The QB's Nerdy Addiction novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Merit Board

Gage's POV

The hallway outside the student center conference room had one bench and a clock that ticked.

I sat on the bench and Hallie was behind a closed door, and I had promised her I would stay in the hall.

I had promised on the diner floor, with my mouth still on hers.

The director of the Athletic Academic Center had given me a copy of the tutoring contract that morning, without asking why.

I laid it on my knee and laid my finger under the first line.

Nobody was watching.

That was the only way I had ever been able to do it, and today I wasn't hiding.

I read it aloud, low.

"This agreement is made between the University and the undersigned tutor."

The words slid, and I went back over them.

I read slowly, and I read all of it, every clause, the way she had taught me, with a finger and a breath for each line.

It took a long time.

The left tackle came down the hall in a sport coat that was too small for him and sat beside me without a word.

He listened.

At the ninth paragraph, behind the door, I heard Hallie's voice rise.

I stopped reading.

"Mr. Sullivan is an adult, and I was the department's employee, and I broke a rule of that job," she said. "I resigned from it in front of the dean before anyone asked me to. I haven't earned a dollar from the department since."

A man's voice, deep and level, said something I couldn't hear.

"I've never taken money for a grade," Hallie said. "Not five hundred a week, not five dollars. I can show you the message that says I did, and I can show you the phone it came from."

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