Page 262 of A University of Betrayal

In the evenings, it was pleasant here. You could hear animals, feel everything slowly quieting down and the stream rippling nearby.

Then I spotted our tree house. The place where half my youth had taken place.

Julian was sitting on one of the top branches of the tree, leaning against the trunk with his eyes closed.

“Hey, Bardot, don’t fall off the branch!” I shouted, wondering if that tone was even appropriate anymore.

Julian opened his eyes and looked down at me.

“You should know me. I’veneverfallen from a tree,” he laughed and came climbing down one level to the entrance to the man-sized tree house we’d built with Nash when the three of us had been twelve. Kieran, who had been eighteen at the time, had helped us, but hadn’tplayedwith us there.

Taking a running start, I pushed myself off the bark of the trunk, moving fast enough so that I could push myself up without slipping. I pulled myself up by the branches and within a few seconds I found myself almost a meter below Julian, who playfully glared at me.

He held out his hand to me... and I grabbed it.

His hands had become more masculine, bigger, but above all warm and rough. It was an unfamiliar feeling.

He realized I was thinking too long before I pulled myself up, holding his hand.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay...” I gasped strained as I pulled myself up by his hand, which ended in me falling right into him and both of us crashing onto the wooden floor inside the house.

I lay on top of Julian and stared at him, but then quickly pushed myself off him.

“I’m sorry, I...” I had looked at Julian,thinking of someone completely else.

My face turned red, redder than it had been for a long time.

Why was my brain doing this to me? Memories that I wanted to erase because they were unpleasant.

“It’s all right. I just didn’t expect you to have so much strength.”

Julian got to his feet and sat down cross-legged next to me.

“What’sthatsupposed to mean?” I laughed and narrowed my brow. “I’m not fifteen anymore.”

Julian smiled as he looked at me.

“What?” I laughed shyly.

“You’ve really changed.” His gaze lingered on me longer than usual. Just like when he had visited us the other day. “You really aren’t the little girl you used to be.”

“You’ve changed too...” I replied quickly and turned my gaze away.

I didn’t want him to see that I was on the verge of tears.

How long had I waited to sit here with him? This tree house was part of my home, along with Julian.

“Thank you for sayingyes.”

I tried harder to stifle the tears so I could turn back to him.

“Thank you for asking me.”

Then it just rolled awkwardly down my cheek.

Julian’s expression changed immediately. Where his smile would normally be, there was now concern. And then realization. He stared at me as if he could read all my emotions.