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"I don’t know either What do you want me to tell you, since you won’t listen to the truth?" Victoria grunore her friend’s frustration The underlying tone said that Victoria wanted to help She had to hold on to that "I want you to tell ht That I haven’t s will all work out in the end"
She could see what Victoria was poised to say She could read it on her face clear as day You wantto be all right, Liz…so Victoria say that only o to class," Liz said, collecting all of her belongings, folding the paper, and shoving it back under her arm "I’ll talk to you later"
"Please be careful," Victoria said anxiously "I don’t want you to get hurt"
"I’ll be fine" Fine Ugh!
Liz hurried out of the Pit and away from the ever-watchful eyes She needed to find somewhere quiet…somewhere she could be alone before her class She knew she would be hard-pressed to find that right now Students were crawling all over campus like ants after soo to the newspaper office, but she dreaded seeing and confronting Hayden about the picture He had no idea what he had done by putting it there And she couldn’t face hi to knohy he had put the picture on the front cover without her permission
It was better that she avoided hi It was better to keepup around her
Secrets were going to be her downfall Her secrets now had secrets She couldn’t tell anyone about Brady She couldn’t tell Brady about Hayden She couldn’t tell Hayden about her anger about the paper And all of it together felt as if it wasn’t just caving in on top of her, but it was crushing her
Worst of all…it felt as if by holding on to all of her secrets, she was losing a part of herself
Liz found a seat on a bench on one of the trails on caet at this ti the enified the end of the caether? She hadn’t thought to ask hiht about it all the time If he won, could they move on from the place they were in?
It felt like such a small chance…such a small sliver of hope An unrealistic, tiny sliver of hope
And she hated having it as ht that it couldThat ether
She dropped the locket and reached for her phone She knehat she needed to do She couldn’t keep sitting here like this waiting for Brady to call her, because she knew inevitably he would Too long she had let life lead her around, and she couldn’t keep sitting back and waiting to see where she was going to end up Facing Brady wasn’t going to be easy, but it was the right thing to do, and in the end, they had too much to talk about
"Senator Maxwell’s office," a woman chirped into the phone
"Hello, Sandy Carmichael for the Senator, please," Liz responded curtly
Pause "One moment please"
Liz tried not to roll her eyes The secretary knew the na draet a new secretary
"Senator Maxwell is currently unavailable Can I take a e?" the secretary asked when she came back on the line
Liz sat there frozen for a couple seconds She hadn’t expected Brady to be busy
"Uh…just let him know that I called," Liz said
"I’llup
Well, then!
Liz didn’t knohat else to do She would just stress over it all day…until he called her back…if he called her back
Liz rose froh three lectures that day, and by the time she left she felt even more restless than before
Brady still hadn’t called He was sending a e One she didn’t particularly care for
Lizof the semester She knew there was plenty to discuss, but she was sure that she wouldn’t be able to focus
Hayden greeted her at the door with a smile, one she was hard-pressed to return But the heat in his gaze, the pleasure in his s her forced a sood to see you Hoas the first day back?"
Liz shrugged noncoreat"
"Mine was about the sa directly at her
Liz cleared her throat and averted her gaze She teetered around Hayden as an, the gossip columnist, Liz took a seat near the back Hayden stood in the front of the rooreeted the paper’s staff There was a series of cheers for the start of the new school year before he launched into all of the plans he had
Hayden held a room captivated in a way that was entirely different from Brady Hayden had a charisma and enthusiasm that see as much of the work as he requested out of everyone else