My eyes flick to the car, to the back of Lex’s head in the driver’s seat. From her perspective, it probably looks like nothing is wrong. I’m just standing here talking to Mr. B. Should I have asked Lex to help me handle this?

“You’ve already won the scholarship, Shay,” Mr. B says.

Everything falls away. Brittany, Lex, the slight tingling in my muscles—it’s all gone. The only things left are the eerie blue depths of Mr. B’s eyes and the roaring in my ears.

“The committee met earlier today. It’s yours,” he says quietly.

“What?” I manage to choke out.

“I always knew you were special. When I first met you, you were so uncertain, closed off. I knew you would thrive with someone giving you the attention you deserved. That’s all it was about—getting you what you deserved. Nothing inappropriate.”

His words sound so good. He’s painting a version of the world I want to believe in—one where the scholarship is mine, where I get it because I deserve it. It’s not hard for me to curve my lips into a smile, to look him in the eye longingly. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he murmurs, drawing closer to me. “Willington is going to change your life.”

I nod, and he continues, emboldened. “It’s going to be so much easier for your family if you get into college right away,” he says. “But if you make a big fuss about this, that will all go away.”

“I know,” I say, and I feel the pain of that loss in my soul, jagged and raw.

“So what are you going to do?” he asks. When I don’t reply immediately, he leans down, filling my field of vision so all I can focus on is his face. “Are you going to ruin everything for yourself? For Brittany?”

I look down at my feet, then back at him. “No.” He keeps looking at me, waiting for more. “No, I won’t tell anyone.”

His smile is like the sun. “You’re making the right choice,” he says, stepping away from me. Magic ripples around me. The muscles in my arms and legs all clench, and I’m hit with an intense sensation of pins and needles. Then I can move again, thank god.

“Yeah,” I say. I rub my arms, trying to massage away the prickling. “Um, thank you? For helping me?”

“You’re welcome,” he says, still giving me that radiant smile. “I just made sure you got what you deserved. Thank you for helping me. I know I’ve made some mistakes, but this is a fresh start for all of us.”

I nod. Then I stumble toward Lex’s car, pull open the car door, and climb in. Lex gives me a concerned look. “What happened?” she asks. “That took a while. I know you said I shouldn’t come out, but I was starting—”