The Heart of Beacon Heights

Truth Hurts

A/N: *slides in under the two month mark for update*

The updates for this one are slower than my other fics, and I apologize for that. To be completely honest, I took a step back from this story for a hot minute after "The Perfectionists" was cancelled because the fandom got a little heated, so I thought it might be a good idea for me to just chill with TP world while the dust settled a bit. I'm testing the waters to see how the temperature is now. How are we feeling, gang?

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Chapter 9:

Truth Hurts

Alison had never been more distracted in her life. Taylor Hotchkiss was alive. Dana Booker was constantly on her ass. Her wife was running around in the shadows. And she was still in charge of corralling a bunch of ornery college kids. To top it all off she had her own course workload to do. She was beyond overwhelmed.

She hadn't had the chance to talk to her students, though she knew they could tell that something was wrong. They were astute and observant. Dylan noticed how off-kilter she was in class. Every so often she would fumble in the middle of the lesson or stare at him a little too long.

He slipped a note to Caitlin. He knew better than to use a phone to share their private conversations.

Caitlin was annoyed by the disruption. She was trying very hard to keep up in class. She'd been losing sleep over the fact that Dana Booker had found the trail that led to her cheating scandal, which meant the woman knew about her mothers covering it up. She knew it was only a matter of time before it was out in the open. Dana had already tried to get her to throw her friends under the bus. She'd cornered her in the quiet study room across campus earlier that morning.

"Ms. Park-Lewis, could you imagine what it would look like if a cheating scandal got out to your mother's constituents during an election year?"

"What do you want from me?"

"I know you're a good kid. I know you didn't have anything to do with Nolan's death. But I can't say the same for your friends."

"Ava and Dylan were with me. If you know I didn't do it then you know they're innocent by association."

Booker gave her a peculiar smirk.

"Interesting. You said they were with you. You never said where you were. It stands to reason that you could have witnessed something without being a party to it."

"The only thing I witnessed that night was a sad barista mopping up a tall skinny latte she dropped on the floor." She'd grabbed her bookbag and stood up. "I'm not giving you any dirt on them. Because there ISN'T any. You're wasting your time."

She'd walked out of the room without looking back. It had been nagging her all day. She should have turned around and mean-mugged her.

She felt Dylan kick her under the desk, trying to get her attention back to the note.

Caitlin glanced over at him and scowled. It was a look that clearly said, "I haven't had my coffee yet, don't mess with me."

Dylan nodded towards the note on her desk. His eyes kept darting towards Alison. He didn't want her to see them and get suspicious. They had been honest with her from the start, but there were certain things they had omitted.

Caitlin slid the note open like a pro, slipping it in with her other papers, just in case Alison were to come by and take a closer look. She put the note on top and read Dylan's messy writing.