden and Liam face him, both in identical positions with their fingers holding their chins, thoughtfully waiting for his answer. Pretty soon they’re going to start heckling us like those old man Muppets. This is their routine any time Andrew and I get into it, though, so we both ignore them.

Andrew shifts his shoulders, a sure tell that he’s about to lie. Or at least dodge the truth.

Sighing, I shake my head and turn away. “Let her go, man. You don’t want a girlfriend. Or at least you don’t wantheras your girlfriend. And that’s fine. You’re allowed to like or not like whoever you want. But don’t be an asshole to my girl’s best friend. I don’t need you making problems for me.”I have enough already. But I can’t say that last part out loud. Not without inviting a lot of questions, and I’m not prepared to answer any of them.

“I was gonna take her out once or twice more and let her down easy.”

“Whatever, man,” I mutter, over this conversation, because this time my scan of the student center turns up my quarry. “I’m serious, though. Don’t be a dick,” I toss over my shoulder as I move toward Charity.

Today she’s not at one of the tables. She’s in one of the chairs in the center of the student center set up in conversation groups. She’s alone, though, thank god.

I put on a big smile at the sight of her, and I don’t even have to pretend. Seeing her makes me smile. “Hey, babe,” I call, loud enough that several heads turn my way.

Not Charity, though. She keeps her attention focused on the book in her lap, tapping a highlighter against her luscious lips. Is she ignoring me on purpose? I thought we were past this.

Undeterred, my big smile turning into a rueful smirk, I close the distance between us, plant my hands on the arms of her chair, and lean down until my face is level with hers. “Whatcha reading?”

She jumps, enough that I jerk back so I don’t get headbutted in the nose, her book falling from her lap. Her chest heaving, she lays a palm over it, looking up at me with wide eyes. “Shit, Dylan! You scared the crap out of me!”

Laughing, I scoop up her textbook and check out the title to see what has her so captivated—ah, linguistics. Pulling up the chair next to her, I hand her back the textbook. “Engrossing read, I take it?” She wasn’t just ignoring me after all. That makes me feel a little better.

She takes the book, gingerly setting it back in her lap and studying me with a frown tugging down the corners of her mouth and pulling her eyebrows together. “Not particularly.”

“I called out to you from way over there.” I gesture in the direction I came from, where Andrew, Liam, and Caden still stand. I’m not entirely sure if they’re waiting for me or not, but they’re not looking over here, so with a mental shrug, I turn back to Charity.

Her frown deepens. “You did?”

Running my tongue along the inside of my cheek, I nod. “Sure did. I thought maybe you were ignoring me. Turns out, you were just really into linguistics.”

She sighs, closing her eyes and letting her head fall back against the chair. “Right. Something like that.”

“Hey,” I say softly, reaching out a hand and hovering it over her leg for a moment. I want to touch her. To offer comfort in some small way.Fuck it. She’s my girlfriend, at least in front of everyone here.I let my hand rest on her leg, giving it a little squeeze so she knows I’m here. That she’s not alone.

Her eyes open, and she looks from my hand to my face and back again. I half expect her to shove my hand away, but instead she sighs and covers my hand with hers. It’s a tentative gesture, but it makes me think she’s starting to accept the reality that I actually want to be there for her.

“Did something else happen?” I ask. I was going to ask if everything is alright, but I’m pretty sure the answer to that is no, in light of what she told me yesterday. And even though I told her to ask me for help, I get the distinct feeling she won’t unless she’s exhausted all other options.

She shakes her head. “Not really. Not with my dad, anyway. Everything’s still the same. But I met with my financial aid advisor a little bit ago …”

The way she presses her lips together makes me think it didn’t go well.

“And?”

She shakes her head again. “It went about how I expected.” She lifts clear eyes to me, and that’s when I notice they’re red and puffy, like she stayed up really late. Or like she’s been crying. Possibly both. “How do you think it would go if you suddenly applied for financial aid? It’s not like the federal government takes into account your father“—she cuts herself off and looks around, then lowers her voice—“your father being investigated and all your parents’ accounts being frozen.”

I grunt in acknowledgment. I have a trust fund that’s held outside of the family money, so even if my parents’ accounts got frozen, I’m pretty sure I’d be fine. But I’m guessing Charity doesn’t have that kind of set up. Her family’s new money, after all. My trust is from my grandparents, not my parents, and the trustees are family friends, not my parents, just to avoid this type of situation ever happening.

But from what I know about financial aid, and what friends and teammates have talked about, your parents’ income matters a lot. And I’m guessing from her response, there’s not a spot to mark that their accounts are frozen and she has no access to that money.

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