Longing For The Beach Billionaire Daddy
Chapter 77

*Shelby*

“Shelby, are you sure you want to go to class?” Lin asked, jogging to keep up with me as I walked down the sidewalk.

“I don’t want to miss anything else. I can’t afford to,” I said a little breathlessly.

“You got some major news today, Shelby. No one would blame you for taking a mental health day. I’ll cover for you again, and you can look over my notes after class,” she said.

“It’s not the same as actually being there,” I said as I opened the door to the lecture hall.

I was disappointed to see that most of the seats were already full, and we would have to take our place in the back. It rattled my nerves even more to see Lauren sitting in one of the front seats. She smiled and waved at me, just like we were still great friends. She acted like she didn’t rub my breakup in my face the last time we spoke.

It made me wonder how much of our friendship was real or if it’d all been fake with her. Just like that, she could flip a switch and act like nothing was wrong between us. Like she didn’t yell at me for her fiance dating me in the past. I didn’t replace it so easy to forget about how she kicked me out of her father’s beach house after her engagement party.

I let out a frustrated breath as I plopped myself into one of the back seats just as the professor walked in to start class.

“I wanted to make an announcement before we get started on today’s lecture. I know many of you are anxiously waiting to get the results of your internship applications. You will have those results by Friday. Also, remember that internship hours are an important part of the curriculum. If you don’t start to acquire those hours now, you will not be able to graduate on time. For those of you that have dragged your feet, I suggest you buckle down and get your applications into the few law firms still accepting late applications.”

A skinny arm decorated with sparkling tennis bracelets sprang up in the front row, and of course, it belonged to Lauren.

“Oh, here we go. Do you think she has another speech to make?” Lin asked, elbowing me to get my attention.

“Excuse me,” she said without being called on. “I wasn’t made aware of needing to have an internship to graduate. How do I get one?”

The professor looked as though he was trying hard not to roll his eyes at her. He let out a long slow breath before answering.

“As I said before. For those of you who are not prepared, please get your late applications in as soon as possible. There may be a firm out there desperate enough to take you.”

I bit my bottom l*p hard to stop a laugh from escaping. I looked over at Lin, who was getting as much enjoyment at Lauren being told off as I was.

The rest of the class passed without any more interruptions. I diligently took notes in the back row and tried my best to focus on the lecture and not on my meeting with the FBI earlier that day or the fact that my future was being decided by internship applications that were being reviewed by different law firms.

When class was over, I purposely took a long time putting my laptop away in my bag to avoid running into Lauren. However, as Lin and I made our way down the stairs, it was obvious that we weren’t going to get out of talking to her today. She’d broken away from the group of students she was talking with and stood at the door waiting for us.

“Great,” Lin said under her breath as she noticed her.

“Can you believe how rude our professor was?” Lauren asked without any kind of greeting.

“Hello to you too, Lauren,” Lin said sarcastically.

“Well, internships are a big part of our overall grade point average. They’re really important, so a lot of professors take them really seriously,” I offered, looking over my shoulder to see if our professor overheard Lauren’s rude comment.

“Well, that’s not fair; how was I supposed to know? He didn’t need to make me look stupid in front of the entire class,” she said with a huff.

I caught Lin biting her l*p out of the corner of my eye. I figured she was doing her best to hold back from telling Lauren she didn’t need any help doing that.

“The internship should have been discussed with you while you were registering for classes. My academic advisor went over all of the information with me during my introduction meeting,” I said.

Lauren ignored what I said completely and continued complaining.

“Well, since I didn’t know about it, I figured that maybe he’ll give me a few extra weeks to get my application in,” Lauren said, crossing her arms.

“You could go ask your daddy. He has so much money, I bet he could buy some more time. Or, while he’s at it, buy you a whole law firm. That’s how you got accepted into the program in the first place, isn’t it?” Lin quipped.

Lin was still furious that Lauren had bought her way into the school. Plus, I could tell she liked taking a few swings at Michael for what he’d done to me. I smiled a little at my friend, but Lauren just rolled her eyes and ignored what she’d said.

“It isn’t up to the professors; it’s up to each individual law firm that’s hiring for an intern. Each one will put out an application. You can just go to the different company websites and fill them out from there,” I said, trying my best to wipe the smile off my face from Lin’s last comment.

“Well, which internship did you apply for?” she asked me.

“Brunnings and Hawthorne,” I said out of habit, but as soon as it was out of my mouth, I wished I could take it back.

A smile spread across Lauren’s face, and I knew she would do anything to take that internship away from me if she could manage it. I stood there, unable to think of what to say next, of a way to make Lauren forget the law firm I mentioned.

“So, how are things with Todd?” Lin asked, seeing my distress.

“Oh, that loser? That’s over,” Lauren said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

I noticed how often she did that, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was a new habit she’d picked up or something I just never noticed before. Either way, it was getting on my nerves. I also wondered who ended things.

Did Lauren really end it, or did Todd move on to a bigger and better one once he found out that Lauren wasn’t in control of her family’s money?

“You would not believe how cheap that a*****e was. I went to sell the stupid engagement ring he gave me, but the sales clerk at the jewelry store told me that the diamond was fake, so he couldn’t give me anything for it,” Lauren said, exasperated.

“That’s really too bad,” Lin said, but I could tell she felt no sympathy for Lauren. She, of course, knew the whole story.

“Well, they can’t all be winners,” I said with a fake smile, not knowing how to react to Lauren talking about the situation as if I hadn’t witnessed the whole thing play out. After all, she came to my room to cry to me about Todd cheating on her.

As soon as I saw a chance to escape from the conversation with Lauren, I took it.

“Lin, I will meet you back at the apartment,” I said.

I’d noticed Jerrick standing not far down the hall, talking to one of the law professors. I made my way toward him, wanting to see him after our date last night. It was also an amazing excuse to get away from Lauren, which I couldn’t do fast enough.

Jerrick saw me walking toward him and smiled. I waited for him a little way down the hall as he finished his conversation. I glanced back toward Lauren and saw that she was watching me with a smirk.

Once he was done, he headed straight to me bringing my attention back to him, and I silently wished I’d had more time that morning to spend on my hair. Although Jerrick didn’t seem to mind.

“Hey, it’s good to see you again,” he said, smiling down at me.

“It’s good to see you too. I wanted to thank you again for going out with me last night. I had a great time,” I answered.

“I had a great time too, although next time I think we should get together on a weekend. I don’t know about you, but I had a killer hangover this morning,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

I laughed, “I had the worst hangover too. I actually slept through my first class, which is completely unlike me.”

“Oh, I should’ve done that. There’s no worse cure for a hangover than listening to legal descriptions at eight o’clock in the morning,” he said, casually leaning against the wall.

“That truly sounds awful,” I responded.

“Well, are you busy right now? Coffee might help get rid of that hangover, or we could talk about that second date.”

“Oh, well, no, I’m not busy right now,” I said, unsure how to respond.

My phone beeped in my pocket. I was surprised to get a text. After getting a new number, not many random texts came through anymore.

This one sent ice through my veins.

“Do you really think you can hide from me? You are going to wish you had died in that car accident.”