Tainted Me

Chapter 24: Out For Blood

"Sit down, Mr. O'neal."

I slumped back on my chair and sighed. The professor regarded me for a moment.

"Did you read the cases I assigned to you?"

"I didn't finish on time, sir."

He pursed his lips, before nodding. "Are you in any way prepared for my class?"

"No."

"Then, why are you here?"

Beats me. "I... honestly don't know."

"Well, then. You're free to leave," he said, gesturing to the door. "Never attend my class again unless you're 150% prepared."

"Got it."

I closed my books and stood up. I caught Byron's eye, he only shook his head. Without looking back, I stepped out of the class.

Byron caught me in the secret room of the Ordo in the Widener Library an hour later.

"Dude."

"I don't need a lecture, man."

He stared at me for a minute before sitting beside me on the couch.

"This is about Arisa getting attacked, isn't it?"

"This is exactly why I didn't—" I sighed and shook my head. "This is why I didn't wanna be with her. I didn't want to involve her in this shit."

"You keep talking about the cause. You need to talk about the solution."

"What do you mean?"

"There's no point in blaming yourself. It's already done. The question here is, what are you going to do about it?"

I didn't say anything.

"Blowing off school isn't going to help anybody, least of all you. Besides, you think Arisa's going to like it if she finds out she's the reason you flunked your cold calls? She's going to kill you."

Yeah, that was true.

I hung my head and stared up at the ceiling.

Arisa was still trying to track the numbers on the burner phone, and Oz hadn't heard from the private investigator. I hated waiting. But I had no choice.

"Read the case studies," Byron told me, getting to his feet and handing me his digests. "I talked to Professor Bradley, he's willing to overlook your attitude today."

I looked at him. "Why do you always help me, man? Don't you get tired of cleaning up my mess?"

He leaned back on the table and crossed his arms. His eyes wandered down to his feet as he dropped his head, looking thoughtful.

"Did you know I wasn't out to any of my friends before you came?"

I blinked.

He nodded. "Yeah, none in the circle knew. So imagine my panic when my straightest of the straight roommate caught me in the middle of having sex with my boyfriend. He was the type of douche I was friends with in prep school because I knew that if I did, he wouldn't target me as the object of mockery. Keep your enemies close, right?"

"Dude, how could you?" I gasped playfully. "All this time, we're fucking frenemies?"

The corner of his lips lifted up. "Alfie, you're the first of any of my friends to know what I truly am. I was scared shitless when you found out. But you acted like it was no big deal. Yes, you teased me. But there was no malice. You still treated me like before. You even supported me. You have no idea how much that means to me."