Tethered Hearts | ✓ | Books 1 & 2

Episode 05| Rooftop

Sophia's P.O.V.

"What the f-" I stopped myself, realizing that my mother was inches away from me. Profanity hung at the tip of my tongue, ready to spew out of my mouth to express my genuine shock. But my mother's hawk-like glare prohibited me from saying anything with my little brother in hearing range.

"Freaking fudge," I said, holding on to the word more than necessary. I cleared my throat and clutched the phone as a heavy sigh exited my body. Saying fudge wasn't as satisfying as saying a swear word, but with Jamie staring at me through his thick glasses, I was forced to use substitutes.

Substitutes were no fun.

"Fudge?" Nicolas repeated. "Oh, right. You're home. Whatever. You still need to turn on the news. You're on there. It's not something I would want to miss if I were you."

I squeezed my eyes shut and replayed what I heard over the phone. The words that had come out of Nicolas' mouth was still processing in my head, pondering the legitimacy within his claim.

I, Sophia Álvarez, was on the news.

But ... There was no way I was on TV. Why would I be on the channel seven news?

Nicolas wasn't a liar though. He didn't sound like he was joking around when he called me. His voice was wiped clean of any humor. The usual lightness in his tone wasn't present. There was a grim undertone in everything he said, speaking to me in a slow, deep voice.

I took the remote from my mom without asking. My fingers shook, trying to find the correct number to press. The TV screen flickered to black, and then the image transitioned into the news channel Nicolas had told me to check out.

"Sophia, why are you shaking like that?" My mother asked in Spanish. Her eyes moving down to my trembling hands and up to my face. I formed them into fists, hoping she wouldn't notice them. "Mi hija. What's going on?"

"It's nothing, mom." I assured her, out of breath and blinking at the television.

The anchorwoman was in the middle of introducing a new segment, talking about how colleges sweep crimes under the rug to make their campuses appear safer than they were in reality. She brought up a case from last spring, over at Southern University. I had heard about this case when it first became national news.

Apparently a football player was continuously assaulting females on campus, but he was deemed untouchable because of his athletic title. He was racking in millions for the school, and it wasn't until the season was over when they actually charged him for his crimes.

This was not news to me. Everyone knew that college was a business.

The anchorwoman then signaled off to another person at a different location. We were then introduced to another news person. It took me approximately four seconds to recognize where this person was. They were in front of the main entrance at Lincoln University.

"Isn't that where you go to school, Sophia?" Jamie noted, wrapping his hands around the sleeve of my shirt and tugging on it. "You go there, don't you?"

Damn. Kids ask too many questions.

The lack of color in my cheeks wasn't a clear enough answer for Jamie.

"Yeah, I do," I replied softly, gaping at the TV. "I do go there."

The newsman puts a microphone up to his face and started to speak. "Earlier this evening, we received information about Lincoln University that simply seemed unfathomable. For a school that is so widely respected like Lincoln University, you would expect only the best to attend a private university like this one...