Page 72 of Call the Shots
“June?”
“What?”
“It’s been a shitty week. I’m not trying to be an asshole.” He took a deep breath. “I want to figure you out because I don’t understand.”
“Don’t…?”
“Why do you want the house? Your parents are loaded. They could buy you an apartment.”
“Because that’s myhouse. I threw the best parties there, I put that garden together by hand, it’s the place my friends and I hung out at for years. Iearnedthat house.”
“June, you didn’t earn that house.”
I froze. “What?”
“No one gets a house in their freshman year.”
“I worked my ass off for this school. The housing department, the homecoming committee, the sustainability department, theRomanswouldn’t look the same without me?—”
“I’m sure you worked hard but…” Bear started up the washing machine. “You had money and time to do it. There were other freshmen who worked hard too. Did you really get a house for that stuff or because you’re June Basil?”
I stared, stunned. “Did…did Xavier say that?”
“Does it matter? Does that make it not true?”
I wanted to tell him everything I did for Xavier, his résumés for years, ran his events, bought every piece of furniture in his office, but the words stalled on my tongue.
Was that why Xavier stayed with me?
I was a means to an end? Was our relationship transaction-based, and I never caught on? I swallowed but the knot in my throat stopped me.
“June?” Bear’s voice softened. “The gangbang shit is fake.”
My eyes dropped to my textbook. “Yeah.”
“You didn’t steal any receipts from the housing department.”
“Why would I? I bought that stuff on my credit card.”
“You didn’t smash the Clemenza.”
I nodded slowly.
He leaned closer, his eyes on me. “But you know who did.”
I traced my finger along the textbook’s pages.
“Why don’t you tell him?” he urged. “I don’t get you. Why would you go through all of this, why don’t you rip the band-aid off?”
Because my friends did the stupidest thing when they wrecked Xavier’s car, but they did it because they love me. Even if I didn’t see them often after I holed myself up, those Romans players were still my friends. My family. We spent the last few years together and soon, we’d be traveling to Austin on a trip to mark their beginning for summer training.
If I told Xavier, I had no doubt he’d bring it to the university. I didn’t want to think about what my ex would do to them.
“I have no idea if Xavier would even stop,” I told him. “But it doesn’t matter. I’m not giving up my friends. If he wants the names, tell him to hold his breath until he gets them.”
CHAPTER 28
BEAR
