Page 109 of Save You
“I heard them call you.What happened?”he asks urgently.
I can only shake my head.Saying it out loud is just too crazy—and it would turn this nightmare into reality.The only thing I can do is fall into James and cling to him.I bury my face in his blazer and let the tears fall for a moment.Just a moment, just until I’ve got solid ground under my feet again.
“Mr.Lexington…said I’m suspended,” I manage after a while.I pull away from James and look up at him.He wipes my eyes with his hand, looking confused.“Apparently someone took photos of me and Mr.Sutton which make it look like we’re kissing.”
James’s hand freezes on my cheek.“What?”
I can only shake my head.
James pulls away from me and stares wide-eyed at me.“What did you say?”
“Someone sent Lexie these photos that make it look like it was me in a relationship with Sutton,” I whisper urgently.I wipe my eyes, my hand shaking.A few people stare at me as they pass, and among them, I spot a pair of ice-blue eyes.
“That’s impossible,” James stammers.
“Why?”asks Cyril.“You were the one who took those pictures, Beaufort.”
Stunned, I look from James to Cyril and back again.“What?”I whisper.
James doesn’t respond.He’s just staring at Cyril, who is standing there, head aslant, hands deep in his pockets.
“Go on.Tell her,” he insists.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Cyril?”I ask, digging my fingers into James’s arm.
Cyril raises a challenging eyebrow.“Ask him, Ruby.Ask him who took the photos.”
I look back at James as he stands there motionless.
“James?”I whisper.
As I say his name, he seems to come out of his stupor.He turns to me and gulps hard.
I look into his eyes.
Panic rises up inside me.
This can’t be true.
“Who took those photos?”
James is breathing faster now too.He slowly raises a hand as if to touch me but doesn’t dare.“It’s not like…”
“Who, James?”
James opens his mouth, then shuts it.He pinches his eyes together and I see him swallow.Once.Twice.
When he opens his eyes again, it feels like someone has stabbed me in the chest.
“He’s right, Ruby.”
The ground beneath my feet shatters into millions of tiny shards.
“I took the photos.”
And I’m falling.
Epilogue
