☆

"I SWEAR TO GOD I just saw a rat dart across the hallway," Lip's voice said from behind her, and Amara straightened and turned to face him. He was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, blonde hair tossed. The white tank top he was wearing did justice to his muscles, and she had to force herself to look away.

"Literally never say that again, I don't need that thought in my head as I'm trying to set up my bed."

Lip stepped further into the room. "I liked your old room better."

"What? You mean the chipped walls and vomit stained carpet?"

"It wasn't all vomit," he shrugged. "There was a few piss, too. You know, from the couple of times I couldn't make it to the toilet."

"Better than in my bed I guess."

"Yeah, I preferred to do other things in your bed."

"Ha-Ha."

"This really sucks," he sighed, flopping onto her mattress. "I keep wanting to go next door and annoy you but then I remember I have to walk two blocks to do that."

She sunk next to him and rested her head against the wall. "Yeah," Amara agreed quietly. "I know. I hate it too."

"No more throwing rocks at your window to get your attention."

"Yeah, now you have to walk up all those steps."

She felt him move his head to look at her. Immediately her cheeks heated. "Worth it."

Amara glanced over to meet his gaze, and kicked his leg. "Shut up."

She hated that smirk that played on his mouth. And she hated the butterflies that formed in her stomach at the sight of it. And she hated the next words that escaped his lips. "Make me."

Amara narrowed her eyes and reached across him to snatch up a pillow, whacking him repeatedly with it, before both of them were breathless with laughter. He'd managed to grab another pillow to fight back—and her hair, which had been in a tight ponytail—had slipped out and cascaded down her back, no doubt a complete frizzy mess.

She hadn't even realized that she climbed fully on top and was now straddling him until one of his hands skimmed the outer part of her thigh, and her giggles lodged up in her throat. Amara stilled as his fingers traveled farther up her leg, stopping right below her hip.

"What're you doing?" Her question came out in a hoarse whisper, but Lip just shook his head and drew patterns on her jeans. It was hard to resist Lip Gallagher, but Amara had managed to do it after a bunch of internal battles, and she rolled off him to stand. She swallowed thickly and stared at herself in the mirror she'd just strung up on the wall, fixing her clothes, and pulled her hair back up. "So did you come here for something?"

Lip cleared his throat and pushed himself into a sitting position. "Oh, uh, right. I have this thing for college. My old professor is really lending me a helping hand, says the council might allow me back into the school if I go to it. It's sort of like an appeal."

Amara raised her brow and looked at him. "That's good. I was furious with you when you got kicked out, you know."

"Couldn't tell," he replied, running a hand through his hair. "Well, I need someone to be a character witness. And I thought who better than you, whose known me since birth."

"I think Fiona is better fitting for that category," Amara replied, noticing the way his jaw clenched. "But I'm assuming you're pissed at her because of the whole laundromat thing, which really isn't your place, but I guess it's not mine either, so I'll shut up. But yeah, sure. I'll go."

"Good."

"I do have a question, though. Am I supposed to be vouching for you over the professor-fucking thing, or the car-window-smashing thing? Because if it's the first option I'm definitely out."

Lip ducked his head. "Car thing. I wouldn't make you relive the whole..."

"Dumping me to screw a forty year old," she finished. "Don't worry, dude. I get it. Text me the info and I'll meet you there."

Amara started towards the bathroom, abandoning Lip in her bedroom, and made it halfway down the hall before she heard him mutter: "'Dude?'"

☆

"Professor Youens," Provost Keegan started once they were all settled down in the meeting room. Amara drank from her water bottle quietly, rolling her eyes once Ian did the give-me gesture, and handed the item over to him, ignoring his smirk. "We have received your letter requesting this appeal hearing. Do you have anything to add?"

Youens glanced to Lip then back to the other members, scratching his head. "Only that uh...while I'm the supposed victim of Mr. Gallagher's violent outburst, I'm also his most passionate advocate. He earned his scholarship with the odds stacked against him, and he fought hard to keep it through the sort of culture shock you and I can't really imagine.

"He's got the kind of mind we don't see everyday. Or even every decade. The kind of kid we always talk about wanting to educate but seldom do. And it would be a terrible shame to let all that talent and intelligence go to waste over one incident."

"In fairness, it wasn't one incident," Keegan argued. Amara shared a look with Ian, who had also tensed in his seat. "Mr. Gallagher sat in his panel once before."

"Yes, but in that instance, he was the victim, not the perpetrator. He was used and discarded by a professor more than twice his age, who is now in treatment for a sex addiction."

Amara's eyes had found the floor.

"It was Dr. Runyon's behavior," Yougens went on. "In my estimation, led to Mr. Gallagher's later transgressions."

"With all due respect, Professor," another woman began. "One doesn't excuse the other."

Yougens raised a brow. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Lindsey Chen, student representative. And in this world of open carry and daily lockdowns, I have to go on record saying that I don't feel safe with you on this campus."

Lip bristled and Amara shot daggers at her as Yougens cleared his throat. "I'd also like to state for the record that since his expulsion, Mr. Gallagher completed thirty days of in-patient rehab, and has his issues with alcohol well in hand."

"Thank you, Professor Youens," Keegan nodded. "Mr. Gallagher, can I assume that these two are character witnesses?"

"Yeah that's my brother Ian," Lip glanced over to her. "And my... My Girlfriend Amara."

Amara's heart thundered in her chest at the name, and met his gaze. There was a slight pleading in his eyes that made her stay silent, no use in trying to correct him.

"Would either of you like to make a statement?"

Ian looked to Amara who shrugged, and the redhead leaned forward in his seat. "Lip once traveled eight miles trying to find a G.I. Joe I left on a train. I was six. It was my favorite toy. My parents gave me shit about losing it, they said that they weren't going to be able to find it, but Lip somehow got ahold of the map of the L, he made some calls, he found out where the train would be and when.

"My parents wouldn't give him cash to take the train, so he took off on foot. He walked eighty city blocks down to Midway. Found my toy, walked eighty blocks back. He did it all by himself. He figured it all out at seven years old. Lip is not supposed to be stuck in the ghetto."

Keegan turned to her. "Anything you'd like to add?"

Amara pursed her lips. "I doubt I'll be able to top that."

Lip ducked his head to hide his smile, while Keegan gave her an encouraging nod. "Can't hurt to try."

Amara sat in thought for a brief moment, before she straightened in her chair to look at the panel. "I was six the first time my parents forgot me at the supermarket. By the time I was eight, I had been pretty used to getting left behind by them. This one time, we went to my grandmother's to pick her up for Christmas.

"She lived all the way up north, almost completely on the opposite side of Illinois. They had completely forgotten that she used a wheelchair. The car could only fit four people, and the chair took up nearly the entire backseat. They dragged me out of the car, set me up on the front steps with a flashlight, a bag of M&M's, and a half pack of matches.

"They promised they would come back for me. And I believed them, I mean, who wouldn't? I was still at the point in my life where I trusted my parents. I watched them drive off, and sat in the same spot until I was, like, completely frozen, and it was nighttime. I realized then that they weren't coming back. Because they had forgotten. So I grabbed a rock, chucked it through the basement window and climbed into the house. I managed to dial the phone number of the person who I knew would always come to save me.

"And he did," Amara found his gaze again, fighting off the smile that attempted to rise onto her face. "He was my Christmas savior. He must've hitched-hiked or something, I was expecting him to show up with Kevin in his truck. But it was just Lip, and he'd come to get me just as I knew he would. And yeah, taking rides from strangers probably wasn't the safest. But the point is that there's no stopping him from getting what he wants. And it's hard to find that kind of determination in anyone. But he has it. He always has."

Amara turned back to the council, noting their expressions of intrigue with a mix of awe. "And that's why Lip should get to stay."

Keegan nodded once more. "Mr. Gallagher, if you have anything you wish to say on your behalf, now is the time."

Lip glanced down to his hands, and was quiet for a brief moment. Amara crossed her legs expectedly as they waited. "My father, uh, he has kind of a brilliant mind. You know, and that's—that's a pretty hard thing for me to admit, because he's such a waste of space and all, but it's true. He could've been a college graduate. But instead, he dropped out. Fucked up his kids. And he drinks, does drugs. That's his whole life.

"I want to be around people like Professor Youens. It's minds like his. You know, these minds that are brilliant. They aren't wasted. I, uh, I don't have any big ideas about what I want to do with my life, but this morning I was washing dishes and the diner where I work, and Professor Youens called me, and I thought... 'I miss that.' I don't miss the kids who grew up so privileged they didn't even know what they had. But I miss being around people with minds like Professor Youens'.

"And I think that if I could get a couple more years of that, I'd have a real good shot at making some better choices than my father made. I don't blame anybody else for what I did, and I do regret it," Lip glanced to her again, Amara swallowed at the intensity of his stare. "But if you guys would have me back I-I promise I'll do better. Thank you."

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a/n

hi guys ! remember to vote they're getting low again :)