Page 137 of The Other Side of Green

“Sure.” She waved her hand looking like she was about to fall asleep.

He nodded his head and followed Eva, who was ushering a still tearful Brittany out of the room.

Then it was just Lyra and me.

I crouched down, lifting her face in my fingertips. “You okay?”

She shook her head, tears shining.

“I want to help.”

“I know. But remember, lecturers aren’t supposed to be in their student’s rooms.” She threw my words from when she first arrived back at me, but with a smile not the scorching scowl I’d delivered them with.

“Rules suck.”

“I think you’ll find that the rules are meant to protect students and teachers alike.”

I snorted and leaned down to catch her lips with mine. When I pulled away from a delicate sweep of her lips, I held her face still so she’d look at me.

“I am so sorry, Lyra.”

“This isn’t all on you, Jack.”

I nodded. “It is though. All of this is on me.”

“Well then it’s on me too, because we are together.”

I swept back in for another kiss, loving the way her lips parted under mine, her tongue just flicking gently. “I love you.”

She nodded, pale-blue gaze clear. “And I love you.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Lyra

Strangely I had nothing inside my brain. No thoughts. No concerns. No music. Nothing.

I sat with my back against the wall waiting. Just waiting for something to hit.

Fate, the stars, whatever it was, was telling me I shouldn’t be at Berklee. This wasn’t the path I was meant to be on.

Nothing should be this hard.

Now Jack wouldn’t be staying either… Unless… I shivered at the thought of what the Collins family wanted me to do.

They wanted me to lie, to tell them that everything was okay.

Nothing was okay. Nothing was, not with them, not with this situation.

A hard lump formed in my chest, burning, stealing the capacity of my lungs to breathe.

My head began to swim.

“Lyra? Shit!” I blinked through the black dots swimming in front of my vision. “Don’t you dare pass out on me. There’s no way I can lift you.”

“I’m on the floor already,” I slurred, my head so heavy all I wanted was to lie down and not get back up again.

“Lyra, this stress is making you ill.”