"What is there to tell?" I ask, confused.

He inhales deeply. "Why I didn't want you around him."

I pause, I don't know if I want to know about this, but my curiosity gets the better of me. "Alright, go ahead."

"Lincoln has almost been expelled twice. First was in freshman year. I'm sure you've noticed how strict the school is over the freshman dorms?"

I nod, remembering orientation day. "There's so many rules and RA's."

"Yeah, like how they forbid parties with over 10 guests in the common areas, no alcohol or drugs, and no noise after 11pm."

I nod.

"A couple months into the school year, Lincoln decided to throw a huge party. He paid off the RA's to look the other way, and invited over 50 people, a bunch of them weren't even students. He got someone to buy alcohol - he was still underage at that point. Things got out of hand - furniture was broken, dents in the wall, and broken windows."

"So what happened after?" I ask, not liking where this is going.

"Someone called campus security and they shut the party down. I have some connections at the university, and managed to get him out of trouble."

"I see," I say quietly, "so what was the second time?"

"It was last year, Lincoln threw another party, but was more subtle about invites this time. People were invited through dm's, but he had so many contacts, word spread quickly and he ended up with even more guests this time. He invited a ton of freshmen girls, and a bunch of them were underage."

My eyes widen but I don't say anything.

"He could legally buy alcohol at that point, so he bought a ton, and the majority of the underage girls drank. The police were called this time, and he got in a lot of trouble for giving alcohol to minors. There were also some claims of assault, but there was never any evidence found. Even so, people deemed him responsible because it was his party."

"Then what happened?"

"My connections couldn't work things out with the university. They weren't willing to look past an incident like that, so the compromise was to kick Lincoln out of school housing. I convinced Ray to move out of dorms with me to join Lincoln since we felt bad for him."

"That was nice of you," I say quietly.

Jason smiles slightly. "Not like it took much convincing. Ray is always there for us."

I turn away and silently look at the flickering light from the fire pit, the shadows dancing across the deck. I'm having trouble processing all of this. I can't imagine Lincoln doing these things.

"I know it's hard to hear," he says, moving closer to me and putting his hand over mine. My first instinct is to pull away, but for some reason I don't. "There's someone else out there who deserves you way more than him," he says, barely above a whisper.

I turn back, and I make eye contact with his soft gaze, a look from him I'm not used to seeing. My heartbeat quickens. He slowly leans towards me, but stops, and quickly turns away. What was that?

He clears his throat, "So have you spoken to him?"

I take a couple seconds to regain my composure.

"Not really. I asked him to give me some time alone before I was ready to talk, so it's been quiet between us," I reply.

He looks thoughtful for a moment. "Will you be OK at the meeting next Friday?"

I had totally forgotten about the meeting. We're supposed to be discussing ideas with our fundraising committee. "Yeah, there'll be a lot of people, it'll be fine."

"Alright, meeting adjourned," I announce, as our fundraising committee stands up and leaves the office. Katie is sitting to my left and is finishing up her meeting notes. Lincoln is sitting to my right, sort of just staring into space.

He seemed very out of it during the meeting, and I could sense the tension between them, their interactions seemed very awkward and rigid. Everyone else seemed to be able to tell something was off too.

I heard from Ray they ended up breaking up. Neither of them were happy about it - I can tell there are still feelings, but they decided it was for the best for their mental health after fighting so much.

"Bye guys," Lincoln mumbles to the three of us, as he picks up his bag and leaves. Ray leaves soon after, until it's just Katie and I in the office. She's packing up her bag, but also seems to be lost in thought.

"Hey Katie?" I ask, touching her arm.

She slightly jumps. "Yes?"

"I've noticed you post a lot of pictures of your cooking on Instagram," I say. What a weird sounding thing to start a conversation with.

She looks confused. "Where are you going with this Jason?"

"I was wondering if you'd want to come over today and teach me a little bit about cooking?" I ask, "My new chef isn't able to start till next week, I've sort of just been eating takeout since moving out."

She smiles a little and looks at her phone. "For dinner?"

"Yup," I answer.

She pauses for a while. "Yeah, sure, why not."

I grin. "Alright, let's go."

__________________

We take the elevator up to the top floor to the penthouse. The elevators are glass, so we get a nice view of the city on our way up. The doors open and we walk down the long hall till we reach the door at the end. I unlock it and we walk in.

Katie steps in and pauses, looking around with her eyes wide, "Jason what the actual hell."

I chuckle, the interior designers my parents hired did an amazing job. I'm glad no one was currently living in this penthouse so I could take it.

The floor is shiny white marble, the hall is lined with light grey marble pillars, there are multiple chandeliers, the grand staircase has custom made decorative iron railing, the ceiling and floors have a gold trim, all of the furniture is made with real leather, there are floor to ceiling windows.

And this is only the foyer.

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Lincoln nooo 😭 poor Katie 💔

Thank you for reading!