Was I willing to risk anyone I loved? I was happy now…we were all happy now. I just couldn’t stomach the thought of putting Michael, Adam, or Julian in danger again. And we were finally coming to a time when we could get out of here and leave all of this behind us. I couldn’t believe I was about to say this.

“I think I might want to just leave,” I said to Michael. “Would you be okay with that? Would you be okay with leaving Goldshire behind, now that you’re acting headmaster?”

“Absolutely,” he said as he smiled at me. “Asheville it is, then? Or someplace else?”

“I don’t know; let’s talk to the other guys about it.”

Adam and Julian, as I had suspected, were in complete support of the idea. In fact, they all wanted to bail on graduation and just leave now. But I had promised my mother that I would walk across that graduation stage, and I intended to keep that promise.

32

“Hey,” someone behind me said as I went to reach for my cap and gown that was being handed across the counter to me.

I turned around and saw David.

“Hi,” I said, surprised to see him here. “What are you doing here?”

He snickered. “With graduation coming up, the colleges are working on the celebration plans, so I was over here with permission. I saw you walking in here and thought I would come say hello.”

“I’m glad you did,” I smiled. “I’ve been wondering how you are. I hadn’t heard anything from you since you left.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” he said as he looked down toward the floor. “I was a little upset and just needed to work some things out on my own.”

“That’s completely understandable.”

Julian was right. David had just needed some time.

“How are things over at Lineage?” I asked.

But, what I really wanted to know was how my father had been treating him.

He nodded with a sigh. “They’re okay, I guess. I’ve mostly just been staying to myself and focusing on school.”

I tried to lighten the conversation a bit since it was pretty obvious that he didn’t want to talk about our father. “Do you have any girlfriends yet?” I teased.

It felt awkward and a bit unnatural to try to tease him like a brother since we barely knew each other, but I was trying my best to break the ice.

“No,” he laughed. “Guess not everyone is as lucky as you with a whole harem of lovers.”

I rolled my eyes as we walked together. “Trust me, it’s not as easy and simple as you might think.”

“Oh, I’m sure it isn’t simple at all,” David laughed. “What’s going to happen after college, though? Are you guys still all going to live together, or are you going to end up picking a guy?

I turned his question over in my head for a little bit. “I don’t know yet. How about you, what are your plans after graduation?”

“Oh, it’s kind of complicated.” His tone sounded more serious now.

“How so?” I asked.

“Hey, do you want to come over for dinner tomorrow night?” David said.

I could tell that he was trying to change the conversation again.

“Dinner?” I really didn’t want to run into my father again. I had finally committed to leaving everything. I wanted to move on with my life. So, why would I want to put down yet more ties to an area I had every intention of abandoning the second I could?

David continued, though. “Yeah, please? You can bring the other guys too if you want. I think it would be cool to hang out a bit before we graduate, and all go our separate ways.”

“I don’t know,” I hesitated. “I really don’t want to run into my father. And plus, we still have the graduation celebration that we can hang out together.”

“I won’t be able to go to that,” David said quickly.

“But didn’t you just say that you were here on campus for—”

“Come on, just one dinner? I feel like we’ve barely gotten to spend any time together since we were kids. And even that, I only remember bits and pieces of. Besides, Jack probably won’t even be around.”

I really didn’t want to ask about my father, but I also didn’t want to agree to come to dinner if there was any chance that I’d run into him.

“Why not?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes. “He’s been distracted with some big project lately. He’s hardly been around at all.”

I hated to imagine what sort of big project my father could be working on. I’m sure it wasn’t anything good.

“Well…” I stalled.

David looked at me with big blue puppy-eyes. His eyes were a lot like Michael’s. He must have gotten the eyes and hair from his mother’s side. I’m not sure what he got from our father’s side; he didn’t look anything like him at all.

“Okay,” I relented. “Since you won’t be at the graduation celebration, then I guess it’s important. I’ll let the guys know, and I’m sure they’ll be fine with it too, considering it might be the last chance we have to all see each other.”

“Great!” David said. “Meet you at the tree tomorrow night,” he said.

“Okay,” I smiled.

He leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It felt super uncomfortable since we’d never even done so much as a hug or handshake before. I was glad to see that he seemed happy and wanted to connect, but I still felt like there was something a little off about him.

I tried not to second-guess my acceptance to dinner as I walked back to the apartment. A couple hours at dinner wouldn’t hurt, and besides, the guys would be there. Things were different now, and I wasn’t as scared of being hijacked or otherwise troubled on the Lineage campus as I once would have been.

“You told him what?” Michael said right after I had walked into the apartment and told them about the dinner invitation.

“It’s just one dinner,” I said.

“You do realize what’s happened at some of these dinners in the past, right?” he asked me.

Of course, I did. I nearly met my death at half of them.

“He’s part of our family,” I said. “And it might be the last chance we ever get to see him.”