This fits into that gap after Noah left the farm and before Holden and Lily arrived to talk to Luke.
"Why do you always walk away from me, Noah?" The first thought that entered Luke's mind added to the misery he had had in the last few hours.
The dean had been emotionless and businesslike in rattling off the verdict. "I suppose that meant I have to expel you," Very calmly the dean let these words roll off his tongue as Luke sat across from him. He leaned forward a little and held out his hand as if in a peace offering, the smile on his face, however, contradicting the steel-cold look in his eyes. Luke would have shouted at him, would have implored him for a second chance but that was assuming he was able to collect his thoughts at that moment. He was a competent student, hardworking and well-liked by his teachers and peers, with his ready smiles and charming disposition. When he was confessing what he had done to his mother earlier on, that was the same thing she had said. Yet, Luke had enough of his two feet on firm ground to know that there were also those who felt mildly comfortable even standing next to him and definitely others who just cringed at the mention of his name, scrunching up their faces as if they had tasted something bad. Even for this election, at first he had wondered where his support would come from. Sure, he had friends and classmates but there were still those who had looked at him in disdain along the corridors of Oakdale, the ones who made derogatory remarks when he walked past. You would have thought university education broadens one's perspectives, encourages diversity in thinking and yaddayadda…all the noble ideals to mould young minds and guide them onto the right path somehow can't seem to get through to certain thick skulls. At that moment, that one thick skull was that of the dean who, to Luke, in his rather agitated and irrational emotional state, was a completely unmalleable stubborn old unforgiving spook.
So in the end, he had not managed to utter a word and easily, he was ushered out of the room by the dean who was obviously pleased to settle the matter so quickly, He remembered even mumbling a thank-you to the dean as he slipped out the door.
Thanking him for expelling me? God, what was I thinking?? Luke sank into the chair and lay his head on the table. Even as the question ran through his mind, the answer was already at its tail. He had not believed that Noah could have ratted him out. Whatever happened in the dean's office was just not real because the man whom he loved and swore to protect, even lying to do so during the nightmare with Ameera, had, without being threatened with pain or loss of life, spilled the beans and led to all of this. He knew he was at fault. He had known the moment he said yes to Casey's idea that it was all wrong and against all that he believed him and all that his parents had brought him up to be. The alarm bells had been sounding in his head since then and surely, Noah had noticed the panic all so obviously etched on his face and in his actions. He had known that not coming clean to the dean was another big mistake but before he could stop to think and work things out…
Luke hammered both fists on the table. To Noah, these would probably all be just excuses. What it came down to was that he did not trust Luke to do the right thing anymore, not after that one act of stealing the election. But Noah was supposed to stand by him, through his mistakes and all, through thick and thin. Now all that sounded really hollow like all empty promises would over time. Just a bad taste in the mouth they leave.
The slamming of a car door signalled the arrival of two people; he was quite sure who. He steeled himself for another confrontation; he can't break down, not yet.