Nevertheless, my journey to this school had taken a long essay, countless letters of recommendation and my father calling the dean incessantly whilst telling me he told me so every single time he hung up the phone with him, but I’d managed to make it here. Now, I was determined to do quite a few things. Graduating was high on that list, but finding out what happened to my brother—what really happened to him—was my priority, as well as finding out what happened to Lana Ly, the student that seemed to vanish without a trace. The media coverage on her was at a minimum these days, and maybe it was because she’d gone to our high school and it felt like her disappearance hit close to home, but I wanted to at least gain that attention back.
After all, people didn’t just vanish. Especially not people like Lana Ly. Shaking my head, I picked up the pace. I needed to get to the headquarters of the school paper sooner rather than later. I was already running behind on everything else—meeting my new, albeit temporary roommate, getting the rest of my textbooks, coordinating with the movers my mother hired to bring the rest of my belongings. I was a substantial mess and I needed to get my life in order. Looking down at my phone, I made sure that the little blue dot was still headed in the right direction. That was when I bumped into something, or rather, someone. My phone tumbled out of my hand and I grasped at air as I tried to catch it while stumbling backward. I was preparing myself for the blow, but wasn’t prepared for a shattered phone. I finally caught the phone in mid-air, and the blow never came.
Just as I thought my ass was about to meet the ground, hands reached out and caught me, straightening me upright. I held on to muscled forearms, blinking up at a cutting jaw and sharp green eyes that looked like they were slicing through me. He had the kind of skin people who liked to sunbathe lusted over, the perfect shade of golden brown, but he didn’t strike me as someone who would lay out in the sun. He didn’t strike me as someone who liked much at all, with the way he was scowling at me and holding my shoulders as if I was contagious.
“I am so—"
“Maybe you should reconsider those heels.” He looked pointedly at my shoes.
“Maybe you should reconsider your manners.” I frowned, stepping back, out of his grasp. “I didn’t bump into you on purpose, you know?”
“But you bumped into me nonetheless and I’m running late.”
“So am I.” I threw a hand up and started walking past him. I needed to get there before they shut down for the day and this conversation was going nowhere quick.
“You’re welcome, by the way,” he shouted.
I had half a mind to stick my middle finger up, but I just kept walking, refusing to acknowledge him any further. If he was in such a hurry, he shouldn’t be bothered with what I was doing or what kind of shoes I was wearing, though I had to say, my feet were killing me. I’d swapped out my flats for the heels when I was on my way over here, not realizing how much I’d have to walk to get here.
When I finally arrived at the building that housed the newspaper office, I paused up front. The campus in its entirety felt like a mixture of progress and history. Even though a portion of the campus had been built in the 1800s, most of the buildings I’d been to today were sleek and modern. I’d envisioned the newspaper to be in one of those. This building was quaint, made of brown bricks and white doors, with green ivy that clung to the face of it like a wet toga.
Because it looked more like a house than a place of business, I paused at the door, wondering if I should knock or just make my way inside. I decided on the latter. A few people were walking by from left to right and right to left, none bothering to take their eyes off the pages in their hands to acknowledge their new intruder. I walked around, hoping to catch someone’s attention. Finally, a woman in a navy pantsuit walked from the back of the building and greeted me.
“May I help you?”
“I… yes… hi. I just transferred here and was wondering if there were any openings in the paper. I was going to apply online, but I was in the area so I figured I’d just drop by. I’m a double major, Business and English and worked for the Duke paper for the last three years, so I have experience.” I paused, aware that I was speaking too fast for most people to follow. “So, yeah. That’s why I’m here. My name is Amelia by the way. Amelia Bastón.”
“Any association to Felipe Bastón?”
“Um.” I hesitated. “Maybe.”
“Maybe.” The woman smiled wryly. “That’s definitely a Bastón answer. Felipe was my boyfriend for a short time while we were here. Great human being, lousy boyfriend. He left me for his current wife and they’re still married, so I guess maybe he was just a lousy boyfriend to me.”
“Yep. That’s my dad. Sorry. The Bastón men can be real bastards.” A weak laugh escaped me.
“So you’re Amelia.” She assessed me a little longer, tilting her head as she looked at me, as if trying to decide what to do with me. “You do resemble your mother when she was young. I only met her briefly when we were here. As much as it killed me to admit back then, she was stunning. The kind of beauty that made you stop and stare.”
“Uh. Thanks?”
“You’re here for a job,” she said. “We should get to that.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ella Valentine.” She waved me off. “Call me Ella or Elle. Definitely not ma’am.”
“Ella then.”
“Follow me to my office. I’ll see what we can do.”
I let out a breath, walking down the corridor and past the students walking in and out of cubicles. There was a constant chatter here that I was used to. In my old university’s newsroom, it was the kind of thing that made chasing a story worthwhile. It was the buzz that made my palms sweat and blood pump a little faster. When we reached her office, Ella shut the door behind us. I looked around and took in the plaques on the wall hanging beside her degrees. When she sat behind her desk, I helped myself to the seat across from her.
“What year are you?”
“Senior.”
Her brows rose. “And you just transferred in?”
“Yes, I know how that looks,” I said. “My goal was to start last spring, but I had to wait until this fall. I was accepted and was supposed to attend here originally, but decided to follow my boyfriend to Duke instead.”
“Your father must have been thrilled.”
“That’s an understatement.” I bit back a smile. “He was definitely a lot happier when I told him I would come here.”
“And you’re closer to home.”
“Yeah.”
“How’s he doing? I hope you don’t mind me asking. I can’t remember the last time I saw him.” She pursed her lips as she thought it over. “I did see your mother while I was out to dinner with my daughter a few months ago. She was with one of your brothers, who looked like he was in bad shape, I’m assuming from the accident.”
“He’s doing well. They’re all doing well,” I said quickly.
If I liked the idea of being a reporter, it was because I didn’t want to be reported on. Years of my older brothers appearing on Page Six headlines and getting reprimanded for it ruined that for me.