#Hater (Hashtag #2) (25 page)

“I don’t want to go to the dorm. Not right now.”

“My place,” I said.

She nodded and laid her head against the seat.

“Hey,” I said, taking her jaw and turning her head so she could look at me. “This is gonna be fine. We’re gonna fix this.”

Her eyes welled up with new tears, and I swore. After a quick kiss to her lips, I jogged around and got in the driver’s seat.

We had to fix this.

If she lost her scholarship, she would likely go back to Florida.

Her whole life would be shattered.

And so would mine.

Rimmel

Expelled.

Plagiarism.

Cheated.

Stripped of scholarship.

These were the words that went around and around inside my scattered mind. I was shell-shocked, confused, and embarrassed.

How could anyone think I would cheat?

How could almost my entire paper be found online?

What was I going to do if I got expelled from school?

The questions were relentless. The doubt that clouded everything nearly blinded me.

One moment, I was excited for class, sitting there in anticipation for a good grade that was well deserved. I was planning what I would have for lunch with my friends at the food court.

And the next moment, everything was blown apart.

“Rim,” Romeo said from beside me. His voice sounded a thousand miles away. I blinked and realized we were at his house. I climbed out of the cold, ignoring the several inches of snow coating the ground.

I walked past the now covered pool and didn’t bat an eye.

Inside the house, I took off my boots and hung my coat by the door. Romeo did the same, adding my backpack by the shoes.

I wandered into the living room aimlessly, not really knowing what to do with myself.

The familiar sound of loud purring and the feel of warm fur rubbing against my leg stole my attention, and I looked down to see Murphy weaving in and out of my legs. A sob broke free, one I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding back, and I scooped up the cat and hugged him into my chest.

There were so many implications of what just happened I could barely sort through my thoughts.

“What the hell happened today?” Romeo gently asked from beside me.

I dropped onto the couch, still holding Murphy close. “I have no idea. He just accused me, right out of nowhere.”

“My dad will figure this out,” he said, sounding so sure.

I felt anything but sure.

“This could ruin my entire career,” I said. “Before it even starts.”

He started to shake his head, to say something to try and make me feel better. But I stopped him.

“Even if they prove it wasn’t me, the cloud of dishonesty will follow me. I was supposed to start applying to vet schools this fall. Do you know how competitive it is to get into those? They look at everything, and everyone has a list of achievements. Now I’ll be the girl who might have plagiarized.”

“Rim—”

“No,” I snapped. “This was my dream. It
is
my dream. And it’s slipping through my fingers.”

He ran a hand over his face and looked at me like he had no idea what to say.

“How am I supposed to sit here and wait for a room full of men to decide my future?”

“We aren’t just going to sit here,” he said, his face a mask of determination.

“Then what are we going to do?”

“We’re gonna figure this out.”

Murphy jumped down from my lap, and I turned my body so it faced Romeo. “You never even asked.”

His head tilted to the side. “Asked what?”

“If I did it. You never even asked me if it was true.”

“That’s because I
know
you didn’t. There’s no way in hell.”

Emotion so hard and swift squeezed my chest. He had faith in me, and it meant so much. “Thank you for coming when I called today.”

“Baby, don’t you know by now that whenever you need me, I’m gonna come?”

Suddenly, not everything seemed so incredibly terrible. Yes, it was still achingly bad and I still wanted to barf, but I no longer felt like my entire world was over.

I still had Romeo.

“He told me to call you, you know.”

“Who?” Romeo asked, his eyes narrowing.

“The dean.”

He nodded. “Makes sense. He must not think you did this either.”

“But he suspended me. He’s talking about expelling me.”

“He has too, Rim. Just like when he had to search me and my car. He’s bound by policy and rules.” He threaded his fingers through mine and squeezed. “It’s a good sign he wanted you to call. He knows if anyone can get you out of this, it’s my Dad.”

“I just wish I knew what happened,” I said and laid my head against the couch.

“Hey now,” Romeo said and reached for me. “What’s this?”

“What?”

“I’m the only pillow you need.” He spread out on the couch and tugged me between his legs so I was leaning against him. I turned on my side and laid my cheek on his chest, and he wrapped me in his arms.

I felt safe here with him. His arms were my safe zone. They were the most sure thing in my life.

“Romeo?” I whispered, not really wanting to put it out there, but unable to keep it in.

“Hmm?”

“Do you think it’s possible Zach somehow had something to do with this?”

“Yeah. I do.” His voice held a note of steel, and I shivered. Romeo was a laidback guy, but Zach was pushing him way too far.

“But how?”

“I don’t know. But if your paper ended up on some site for people to buy
before
you turned it in, then someone had to have taken it and posted it up there.” It made sense. It was the only way that could have happened.

“I never worked on my paper on any computer other than mine. Except that one night here with you.”

“Has anyone had access to your computer lately? Borrowed it?”

“No, and it’s been running so slow no one would want to use it anyway. I really thought it would last longer than a year and a half.”

“You keep your computer in your dorm, right? Who all has access to the room besides Ivy?”

“No one,” I replied. “Ivy didn’t do this.” I felt I had to point that out.

“Maybe someone snuck in to your room when you were both gone one night.”

“Then it would have to be a girl. Someone who lives in my dorm. They’re the only ones with access,” I said without conviction because it just didn’t seem right. Yes, there were girls that were jealous of my relationship with Romeo, but to go as far as to steal something and try and get me kicked out of school?

That was extreme.

“Not necessarily,” Romeo said, his voice hard.

“What do you mean?” I lifted my head and looked up.

“Anyone can have access to the building if they’re let in. They let me and B in all the time.”

“But you’re
you
.” I pointed out.

He chuckled. “I’m not the only guy on campus, though.” But then his voice hardened and his arm came back around me, tighter than before. “And clearly there’s someone in that dorm with no standards or Zach wouldn’t have been able to get in the building to stalk you in the shower.”

And then I remembered.

I gasped and sprang up. I turned, sitting between his legs, and stared at him with wide eyes.

“He wasn’t just in the bathroom that day,” I rushed out. Memories of that morning came flooding back.

Ivy in bed. Ivy’s clothes all over. Ivy hungover and then later her embarrassed confession.

“What do you mean?” Romeo said, flat.

“He was in my room. He spent the night there.”

“What?”

“Ivy went to the pre-game party at the Omega house. She got really, really drunk.”

“Are you saying she brought Zach back to your room and screwed him?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to put it like that.”

Romeo let out a string of cuss words and climbed off the couch to pace the room. “That guy has no fucking morals at all. He probably got her drunk just so he could take advantage.”

“She was really embarrassed and didn’t want to tell me.”

“That girl,” he muttered. “She seriously needs to keep her legs closed.”

“Romeo!” I gasped.

He shrugged. “It’s the truth. If she hadn’t been so willing to screw him, he wouldn’t have had access to your room. To the bathroom that morning. To your computer…”

“She’s my friend,” I said, firm. “You can’t say things—”

“Forget Ivy.” He cut me off. “Where’s your laptop?”

I blinked. “At the dorm.”

“We need to go get it.”

“Why?”

“Because he might have left some kind of trail or timestamp behind on the hard drive.”

I sighed. That seemed like such a long shot. “Even if he had snooped on my laptop that night, my paper wasn’t done then. I had it started, but it wasn’t completed.”

“So?” He didn’t seem to get what I was saying.

“So… over ninety percent of the paper was found on sites online. Whoever did this had to have taken it once I was almost finished writing it.”

“We need to get your computer,” he said again, just as anxious as before. “Maybe he somehow hacked into it and left behind some kind of open doorway that allowed him to access it from a different location.”

“Is that even possible?” I wondered out loud.

“I’m sure as hell gonna find out.” He stalked out of the room, and I heard the rustling of his coat and the jingling of his car keys.

I rushed after him, trying not to get my hopes up.

This
was
a long shot.

But it was the only shot I had.

Romeo

My hands were tied.

By my father literally forbade me to go near Zach.

Frankly, I thought it was ridiculous for us to sit around and wait… and wait some more, when I could just go find him and beat the truth out of him in seconds.

Problem solved.

No one else seemed to agree with my logic.

Except Braeden.

But my father forbade him too.

And yeah, I could have gone and done it anyway. My hands pretty much shook with the desire every second of every day that passed. But I didn’t.

I guess deep down underneath all my anger was a piece of me that agreed with my father.

Fuck.
I was turning into an adult.

As much as I wanted to kill Zach, doing so would make this worse. It would give him and his father a reason to sue us. It would make Rimmel look guiltier than she already did, and it would fuck up my chances with the NFL.

The NFL whom I just signed with.

I was now a professional football player, a free agent who was being pursued by two major teams. It was only a matter of time before I was drafted, before I was given the chance to prove myself on the field.

My father was still in negotiations. There were meetings. There was training. There was a lot going on.

And I wasn’t even excited anymore.

How could I be excited about my dream when Rimmel’s life was being ripped apart?

We went and got her laptop and I looked around on it. I didn’t see a thing, but that didn’t mean something wasn’t there. I wasn’t a computer geek. But it was running slow, and I was taking that as a sign something was wrong.

I was going to give it to one of the guys I knew on campus to go through it, but my father didn’t want it going to anyone associated with Alpha U. Instead, he called in a favor with a guy who did shit like this on high-profile cases around the country.

The laptop was overnighted to him, and we were sitting around waiting for him to get his thumb out of his ass and find something.

Okay, he wasn’t sitting around with a thumb in his ass.

He was working on a high-profile murder case, but still. Rimmel was more important to me. And watching her wait was like pulling out my eyelashes one at a time with a pair of tweezers.

She was still on probation—basically campus arrest with permission to be at my place (under the assumption she was spending all her time working with my father, her lawyer). She couldn’t go to classes, and the rumor mill was flying.

At this point, the BuzzBoss might as well just rename the Alpha app
Romeo & Rimmel’s Reality Show.
I thought about hunting that guy down and punching him in the face too.

I found her with red eyes and blotchy skin too many times to ignore this was killing her.

On the third day of waiting, I stormed into the dean’s office and demanded she be allowed to continue her volunteer work at the shelter. I couldn’t stand seeing her so restless and lost. My mother even sent in a whole stack of paperwork and receipts to prove the work Rimmel was doing to put together a large fundraiser in the community to help.

He agreed, like I knew he would.

He seemed apologetic and even guilty that this was happening. But as he reminded me on my way out of the office, he had no choice.

And then he wished us luck on disproving the plagiarism allegations.

I thought being able to go back to the place she loved would help snap Rimmel out of her listlessness. It didn’t.

If anything, she withdrew further away from me and hid at the shelter with her beloved animals.

A week after she was suspended from classes and basically shoved into limbo, I’d had enough. Going to classes, training (even harder than usual to work out frustration), fielding calls, and meetings with the NFL—basically living my life was getting to me.

I had everything I ever wanted, but it meant nothing.

Rimmel’s misery overshadowed everything. I couldn’t be happy unless she was.

My phone rang as I was walking in the door from a two-hour training session. “Dad?” I replied the second I saw it was him.

“I wanted to let you and Rimmel know that my contact is going to start combing through her laptop tonight. He should have some answers for us tomorrow or the next day.”

“About friggin’ time,” I muttered.

“It’s been a long week,” Dad conceded. “He’s going to find something, and when he does, I’ll have all the allegations dropped and erased from her record so this can’t follow her into next year.”

“And what about Zach?” I asked, hard.

He sighed. “We’ll deal with Zach.”

I bristled and my father grunted. “Just keep your nose clean, son. You’re a free agent with the NFL. You cannot afford any bad press, any arrests, nothing. You won’t help Rimmel by ruining your life.”

“Look, Dad, I have to go.”

“You’ll tell Rimmel?”

“Yeah, I’ll go over there now.”

“Maybe bring her by. Your mother is worried about her. It might make her feel better if she sees her.”

“Yeah, okay.” I agreed, then hung up.

My mother had taken a real liking to my girlfriend. She held back so as not to overwhelm her (per my request), but I knew it was only a matter of time before my mom would go full maternal on her and I wouldn’t be able to rein her in.

Really, I thought it would be good for Rim. She didn’t have a mother, and my mother always wanted more than one child. But I wasn’t going to push that. Rimmel had to make her own choices about her relationship with Mom.

If she decided she couldn’t be close to her, then that would be it. Either way, I was going to support her.

I glanced at the clock and knew Rimmel was still at the shelter, so I decided to take a quick shower and change before driving over to the dorm. On the way, I’d swing by the shelter and pick her up.

Only she wasn’t at the shelter.

Michelle seemed confused when I walked in to pick her up.

“Rim in the back?” I asked.

“She left for the day. I thought you knew…” she said awkwardly.

“No. I’m here to pick her up.”

“Well, she told me she texted you and then left a few minutes later.” Michelle frowned.

I didn’t want to make her feel bad. Clearly, she already felt somewhat guilty. “No worries.” I smiled at her and she relaxed. “She probably walked back to campus.” The thought gave me a rash. “She likes to walk.” But I never let her. Because it was dangerous.

Irritation slammed into me. The distance between us was over. I was going to find her and fix this because I couldn’t take it anymore.

“I’ll just run by the dorm and see her. Thanks,” I called and then left without waiting for a reply. I hurried to my car and drove to campus, looking for her as I drove.

She was nowhere to be seen, and I was partially glad. It was already dark out, and I hoped if she had walked, she’d done so before the sun went down.

One of the girls going into the dorm let me in, and I bounded up the steps and knocked on her door. I could hear music playing inside, and I pictured her sitting on her bed, singing off-key.

Ivy opened the door and her eyes widened. “Romeo.”

“Hey,” I said without my usual smile. I couldn’t help it. I was still sort of pissed she’d let Zach in her pants.

“What are you doing here?” She seemed confused.

What the hell else would I be here for?
“Uh, to see my girlfriend.”

“But she went out with you.” Then her mouth dropped open. “Well, at least that’s what she said.”

“Explain,” I growled.

Ivy opened up the door all the way and waved me inside. She went across the room and pointed to a bouquet of red roses on the table beside Rimmel’s bed.

“You sent her these…” she said like it was obvious. “You asked her to meet you.” Ivy held up a small white envelope that had been propped up against the vase.

I was an asshole for two reasons:

1.) I did not send these flowers.

and

2.) I probably should have.

I slid the small white card out of the envelope to read the message that was “from me.”

Meet me on the field at 8:00 -R

I glanced up at Ivy. “I didn’t send this.”

Her eyes got big. “Then who did?”

I let out a curse. “She went here?” I said, motioning to the card.

Ivy nodded. “She was surprised but happy. She thought she was meeting you.”

Panic, sharp and pungent, filled me. I crumpled the card in my hand and rushed from the room.

Someone sent Rimmel a note, pretending to be me.

Someone who obviously wanted to get her alone.

And now she was.