Faking the Play (Hot Mess Harems #2)

4. Amelia

Chapter four

Amelia

I stared at my laptop screen, as if that would make the email go away. I’d been back in my room for about an hour and had only just now worked up the courage to pull up my school email. There weren’t any harassing emails, which didn’t surprise me since my generation was more likely to put insults all out there on social media, and to use social media for messaging. No, what I’d been scared to see was staring right back at me.

An email from Dr. Isenberg with the subject line: Recent Development.

Since I literally got my acceptance letter this morning, that “recent development” could only be one thing.

After taking a steadying breath, I clicked on the email and braced myself.

Miss Fine,

As I’m sure you’re aware, disturbing gossip has called into question the validity of your employment as my TA. I will be speaking with the head of the department as to the best way to proceed. Until we have definitive instructions, I suggest we continue along as planned, but taking care to never be alone together so as not to add fuel to the fire. We should also put all important communication in writing. If you have any suggestions or problems, please reply to this email.

I kept my reply simple, saying that I understood and agreed with everything, even though a part of me thought the two of us should deny the accusations. Loudly.

Just as I sent it, the door to my room opened and a slender blonde came in, olive-green eyes snapping the moment she saw me.

“What the hell, Amelia?”

Twenty-one-year-old Megan Sayer was my assigned roommate our freshman year, and we’d stuck together ever since. We hadn’t spent quite as much time together since Jason and I started dating, but she was still pretty much my only friend.

The faces of three men flashed through my mind, rapid-fire.

Well, maybe she wasn’t my only friend anymore.

I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the here and now.

“I know,” I said with a sigh. “I shouldn’t have—”

“How could you do that to Jason?!”

I froze, sure that I’d misunderstood her.

“Shit, Amelia, I know you’re really driven and care a lot about your grades and all that, but I never thought you’d stoop to this.” She shook her head, her expression as disgusted as her tone.

“I didn’t sleep with Dr. Isenberg,” I said quietly, my heart twisting with pain. “I didn’t cheat on Jason.”

Megan rolled her eyes. “We both know it’s so far beyond a one-night mistake. Most of us have thought about offering a blow job or a handie to a prof for a better grade, and maybe if you were drunk and acted on it…”

She let her sentence trail off as I fought the nausea threatening to make things even worse.

“I didn’t do anything inappropriate with my professor,” I said. “And shouldn’t you know better than to believe everything you read on the internet?”

“I’m not an idiot,” she snapped. “As soon as I heard the rumors, I called Jason.”

Oh.

“He told me everything, Amelia.” She shook her head. “How you used him and stole his work to claim it as your own. How you sent those slutty pictures to your professor—”

“Jason took those pictures,” I cut in, my temper flaring at last and burning away the ice that had kept me frozen. “He begged me to take pictures for him and when I finally told him yes, he came up with every single shot. Took them all on his phone. And he was the only one who had them.”

I let that last statement stand, hoping that she’d understand what I wasn’t saying.

“Even if I believed that Jason wanted his girlfriend to pose for pictures, that doesn’t explain how they got online.”

“Seriously? And if I had sent them to the professor? Do you really think he would’ve put them online, along with a rumor that we’ve slept together? He’s smarter than that.”

“And Jason isn’t?” Megan countered. “If he really was the only person you took those for and the only one who had them, he’d have to be pretty stupid to post them.”

It hit me suddenly. She wasn’t going to think logically about this, and nothing I could say would make a difference. She’d always come back with some excuse, some reason why Jason was the innocent victim in all of this and I was the villain.

A lump formed in my throat and I swallowed hard, desperate to keep her from seeing how much her doubt hurt me. I couldn’t stop the tears from coming though, not after the emotional roller coaster I’d been on today, and I turned away from her, dashing the tears from my face with brisk brushes of my hands across my cheeks.

“I can’t be in the same room as you.”

The self-righteous tone in her voice pissed me off, but it wasn’t enough for the anger to overcome the sharp, bright pain cutting through me at her betrayal. And as I heard the door close behind her, I realized that if the person I considered my best friend didn’t believe me, no one else would either.

This wasn’t just an embarrassing moment—okay, mortifying and even horrific—it could ruin my life. Taint or destroy everything I’d worked for.

I sank back into my chair and buried my face in my hands, my shoulders shaking as I cried. My chest tightened and I started sucking in air as my lungs burned. Bright slivers of panic inched their way into my mind, and my vision started going gray at the edges.

Then, a sound broke through.

My phone. Someone was calling me.

I reached for it automatically, my body moving without my brain really telling it to. Even as I tapped the “accept” button, I realized that I probably should’ve checked who it was first. Then a familiar voice came through and relief rushed through me.

“Amelia, hey, it’s Ethan. I just wanted to check in.”

I took a shuddering breath, and his tone shifted before I could even speak.

“Are you okay? Did something else happen?” A hint of anger tinged his next words. “Is that asshole there?”

“No,” I said quickly. “He’s not here. It’s just…my roommate…”

I swallowed a sob, but it didn’t fool Ethan.

“I’m coming to get you.”

My hand tightened on my phone. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I’m coming to get you,” he repeated. “I don’t know what your roommate said to you, but it doesn’t matter. If she made you cry, you don’t need to be around her.”

He had a point.

“Let me take you out of that toxic environment.”

If he’d been talking to anyone other than me or the other two guys, his words would’ve just sounded like something a good friend would say. I knew him, though, and I knew how he felt about people being able to feel safe, especially in their home. The dorm wasn’t a house or an apartment, but I’d lived here for four years, so it should’ve been somewhere I felt safe.

And right now, I didn’t.

I didn’t think Megan would physically hurt me, but what she said to me had cut as deep as any knife. I didn’t want to be here when she came back.

“Okay,” I agreed. “Let me change my clothes and I’ll wait downstairs in the lobby.”

“No,” Ethan said. “Stay in your room. I don’t want anyone else messing with you. I’m coming to get you and I’ll keep you safe.”

We might have only just reconnected, but I believed him.