Chapter 37: My Dark Prince: Chapter 36

Four hours later, I stood on Baylor’s campus, Farrow to my right, Hettie to my left, and Dallas behind us with Luca strapped to her chest. He cooed, trying to grab onto everything with his chubby fists.

Across the plaza, shiny windows directed sunlight at us. Glimpses of the past hurtled through my brain, disappearing as fast as they’d materialized.

Noodles. Veggie spring rolls. Leafy greens.

I shielded my eyes, pointing to the building. “I used to eat there for lunch between classes. I drained my dining dollars at Panda my first month here.”

The initial guilt at having flown private faded. I wasn’t sure how to feel about the jet’s existence – or that Ollie and I, apparently, owned an identical model and used it all the time to run personal errands around the globe.

It seemed excessive and unsustainable. Especially the fact that Dallas had made a pitstop in New Orleans for some fried chicken at Dooky Chase. (She assured me that picking up beignets at Café Du Monde, too, made the detour eco-friendly. Practically carpool.)

Dallas whirled around, her fancy dress fanning at her ankles. “If there’s one thing I miss about college, it’s the all-you-can-eat buffets.”

Food trucks. Tailgates. Lady and Joy.

Fae snorted. “You went to college for, like, a week before you dropped out.”

The Quadrangle. The zoo. The Baylor Line.

“For the best.” Dallas sighed. “My professors wanted me out of there more than I did.”

Dr. Pepper Hour. Naps in The Sub basement.

I tried to pay attention to them, but the pain stabbing my skull catapulted me face-first into a trash can. I threw up the beignets and café au lait from earlier.

The pesky A- on my Strategic Management midterm. The sheer anxiety that accompanied it, followed by the bittersweet knowledge that my parents were no longer in my life to care.

Farrow gathered my hair together and tucked it into the back of my shirt. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”

“We should leave.” Dallas hopped from foot to foot, rubbing my back. “I’m so sorry, Briar. I get too excited sometimes and do things without thinking them through.”

I accepted a wet napkin from Hettie, shaking my head as I swiped it across my lips. “No. I want to stay. I need to.”

Dallas and Fae shared a loaded look, but they didn’t fight me. The five of us waded past hordes of picnic blankets, stretched across a field of grass that ended with a colossal fountain. Jets of water shot thirty feet into the air as we trekked by.

I wandered to a flat, red-bricked building, brushing my fingertips against a sign etched into cement. “I used to study here. Moody Library. There’s a boxed-up garden out back. I would cram for midterms, sprawled on my belly beside the bear statue.”

The girls followed me as I all but sprinted toward Penland, where I’d dormed freshman year.

“Oh, god.” I slapped a hand over my mouth, torn between laughing and crying. “I remember all of it.”

At least, I remembered everything about college. Which meant I also remembered I was definitely not with Ollie during college. We hadn’t even stayed in touch.

A barrage of questions assaulted my brain. Why did we break up? How long did the breakup last? Is that why I chose Baylor over Harvard?

I could’ve asked the girls. Surely, as my best friends, they knew. But my pride – and that gnawing heat on my cheeks that I refused to call embarrassment – didn’t let me broach the topic. Plus, Doctor Cohen had warned me, flat-out, that any lick of shocking news could trigger a severe reaction. We’d flown halfway across the country. Better safe than sorry.

Farrow laced her fingers with mine and Hettie’s, tugging us down the grass-lined path with brisk steps. “The dorms are this way, I think. I downloaded a map on the plane.”

“No need.” I almost squealed. “I remember this, too.”

For the first time since waking up at the hospital, things looked familiar. The building. The gardens. The air. It all felt real.

Well, maybe not everything. Certainly not the stranger that called out my name, chasing after us.

“Briar? Briar Auer?” He pushed his glasses up his nose as he jogged over to us. His sun-kissed hair bounced in the wind in all its white-blond glory. “Is that you?”

“Do I know you?” I nudged Fae with my elbow. “Do I know him?”

She shrugged. “I’m the newest member of Dark Prince Road. I wouldn’t know.”

I cocked my head, trying to place the guy and coming up short. He seemed about my age, maybe young enough to be a very hot professor or perhaps a TA. In the time it took me to conjure an answer, he’d eaten the distance between us, planting a fist on each knee to catch his breath.

I smiled politely at him.

He jabbed a finger in my face. “You’re that bitch.”

My smiled dropped.

Fae edged me behind her, rolled her shoulders back, and crossed her arms. “Say that again.”

On instinct, I scooted around Fae. A feral smile hiked up my face. “If you think I’m a bitch, then I’m certain you deserved it.”

Whoa. Did I say that?

“Deserved it?!” He tossed both hands up. “My fiancée dumped me because of you. I’m on the ninth year of my Ph.D. because I needed to take a few gap years to earn money for tuition after she took all her savings with her.”

Her savings? Now I was certain he deserved it.

Fae advanced toward him, ready to give him a piece of her mind, and I loved her for it.

I rested an arm on her forearm, leading her behind me. I could handle him. For some reason, I knew I could. That I often stood up for myself.

I checked my non-existent watch, tapping my foot on the pavement. “Do we know each other?”

“Yeah. We matched on Raya last year. In West Hollywood.”

That threw me off.

“I was on Raya last year?” I slanted toward the girls, arching a brow as if to say, what the fuck? “Why was I on Raya last year?”

Dallas frowned, covering her baby’s ears. “You matched with this dickwad?”

“That’s not the point.” His shoulders shook, the rage barely contained. “Don’t play dumb.”

I yawned. “Must not be memorable.”

“You’re not hot shit. I only swiped right because you listed Baylor as your alma mater. And you know how you repaid me?”

“I’d love to know.”

And while you’re at it, do you happen to know why I was on an overpriced dating app, why we matched in West Hollywood, and where the hell my fiancé fits in this?

“I DM’d you my Insta handle, and you created a group chat with my fiancée, where you photo-dumped pics of your coworkers, told her they’d come up with better pick-up lines than me, and helped her set up a blind date with one of them.”

Fae whistled. “Epic.”

“You are the coolest.” Dallas sighed, slinging an arm around my shoulders. “If I weren’t so traumatized by the third-degree tear in my vagina from Luca, I’d be pregnant just from hearing that.”

Hettie clapped. “You have major balls.”

In fact, I did.

Something I suddenly remembered developing after dumping my parents.

For my entire childhood, I’d played it safe, doing my best not to embarrass Jason and Philomena Auer. But in college, I’d grown a spine. I vowed to never let anyone step on me again.

Hazel and I would storm down these steps like we owned every inch of campus. Boys fawned over us everywhere we went, passing us their numbers at football games, lectures, and tailgates. We hopped from party to party, where Hazel taught me to let loose and enjoy life.

And all the while, I never spoke to Oliver von Bismarck.

Fae tossed her hair over her shoulder, managing to stare down her nose at him despite their three-inch height difference. “Why are you still here?”

With that, she locked her arm around my elbow and led the four of us away from my gaping Raya date.

Hettie pulled up the map on her phone. “Do you remember which dorm you stayed in?”

“Penland Hall.” I pointed down the path, just past a fleet of tennis courts. “It’s this way.”

We walked the rest of the way like a human chain, linked together at the elbows. Facing my past on my own terrified me, but I was blessed to be doing this with such good friends.

“I think this is as far as we can go before they kick us out.” Farrow stopped in front of the low steps leading to the main door. “We don’t have keycards.”

“Keycards?” Dallas’s brows knitted together, dripping with outrage. “We’ve got charm. We don’t need keycards.”

Sure enough, a flirt at the front desk later, we headed to my old dorm room. My heart somersaulted, ready to plunge out of my chest.

Crashing weddings at Miller Chapel.

Trying and failing to kayak at the marina.

Bowling at the student center.

The memories flooded back to me at an alarming speed. I kept my eyes trained onto the squeaky floors, determined to fight the headache.

We rounded the corridor toward my old room.

I ran into Fae’s back.

Dallas released a gasp. Farrow grunted. Hettie womp, womp, womped.

“What’s he doing here?” Fae hissed, annoyed.

My head shot up. I followed their line of sight, right to the man standing outside the door of my old dorm room.

My fiancé – looking fifty shades of pissed off.