Chapter 12: Public

My hand stopped an inch from the envelope.

I looked past it at my father's gurney, sliding through the double doors at the end of the hall.

Then I looked at Peyton.

She was holding that check.

Every person in the waiting room was watching.

"No," I said.

She blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"No. Keep your father's money. I'm not selling the Cup for it."

"Lou." Her voice dropped, almost kind. "He's in a hallway. You can't be this stupid."

"I'm not stupid."

I took my hand back and put it in my pocket, where she could not see it shake.

"I'm the girl who beat your boyfriend for five hundred dollars."

"I'll find a way to pay for my father."

"I won't do it on my knees to you."

The color rose in her face, slowly.

She had expected me to cry.

She had expected a thank-you.

Behind her, a nurse was standing very still with a clipboard.

Peyton slid the envelope back into her coat.

"All right," she said, and her voice went flat and cold. "Then we do it the hard way."

She took out her phone.

She tapped it once, almost lazily, and held it up so I could see the screen.

It said SENT.

Every phone in the waiting room buzzed.

My own did.

So did Hannah's, beside me, and the vending machine man's, and the old woman's in the corner chair.

It was the same email, and it went to the entire university.

The subject line said, A Teaching Assistant and His Student.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Never Underestimate Girl Math from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.