In the end, the interview doesn’t accomplish what Colton hoped it would.

The draft comes and goes, and he isn’t even touched. He doesn’t go, because he’s embarrassed about sitting in a room full of other successful players after being dropped by his agent, after the phone calls for potential signings stopped coming.

After his coach regrettably had to inform the College Basketball Association of Colton’s mistakes, they suspended him as well, for a year, ensuring that he couldn’t even play college basketball as a senior even if he wanted to. He was distraught, hurt, sorry and a thousand other emotions.

Thankfully, by some grace of God, his friends and teammates weren’t all that upset with him. Sure, it took them a few days to get over the initial shock of it, but once they saw the interview, saw the skeletons that their brother was hiding so carefully in his closet, they understood. He’d had a lot of talks with a lot of people in the last few days, and while they were painful, I saw the relief in his eyes from no longer having to keep any secrets locked away in his chest.

The pain I felt in my heart watching him sulk around his fraternity house, unsure of his next move … it was almost paralyzing. I was doing anything I could to keep him occupied; movie nights, marathon sex, his favorite takeout, renting a lodge in the mountains to get away. Not much was working, but deep down I knew he appreciated me trying.

Watching Colton come clean in every way possible, such a brave and emotional act, made it clear I had to do the same. The Charter girls had nothing on me anymore, not that any of them reached out to their “brother” after he exposed his lies. Not even Abby, who I thought might come crawling back with an apology. Apparently, it was still possible for me to completely misjudge someone, and here I’d thought I had the best intuition of anyone I knew.

I’d taken the NDA, scanned it in using my handy-dandy printer, and sent it to every important email I could find listed on the Jade Mountain website. Counselors, deans, administrators, the doctors in the health center … anyone who looked like they could remotely help uncover the truth and get some justice for that girl.

And because I didn’t trust that those people wouldn’t hush up due to the money coming into the school from the social clubs, I cc’d two local reporters on the email. Just in case the school decided to cover the heinous act up once again, someone should know the truth outside these hallowed halls.

Thus far, I hadn’t been contacted by anyone at Charter, so perhaps they hadn’t been notified that their bridges were about to be burned down. Take that, love the lady from London.

I stood in my dorm room, looking around the empty space. Jane had already left for her flight earlier this morning, and she’d actually hugged me goodbye. I was both shocked and happy by her warmness, and I’d promised to email and keep in touch.

“You didn’t think you were going to leave without having one more drink with me, did you?” Blair stands in the doorway, holding up a bottle of white wine and two solo cups.

I’d become accustomed to drinking out of the red plastic staples in my time at Jade Mountain, and I happily motioned for her to sit down at Jane’s abandoned desk and pour.

“Of course not, I was saving you for last.” Sadness crept in.

I was going to miss Thistle, and the small circle of friends I’d formed while here. It was a place unlike any other, and of course I’d had experiences unlike any other. Some were terrible, but I couldn’t deny that a lot of my time here was spent in exhilarating situations. It was a beautiful, and somewhat mysterious town even still, nestled between the mountains and lake. The courses had been educational, and also fun, something I’d been craving when I took a semester off from the Sorbonne.

“I think you were saving someone else for last, but I’ll choose to believe that. How is your boy toy, anyway? Sorry to hear about the whole thing.” She gives me a look of sympathy and pours our cups.

Taking mine, I sip a mouthful before talking. “Thanks, it’s nice to hear you say that. He is okay, getting marginally better each day. Nasty business, the whole thing, but we do what we have to for the one’s we love.”

Blair nods. “Have you seen him yet? Said your tearful goodbyes?”

I chuckle quietly. “No, actually, we’re not saying goodbye just yet. I have a week before I have to get back for my summer apprenticeship at a restaurant, so I’m actually going home with Colton.”

Her eyebrows go halfway up her forehead. “Wow, that’s a big step, especially with what he has going on.”

I nod, still unsure of the trip myself. “It is, but he insists. And if me by his side is what he needs when he goes to visit his mother, then I am not going to say no. We’re serious about making it work, so I’m in for whatever he needs.

“You surprised me, Mason.” Blair points her finger at me.

“Why do people keep saying that?” I laugh.

“I think it’s because you give off kind of an ice queen demeanor, but deep down, you’re really a giant softie. Whoever said that the British are more reserved in their feelings clearly never met you.”

I tilt my head to the side. “Just because of that, I’m not going to let you come stay with me. And I won’t even hug you while I’m kicking you out of my dorm room.”

“Yeah right, you wouldn’t dare.”

We sit in my dorm room until it’s time for Blair to pack up her car and leave, chatting about her impending trip to Paris and all of the eats we’ll have when she is there.

And then it’s just me, alone in my room until Colton is ready to get in the car and drive us to West Virginia.

The feeling I always get, that niggling one in my chest, when periods of my life are about to be over swoops in and consumes me. It’s not one of sadness, really, or happiness. It’s just a settling, a finalization over my soul.

I sit with it, in it, and let myself remember exactly how I am in this moment before everything changes again.