He shoved back from the table. “It does matter! I haven’t been with her for months, and I wouldn’t touch that bitch now for anything!” He crossed his arms and groaned at the ceiling. “Another scandal. This puts me sideways with the team. I’m fucked.”

Refusing to feel sorry for him, she tipped her head to the computer. “Yes, you are. You were.” When he glared at her, she glared back. “I do not need this in my life! You begged me to pretend to be your girlfriend, and I did it, because you were good to Jose. For my efforts, I was treated like a dog by your friends.” She ran a hand through her hair, angrily, and barely restrained her yelling. “Damn it, now I look stupid and Jose’s going to see me in the headlines, this time with you two and a sex tape! You did this! You clean it up. I want no part of it.”

He leaned forward. “You think I want this to be happening?”

“I don’t care. It’s your mess. I have to think about Jose, which means passing my exams. Don’t you get that?” she said, coldly. “My entire future is wrapped up in the next week. If I screw up, I might as well stick Jose and his empty inhaler in a coffin!”

Angel laid her head in her arms on the table, unable to suppress the huge emotions whirling through her.

“You’re right,” she heard him say. “Yeah. I don’t know what I was thinkin’, treading here.”

Into the table, she said, “That ugly is still in you, isn’t it?”

After a moment, she lifted her head. He was gone.

Alone at the library table, she had no idea how long she’d been sitting there. Hatred and fury raged through her, weighed down with sorrow and guilt.

How could I have been so stupid? I couldn’t learn my lesson from dealing with the rich assholes at the Peacock? She picked up a sheet of paper covered in blue-inked lecture notes, stared at it blindly. I have got to find a way to get him out of my head.

The horror on his face when he saw the video was stuck in her head. She felt less sorry for him when she recalled the actual video. Or his parting words. Sounded like he was realizing he was better than her.

Oh. It struck her then—she’d done the exact same thing he’d talked about last night. The people closest to Duke pushed him away whenever something went wrong. He was not worth a second chance when he made a mistake, or so he believed, anyway. She’d just reinforced that insecurity.