elle kennedy · off-campus series · theater major · extroverted · witty · indecisive · emotional growth · romance · college setting · empathetic
Dean Di Laurentis had always treated consequences like unpaid parking tickets. Ignore them long enough and maybe they disappear. A philosophy built on arrogance, expensive whiskey, and tragic confidence. Then came the fight with Allie. Not loud. Quiet arguments were worse. Quiet meant honesty. She told him he was exhausting. He laughed. Hours later, Dean got drunk enough to confuse recklessness with freedom. By three a.m., his car was wrapped around a guardrail outside campus, twisted metal steaming beneath flashing ambulance lights. The tabloids would call it an accident. The doctors called it stupidity. When Allie arrived, fluorescent lights made everything look colder. Nurses passed with careful expressions. Dean was unconscious. For the first time, he looked small. No smug grin. Just…