30. Roman

30

ROMAN

W hat the fuck was happening? I blinked, trying to make sense of everything. One minute, I'd been ready to dance with Aria, and now I had a different, taller body pressing against me, way too fucking close for comfort, with a heavy, flowery perfume that made me want to sneeze. I moved back, but Penelope moved with me, and again, what the fuck was happening?

"Pen, back up," I murmured, attempting politeness, even though it was the last thing I felt like. I was all too aware of the eyes on us, though, so I wasn't going to cause a scene.

"Sorry." Immediately unwinding her arms from around my neck, she placed one hand on my shoulder and slid our fingers together.She stepped away fractionally and gave me a hesitant smile. "I didn't mean to…I just wanted to make sure we could dance together. If you want to, that is. Dance with me?"

"Don't you want to dance with Tristan?" I'd assumed she would—their colours even fucking matched, and surely it was a given that the head boy and girl would dance together.

The music started up as she shook her head."Honestly, no. I've spent enough time with Tristan. He's on the ball committee, not to mention our duties together. It feels like I've spent more time with him than my own friends lately." Her voice lowered. "And don't tell him I said so, but you're a much better dancer than he is. You'd be doing me a favour."

I glanced over at my friend, who was having a silent stare-off with Aria, and smirked. Yeah, maybe this was a good thing. Plus, Penelope was Quinn's friend, so it wasn't like I had to worry about wandering hands.

"In that case, yeah. Let's dance." We began to move, my body on autopilot as I scanned the crowd surrounding us for Quinn. Fuck. What must she be feeling right now? I honestly thought she would end up being one of the goddesses, and when Aria's name was read out, it had taken everything in me to keep my face impassive. My mask had been in place all fucking night, in fact, from the second I'd seen my girl across the room, looking so beautiful that I was completely lost for words. I never thought I'd even be capable of the depth of feelings I had for her, but when I'd seen her tonight, I'd found myself submerged, drowning in everything I felt for Quinn Farrow. And I didn't resist. On the outside, I was untouchable, but inside…

The realisation hit me like a fucking sledgehammer to the face. That four-letter word I'd told myself it was too early for?

I couldn't lie to myself anymore.

"Is everything okay?"

"Huh?" My gaze focused on Penelope before darting away again, back to scanning the surrounding faces. Where was Quinn?

"I just asked if everything was okay. Sorry if I'm overstepping. You just looked like you were deep in thought."

"Yeah, fine." I spun her so I could scan the crowds on my other side. How fucking long was this dance? Shouldn't it be over by now?

My phone buzzed in my pocket, temporarily stealing my focus. Now what? Whoever it was, it couldn't be important. All my friends were here. Quinn was here somewhere, and I knew for a fact she didn't have a phone with her because she'd already told me she was leaving it in her room tonight because she hadn't wanted to carry a bag. I smirked to myself, remembering the fact that Knox's pockets were stuffed with Elena's phone and make-up shit, as well as his own phone.

My phone buzzed again, and I let go of Penelope's waist and shoved my hand into my pocket, attempting to switch it to silent instead of vibrate mode. The buzzing stopped, so I guessed I'd been successful.

"Roman? Are you sure everything's okay?"

"Don't worry about it. Just putting my phone on silent," I told Penelope, placing my hand on her waist again. She smiled, and I spun her again, scanning the new faces that came into view. Still no Quinn.

A sense of unease crept through my body.

Surely I would've spotted her by now?

My unease grew. I shouldn't have left her. Or got someone to keep an eye on her…except everyone who knew about the shit that had gone down was right here on the dance floor with me and Penelope.

This dance needed to fucking end. Now.

At last, it did. I released Penelope, stepping away. She smiled. "Thanks for the dance, Roman." Leaning in, she pressed a kiss to my cheek and then left me. I was barely aware of her leaving, too busy looking for Quinn.

"Ro." Tristan tapped my arm. "Photos."

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Penelope hadn't left at all, no—she'd gone to stand next to Knox and Elena because the fucking photographer wanted to take our photos. My hand went to my crown, my fingers brushing the cool metal, wishing I could rip it from my head. I needed to find my girl.

"Have you seen Quinn?" I hissed to Aria as the photographer arranged us to his liking. She glared at Tristan when he tried to put his arm around her waist before turning to me.

"No, but that's not surprising. She probably didn't want to watch that farce of a dance. I don't blame her."

"You wound me, little scorpion. Anyone would be happy to dance with me," Tristan interjected.

She arched a brow. "Were you happy to dance with me ?"

Tristan's grin faded, his expression shuttering, and without another word, he stepped behind Aria, putting an arm around her waist as he'd been instructed by the photographer. I stared at him, but he just shook his head and plastered on a smile for the camera. Giving it up as a lost cause for now, I took my place behind Penelope, lightly gripping her waist and plastering on my own fake smile. The photographer must've been able to sense my impatience because she wrapped it up quickly, snapping a few quick photos before instructing us to separate into two groups—one with the gods and one with the goddesses. This time, my smile didn't need to be faked. I was here with my two best mates, and Aria was probably right. Quinn wouldn't have wanted to watch the dance. If our positions had been reversed, I wouldn't have wanted to watch her, either. In fact, I wouldn't have been able to control myself, and it would have ended with a black eye or two and probably a suspension or worse.

"Mate. Selfie." Tristan nudged me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah." I grinned into his camera. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the girls separating, Penelope disappearing into the crowd and Aria and Elena heading towards Katy and Will. Still no Quinn.

We posed for a few photos, alternating between a range of poses, generally fucking around and acting like kids despite the fact that we were all technically adults. When we were done, Tristan scrolled through the selfies, his brows pulling together."No, wait. I need to be in the middle. You two have dark hair. We need a better aesthetic." He moved in between me and Knox, slinging his arms around our shoulders. "Ro, you do the honours. I don't have any free hands."

"Alright. But I'm taking it with my phone. Yours is shit," I said, just to wind him up, and he cuffed me around the back of the neck.

"He's right," Knox added, just to be an asshole, and got a cuff of his own. The three of us grinned at each other. I tugged my phone from my pocket, lifting it in front of us.

"Someone's popular," Tristan commented, staring at my screen.

"Huh?" I followed his glance, and my stomach dropped. Four messages and three missed calls. Swiping my screen, I saw they were all from my cousin Caiden.

"Oh, fuck," I whispered. "Fuck."

"Ro? You okay? What's going on?"

"Roman? What is it?"

I ignored Tristan and Knox, backing away with my phone gripped tightly in my hand. I needed to get out of here. It was too fucking loud, too many people. If Cade had contacted me this many times in such a short period, it wasn't a social call.

I was jogging by the time I reached the entryway, speeding up to a run as my feet pounded against the flagstones, the sound echoing through the emptying corridor. Coming to a stop at the sweeping staircase that led to our dorms, I hit my cousin's number, pacing up and down while I waited for it to connect.

"Cade?"

He got straight to the point. "We traced the digital footprint. A bit more than that, in fact. I don't know how it all links up, but I'll send you everything, and hopefully, you'll be able to make sense of it. If there's anything more we can do, let me know. We've got your back."

"What are you saying?" I couldn't make sense of his words.

"It's probably best if you read the info. I'm sending it through now."

Switching him to speaker, I sank down onto the bottom step of the staircase, opening the message. My brows pulled together as I read the words on the screen.

"This makes no sense. Both the emails relating to Quinn's paper came from one of the administrators' computers? And what? How? Fuck. I don't understand."

Cade sighed. "Yeah. I dunno, West said it originated from there, but the sender had been able to spoof your email addresses so it looked like they came from you and Quinn. Uh…you know how they can do a ‘send as' thing, so it looks like it comes from another address? It's mostly used if an admin assistant wants to send an email as their boss, y'know, shit like that, but in this case…it was used on you. West found the deleted email that contained Quinn's original paper, too. Someone had managed to get into her history professor's email and erase it before he had a chance to look at it."

"What the fuck? How could the school staff be behind this?"

"It's not them. I mean, I can't say for sure, but I'd put money on the fact that it was someone else. Someone who was able to access that computer and wanted to cover their tracks."

I slumped back, rubbing my hand over my face. "So we still don't know who it was?"

"Look at the rest of the shit I sent you. I have an idea, but I don't know these people. You do. Do you think it could be connected? Do you think they'd have a reason to do all this?"

"What?" I swiped down the screen, my mouth falling open as I took in the information in front of me. "The ball votes, too? What the fuck? Who?"