Page 114 of I'm Gonna Get You Back
Our eyes catch, and a soft flush spreads across her cheekbones.
“Don’t be.” She blinks rapidly, her lips pursing like she’s trying notto cry. Her voice is thick when she says, “You were so good to me, and the way you never gave up on me made me feel like I really mattered to you.”
“You did.”
She bites her lip, her nose going a little pink. “You did to me, too.”
My knee protests, but I get up from the official interview chair and reach for her hand. She takes it, and I pull her to me. We stand there wrapped in an embrace that feels… final. Sad and sorry. Heavy and hopeful. I don’t know if what we’re doing here is healing the past or trying to have a future.
Once we get settled back in our chairs, she asks a few more questions about the year, about Stanford—all things we’ve covered off camera that she wants to be sure are included here.
“Last question,” she assures me when I rub a hand across my knee. “Was it all worth it?”
Her focus on me is intense, and it feels like we’ve veered again. Like she’s asking me something deeper than about being a Legacy.
Though my heart is aching for her, and she’s being softer and more open with me, I don’t know what to say.
Because I still don’t know if we want the same things.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONECLARANOW
I STUDY REID INTENTLYas he grapples with the last question I’ve asked at the end of all my interviews.
Was it all worth it?
There’s something that flickers across his features—an uncertainty of some sort before finally, he says, “Too soon to tell.”
I know he’s talking about Legacy. But there’s a part of me that knows—after this conversation, after what happened between us this morning—he’s talking about us, too.
When the official part of the interview is over, he removes his mic and I take down the equipment. We talk through the plan for tonight, which includes him picking me up later for the banquet so we can arrive together and find Nicole.
Just before he leaves, he hovers in the doorway. We share a long, wordless look that’s painful in its understanding—that this might really be it. The closure we needed.
I bite the inside of my cheek, refusing to cry. Not because I don’t want him to know how I feel, but because once I start, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop.
Just after he leaves, Logan passes through the door, his arms full of mic wires. “Hey, sorry—just need to put these away.”
Since he’s here, I ask him to look over my sound settings in my editing software. He sets his keys and phone down beside the computer and peruses it, making minor adjustments here and there. His phone buzzes constantly against the desk. I take a subtle peek and catch a guy’s name on the screen.
“That should do it,” Logan announces, and I whip my gaze away.
When his phone buzzes again I say, “Someone’s popular.”
“Hardly.” He laughs. “My mom heard about the fight.” He shoves it into his pocket, avoiding my gaze, and I can’t help but feel sad that he feels the need to lie about texting with a guy.
Once he’s gone, I immediately get to work. The media room is the perfect place to edit, and I want to get as much done on this initial video as I can.
I think back to what West said to me last year when he yanked my dreams out from under me.You want to make documentary films? It’s worth your time toimpresspeople who have money, not deter them.
It was a harsh insult then, but now it’s my fuel. Because he’s gone on and on about the new donors and benefactors. The exact people coming to the banquet tonight.
I plan to impress them.
I start by going back over Reid’s interview. As I watch and splice the footage, I’m moved by his answers all over again. By his honesty about the program. About us. He didn’t have to open up like that. He could’vekept things surface-level and impersonal. But it seemed like he didn’t want to pretend anymore, either.
The only thing Reid didn’t divulge outright is his injury or the true impacts Legacy has had on his time at college.
But I have the footage I need for that. Because I don’t want Reid to live under the threat of accounts like Legacy Lore spreading rumors about him, contorting the truth. This is my chance to protect him from that.
