Free Saying Goodbye, Part One (Passports and Promises Book 1) by Abigail Drake Page A

have done things very different.”
    “You need to make him pay for what he did.”
    She laughed, but completely without humor. “You do realize Zach’s father is a lawyer, right? My dad is a janitor. The only reason I go to school here is because he works at the Johnstown campus and I attend for free. My parents can’t afford a lawyer, let alone one who could take on Zach’s dad. My mom and dad are immigrants, Sam. They barely speak English.”
    I’d met her parents before. They were adorable and so proud of Gabriela, the only Sanchez to ever go to college. Imagining their faces right now made my stomach clench in knots.
    “But…”
    She held up a hand to stop me. “I was an idiot, Sam, and we all know it. You kept me out of trouble as long as you could, but there are a lot of people on campus who saw me make a fool of myself. Many times. And I’m sure they would be more than willing to testify against me. You know it as well as I do.”
    I looked at Bethany for support, but she shook her head. “She’s right. As much as I hate to say it, there’s nothing we can do.”
    “But he’ll do it again. He’s probably done it many times before.”
    Gabriela stared at the ceiling. “My papi cried, Sam. He held me in his arms and wept. I have to think of them right now. If things got ugly, he could lose his job. This isn’t just about me, and I’m not being selfish. I just can’t…”
    We held her as she sobbed, the same way her papi had, and we cried with her. We spent the day together, nestled in the safety of my little room. Dylan sent me a text saying he wanted to see me, but I told him that it wasn’t a good time. I needed to talk with him about Zach, but wasn’t sure how he’d react.
    There was someone I knew I could trust, and I called him when I snuck out to pick up a pizza for our dinner. Max answered on the first ring.
    “Hey, Sam. Have you spoken with Bethany? Is she okay?”
    “She’s fine. Thank you for taking care of her.”
    There was a long pause. “She was pretty messed up.”
    “She was more than messed up. She’d been drugged. And it gets worse.” Some people approached on the sidewalk, so I ducked into the doorway of an office building and spoke softly. “Something really bad happened to Gabriela last night.”
    “Zach McGaffrey.” He let out a sigh. “He bragged about bagging a babe at breakfast this morning. I had no idea it was Gabriela.”
    “At least he didn’t use her name. That’s one thing we can be grateful for, I guess.”
    He cleared his throat. “Was it…you know…consensual?”
    “Not at all. Gabriela was in the same shape as Bethany.”
    Max let out a string of curse words. It made me feel better just hearing them, knowing he felt the same way I did.
    “If she needs anything…” His voice cracked. “You should have seen Bethany. She could barely talk, and getting her up to my room took quite some time. Greg went home, so I was roommate-free this weekend. A good thing, too. Zach kept banging on my door.”
    “Why?”
    “He was looking for her. I thought he wanted to make fun of her for getting so trashed. He likes to do that, take pictures of drunken girls and stick them on Snapchat and Instagram. I knew she’d be embarrassed if that happened, so I just ignored him. Now that I realize what happened to Gabriela, I’m awfully glad I did.”
    “Thank you, Max.”
    “I’d do anything for you, Sam. I thought you knew that.”
    He was talking about more than helping out my friends. Max still had feelings for me, and that thought made me happier than it should have, but I was seeing Dylan now and we both knew it.
    “You’re a good friend, Max.”
    I hung up the phone and made myself face some ugly truths. When Bethany told me Max had taken care of her last night, my first thought was not gratitude that he’d protected my friend. It was something else altogether, something unexpected and very nasty.
    Jealousy. The thought of Bethany being with Max made me