Mom Hung Up on My Call for Help to Toast My Cousin, So I Vanished novel · Chapter 2 of 19

Chapter 2: The File at Northfield

Cass faces her family at Northfield, exposes Brynn's EpiPen accusation, and asks Nate to bring his father's file to the scholarship reception, where Brynn reaches for it in front of the guests.

'Cass stole my EpiPen,' Brynn said before I could defend myself.

She accused me at Northfield's welcome table, with students watching.

I stepped off the bus with my duffel and saw my family waiting.

Laurel stood beside Dale, close enough to hear Brynn.

I had come to Chicago to start over without them.

The students stopped handing out maps.

A girl took the campus map back from my hand.

Laurel reached for my shoulder. 'Come home before anyone notices us.'

She had not asked whether I was safe.

I stepped out of reach.

'I'm standing right here, Mom.'

Laurel lowered her arm.

A volunteer looked between us, then down at the maps.

My scholarship letter stuck out of my duffel, but nobody had asked about it.

'Cass, you always make things dramatic,' Brynn said. 'I only want my medicine back.'

A family at the next table welcomed a new student.

The father took his daughter's bag while she drank from a bottle.

Dale held out his hand.

'Give Brynn the pen, Cass.'

My fingers shook against the duffel strap.

My throat still hurt when I swallowed.

I remembered the mousse on my tongue and Brynn leaving me without the pen.

Dale kept his voice soft. He expected me to obey.

Then he took off his coat and settled it around Brynn's shoulders.

She pulled the coat closed with both hands.

I stood in my thin secondhand sweater, shivering.

A student leaned toward his friend. 'Is she the one who works here?'

I heard him. Brynn heard him too.

She held the coat tighter around herself.

I took the EpiPen from my pocket and showed it to the students.

Then I opened the photo on my phone.

It showed the pen inside Brynn's dress pocket, turned inside out on the laundry-room floor.

The students leaned toward the screen.

One of them looked straight at Brynn.

Her smile stayed in place. 'That proves nothing. She could have put it there.'

Laurel studied the photo, then looked down at the pavement.

She would not meet my eyes.

The students no longer looked sure I had stolen it.

I would not give Brynn the pen because she had accused me in public.

'Keep telling them I stole it,' I said. 'The picture is still there.'

Dale reached for the pen.

I closed my hand around it.

Nate, who had promised to stand beside me when we were eight, stepped out from beside the welcome table with his father's file under his arm.

'Cass, my dad kept the file from Dale's plea,' he said. 'He handled the case after the crash that killed Brynn's parents.'

The students turned toward Dale.

His hand dropped to his side.

Nate had promised to stand beside me when we were eight.

Now everyone at the table saw him do it.

'Don't bring that here,' Dale said.

Nate kept hold of the file.

Brynn pulled Dale's coat tight around herself.

'I found out when I was fourteen!' she shouted. 'I knew what Dale did, and I still had to live with it. Cass has no right to ruin my life!'

The students stopped moving around the table.

The girl who had taken back my map stepped away from Brynn.

Her friend followed, leaving Brynn alone beside Dale.

Laurel's face changed when Brynn admitted she had known.

She still would not look at me.

I could have told them what Brynn did with the pen.

I had the photo on my phone and the pen in my hand.

I wanted to hear them say her name the way they had said mine.

Instead, I looked at Nate and the file beneath his arm.

'You don't have to take my word for it,' I said. 'Bring the file tomorrow. Bring Dale.'

Nate glanced at his father.

'At the scholarship reception?'

'Yes. I want them there when you open it.'

The student who had taken my map picked it up again.

She held it out to me, but she wouldn't meet my eyes.

I took the map.

My scholarship letter stuck out of my duffel, with Northfield's name above the words Presidential Scholar.

Brynn watched me read it.

'You got a scholarship?' Laurel asked.

'It came in the mail.'

I had wanted her to ask about it when it arrived.

She had never asked.

By the next afternoon, Nate stood beside me at the scholarship reception entrance.

His father's file rested under his arm.

Brynn spotted it and reached for it as the guests turned to watch.

I wanted Laurel to hear Brynn's name from the guests who had just watched her reach for the file.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend