Her Brother's Innocence

2: 2

"Maria Pruitt! Someone already sent me the video of you bullying a student at the front gate! I'm ordering you right now, get your brother to drive that girl to the hospital immediately!"

"Dean Whitfield, she can call 911 herself," I said, keeping my voice level.

"Is that any way to talk to me!"

The dean's voice cut sharp over the line.

"A student collapses at the school gate, and if something happens to her, can you carry that responsibility? This is the school's order, and you will obey it!"

The words landed, and the line went dead with a slam.

My brother looked at me and said, resigned, "The dean's already furious. It's one trip. It'll be fine."

I knew there was no getting out of it now, so I said, "You can drive her. But I'm coming along."

Miles waved that off. "Don't you still have things to handle at the dorms? No need to put yourself through it. Look, have her bring two female classmates to ride along. Nothing's going to happen."

I turned to Savannah, still playing pitiful. "Bring two classmates with you, or you don't get in the car."

Savannah lifted her head. Something vicious flickered through her eyes and was gone in an instant, replaced by the same fragile, wronged look.

She picked the girl who'd cursed at me the loudest earlier, and pulled along another girl who kept filming the whole thing on her phone.

I still couldn't shake the unease. I hurried back to the car, loaded everything in, and only then got out.

The four of them climbed in, and Savannah made a point of taking the front passenger seat.

I fixed my eyes on my brother and told him again and again, "Call me the second you get to the hospital. Don't say a word to her alone the whole way there."

Miles nodded and drove off into the distance.

I called the show's director right away. "That reality program you mentioned, I'm in. I've already set everything up."

Two hours later, my phone rang.

It was the dean.

"Come to my office."

Before I could ask what this was about, the line went dead.

I ran straight for the administration building.

The moment I pushed open the dean's office door, my heart dropped.

My brother stood in the middle of the room, his face bloodless.

He saw me, and his eyes went red at once.

Savannah sat off to the side, head down, crying without stopping.

The office was crowded with people.

The dean of academics, the head of student affairs, two academic advisors, and seven or eight colleagues, some I knew, some I didn't.

Every pair of eyes was locked on my brother and me.

The dean sat behind his desk, his face livid.

"Maria Pruitt, Savannah Henson has filed a report. On the drive just now, your brother sexually harassed her."

Miles panicked instantly. "I did not! Absolutely not! Halfway there she said her stomach stopped hurting and she wanted to go back to school, so I turned the car around right then! I never touched her, not once, start to finish!"

The more he said, the more frantic he got, his face flushing dark red.

Savannah cried louder at once, curling into her chair. "On the way there he touched my thigh. I was so scared I didn't dare fight back, so I pretended my stomach was better and asked him to take me back first..."

Several teachers around us frowned at once, and the way they looked at my brother turned even more scornful. They clearly believed her.

I stared hard at Savannah. "You got in the car with two classmates riding along. Four people in that car. How could something like that possibly have happened?"