Did I hear him correctly?

He wanted me to beg on my fucking knees?

This bastard! I vaguely remembered hurling a similar threat in his direction when he had first come back to Ashton Wellesley. Brimming with indignation, my cheeks flamed, but, admittedly, I was also feeling something else. Zac's delivery had been kind of hot, borderline flirtatious and kinky, and I was starting to feel a little bothered in places that I didn't want to name in the middle of class.

God, what the hell was wrong with me?

Zac was getting under my skin in more ways than one. Thank goodness we were watching a video. I was grateful that the lights weren't turned on. My face probably looked like a ripe tomato at the moment. Bright and red. So mortifying!

Scoffing lightly to hide my embarrassment, I said, "If you're looking for an apology, then... I'm sorry. I'm sorry about going behind your back with Bea. I get why you're pissed, but don't throw away a perfectly good opportunity to get inside Lily's house just because I'm the one that's making it happen!"

"That doesn't sound like much of an apology to me," Zac indicated sarcastically.

I sighed unhappily. "I just don't want you to regret anything after you leave."

He argued, "Don't twist this around on me, Cate. I'm not gonna regret anything except letting you shove your way into this fucking mess."

"All you do is shut me down. Hear me out. Please," I urged. "If your dad is actually innocent, then this might be your best chance at clearing his name. Believe it or not, I really, truly did this all for you. I've had to learn to live without my mom, but there's a chance you can get your dad back. Wouldn't you want the same for me if our roles were reversed?"

Zac's eyes flickered. I could see the doubts rolling around his brain as he considered my plea. Second ticked by before he finally gave in, and the word left his mouth in a short, clipped syllable. "Fine."

My back snapped straight as I sat up at full attention. I hadn't expected to get through to him so quickly. "Really?"

"I'm not agreeing to anything, but we can talk more about it tonight. At my place."

I hesitated. I hadn't even mentioned a thing about the parking lot kiss with Lily. Or how she totally stalked me in my driveway. I could only imagine how Zac might try to pull the break again on this operation once I confessed the full story.

"Okay, I'll reschedule with Dev. We can go over to your place tonight, but you need to chill the fuck out. You're not allowed to interrupt or get mad until I'm completely done talking, do you understand?"

"Why do I feel like this is some kind of shady disclaimer for the shit you're planning to drop on me?"

I ignored Zac's sky-high eyebrows and the derision dripping from his voice. "Do you wanna hear what I have to say or not?"

"I do."

"Then be a fucking gentleman about it, okay?"

One side of his mouth quirked up as he stared at me with a halfway baffled expression. "Dude, you're the one that messed up. Not me. How did you manage to flip this around?"

I stuck out my tongue at him. Cheekily. "You've got a long way to go before you can take down a queen, peasant."

***

After school, Zac's presentation went as well as I could've hoped, but Tilton was being an ass and refused to release the revised grade for our project until he had more time to look over his stupid notes. Zac and I left campus shortly after we wrapped things up with Tilton. As I stared out the window, my thoughts took an unexpectedly pensive turn. I didn't know if I was back in the running for valedictorian yet, but, in light of all the unexpected fuckery that fate had been pelting at me, the significance that I had once assigned to this problem no longer seemed as debilitating or monumental.

Nat was right. I didn't need to be valedictorian to get into Stanford, and there were way worse fates in life than coming in second best or landing somewhere in the top ten. Spoken like a privileged, rich bitch of the highest order, I know, but at least I was self-aware.

Of course, my pride didn't want to entertain the possibility of anything less than perfection, but the idea no longer repulsed me as much as it once did. Or rather, should I say, it no longer terrified me to the point of despair anymore. I thought about what Dr. Williams had said to me in the cafe. That shit about life being liquid and always in flux. I had been striving  to present a certain version of myself to the world, an indestructible bitch at school and an invisible, emotionless entity at home, that I hadn't noticed the toll it took on my state of being.

Dr. Williams once mentioned in class that researchers recently discovered a new substance that had overtaken diamonds as the strongest solid material in the world. It was called graphene, an allotrope of carbon formed by a single layer of sp2-bonded atoms. More than a hundred times stronger than steel, I used to think there was nothing better than graphene. It was the strongest, after all, superior to all other solid matter. In the past, I never thought twice about exploiting my intelligence or wiles to bulldoze through obstacles, but I was beginning to see that characteristic of mine as a double-edged sword. Mostly, I thought of my fucked up relationship with Bea and Trick. The rebounding force from pushing everyone and everything out of the way seemed to hurt me as well.

"You look so serious, babygirl," Zac noted in half-joking, half-serious tones. He kept a hand on the steering wheel and his eyes on the road, but I could feel the bulk of his attention shift onto me. My heart skipped a beat. Zac was always so in tune with my every move and mercurial mood swings. He made me feel seen. I couldn't remember the last time anyone had cared about me so much except for Mamma.

I smiled and shook my head. "It's nothing. I'm just zoning out."

"Ah," he grunted with a nod.

Zac and I arrived at his apartment complex shortly after five o' clock. He lived in a neighboring town just outside of Wellesley, and the drive had taken us about forty minutes in traffic.

We got out of his car and headed towards the stairwell. Panting and straining way more than I should have over four flights of stairs, it hit me that I had never climbed up to his studio before. Last time, Zac had hauled me up like a sack of potatoes. A hundred and twenty pound sack of potatoes, to be exact. It surprised me. He was very toned and muscled, but his long, lean build was nowhere close to being as bulked out as Trick. My heart did a silly, little flip. I resisted the urge to smile. My man was a hell of a lot stronger than I thought.

By the second flight of stairs, I had even more respect for Zac. My cheeks were rosy, and I was practically wheezing.

How could anyone live here without an elevator?

"You okay, babygirl?" Zac teased as he side-eyed my huffing and puffing. He purposely jogged up four or five steps to taunt me.

"Don't... be a... showoff."

His mouth broke into a wide, condescending smirk. "Need me to carry you up again?"

"I'll be... fine. Just a little... outta breath."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I should leave you to it. Did you know I dropped you on your head, like, a dozen or so times last time?"

"Ass... hole."

"Hope I didn't give you brain damage."

"Shut... up!"

"Man, we really need to hit the gym after this. You'd be the first to go in a zombie apocalypse."

With some difficulty, I gasped out, "I'd just... trip... you... so the zombies... eat you... first!"

Zac simply chuckled. Then, he reached over to swing my heavy backpack over his shoulder.

I looked at him breathlessly, my chest heaving as though I had just run a marathon. "Tha... nks."

His eyes narrowed methodically. He gestured his head towards my backpack. "You know nothing in life is free, right?"

"Huh?" I wheezed, "It's... not?"

Zac winked devilishly. "Fuck, no. Everything comes at a price. And I intend to collect payment once we get inside."