After We Fell by Anna Todd Page B

ears. I push it away, push her away.
    I raise the glass, and we toast and each take a sip. “How can you afford to be a drunk if you don’t work?” I ask.
    â€œI clean the place every other day, so I drink for free.” Shame is clear in his voice.
    â€œWhy not be sober and get paid, then?”
    â€œI don’t know; I tried and tried.” He stares at his glass with hooded eyes, and for a second they resemble mine. I can see a shadow of myself in them. “I’m hoping now it’ll get easier if I can see my daughter more often.”
    I nod, not even bothering to hit him with a snide remark, and instead wrap my fingers around the cool glass. I welcome the familiar burn of scotch as I tip my head back and finish the rest. When I push it across the semipolished bar top, the woman makes eye contact and then starts pouring me another.

chapter eight
TESSA
    Y our da d ?” Landon says incredulously through the phone.
    I forgot that I hadn’t had a chance to tell him about my father’s return.
    â€œYeah, we ran into him yesterday . . .”
    â€œHow is he? What did he say? What was it like?”
    â€œHe’s . . .” I don’t know why, but I feel embarrassed to tell Landon that my father is still drinking. I know he’d never judge me, but I’m still apprehensive.
    â€œIs he still . . .”
    â€œYeah, he is. He was drunk when we saw him, but we brought him back here and he stayed the night.” I twirl a lock of hair around my index finger.
    â€œHardin let him?”
    â€œHe didn’t have a say in it; it’s my place, too,” I snap. But then I immediately feel bad and apologize. “I’m sorry, I’ve just had it with Hardin thinking he controls everything.”
    â€œTessa, do you want me to leave campus and come over?” Landon’s so kind; you can hear it in how he talks.
    â€œNo, I’m just being dramatic.” I sigh and look around the bedroom. “I think I’ll come there, actually. I can still make my last class.” I could really use some yoga right about now, and some coffee.
    I listen to Landon as I dress myself for yoga. It seems like a waste to drive all the way to campus for one class, but I don’twant to sit around this apartment and wait for Hardin to come home from wherever he ran off to.
    â€œProfessor Soto asked about your absence today, and Ken said he wrote a character witness statement for Hardin. What’s up with that?” he asks.
    â€œSoto did? I don’t know . . . He offered to help him before, but I didn’t think he meant it. I guess he just likes him or something?”
    â€œLikes him? Likes Hardin ?” Landon laughs, and I can’t help but join him.
    My phone drops into the sink as I pull my hair into a ponytail. I curse at myself and get it back to my ear just in time to hear Landon say he’s headed to the library before his next class. After our goodbyes, I hang up and start to text Hardin, to let him know where I’ll be. But then I close the app instead.
    He’ll come around about this whole Seattle thing; he has to.
    By the time I get to school, the wind has picked up yet again and the sky has turned an ugly shade of gray. After grabbing a coffee, I still have thirty minutes before yoga. The library is on the other side of campus, so I don’t have time to go there and see Landon. Instead I end up waiting outside Professor Soto’s classroom. His class should be ending any—
    My thoughts are cut off by the crowd of students practically rushing out the doors and into the hall. I lift my bag farther up my shoulder and push my way through them to get inside. The professor is standing with his back turned toward me as he pulls his leather jacket over his arms.
    When he turns, he greets me with a smile. “Ms. Young.”
    â€œHi, Professor Soto.”
    â€œWhat brings you by? Did you need the