Tyler sprinted back to his desk and dialed the three numbers.
And then he stopped. His face froze, his panicked expression dropping slowly away.
“No,” he said. “We can’t.”
He put Mattie’s phone back on the desk.
“What the hell?!” Mattie cried as Kinley burrowed deeper into his neck. “Don’t you want to try to save him?” He didn’t understand. When someone got hurt, you didn’t just pretend it didn’t happen. You got out electric paddles. You called EMTs. You tried everything.
Tyler shook his head. “No. I don’t. We all need to get the fuck out of here before we get blamed.”
Ivy looked up. A vein pulsed wildly in her jawline. “You didn’t do anything, Tyler. Neither did I. It was an accident.”
“An accident? No way. You think Captain Wonderful here punching him in the face and then Kinley tripping him is an accident? No. At best, it’s temporary insanity. And me? Do you think I ever get accused of something and get out of it?” He put both his hands behind his head and dipped forward. “Fuck!” he said. “We need to get out of here. Let’s just leave him. No one’s here. No one will find him until morning. Let’s just get out, all right?”
Mattie bent down to look at Stratford. He looked dead. He didn’t look like a body—he looked like a thing. And Mattie looked at Ivy, who was still kneeling beside him, wiping her eyes and smearing mascara across her face.
“Kinley,” Mattie said pleadingly. Kinley was a good girl. She never did anything wrong. She wouldn’t want to leave him. She’d help Mattie do the right thing. “We can’t abandon him.”
But Kinley just looked at him. “We need to go, Mattie.”
Mattie stood up, his knees shaking. His whole body felt like he was running a fever—he felt hot and cold and hot-cold and strange, and he was half sure that the hot dog he’d eaten before the test was slowly edging its way out of his stomach and into his throat.
And without really feeling like he was making a choice at all, he was grabbing on to Ivy’s hand and leading her outside, with the whole group behind them. They shut the door and walked down the hallway, out the double glass doors, and into the rain, and they stood outside in a clump, blinking through the wetness. The rain was still falling steadily, and it soaked through their hair and into their clothes. A clump of wet leaves stuck to Mattie’s ankle. He didn’t bother to shake it loose.
They stood together and stared back at the building. Through that entrance, through that hallway, in that classroom, was their dead professor.
Mattie looked at Ivy in the rain, beautiful and perfect and somehow completely ruined, and he felt strangely terrible for her, most of all her. Ivy had just tried to save him. He wanted to hold her, suddenly, wanted to put his arms around her and draw her to his chest while they were all the only ones in the parking lot.
Except—
“Hey, guys!”
Kip Landers jogged up, panting. His blond hair was matted into a dirty brown by the rain.
“What are you doing here?” asked Cade, his voice sharp.
“I realized I forgot to do the back of page four.” Kip bent over and put his hands on his knees, breathing hard. “I came back to see if Stratford would let me take another look. Think he would?”
Mattie, who had never wanted to hurt anyone in his entire life, wanted to slug Kip. Hard. “When has Stratford ever done a favor for anyone?” he asked bluntly.
Kip stuttered. “Well—uh—well, what’s the harm in asking?”
Kinley smiled at Kip, her upper lip stretching over her teeth like she was snarling. “I get it, Kip. But he’s gone. He left a while ago. We were just late getting out because we were bitching about him.”
Mattie frowned. Kinley wasn’t the type to curse. Kinley, who had teacher’s pet written all over her, was acting least like herself.
But Kip actually nodded. Apparently, he believed Kinley. And who wouldn’t? Once, Mattie had heard people whispering about how Kinley would tell on just about anyone for just about any reason. (Thank God she was here.)
“I’ll just try back in the morning. Maybe he’ll be here.”
Kip turned away, and Ivy grabbed on to Mattie. “We have to go back,” she hissed into his ear.
“No.” The word came out before Mattie could reel it back. The last thing he wanted was to go back to see Dr. Stratford, cold and dead on the floor.
But she was right. Ivy was right. They should leave everyone and go back right now. They should call 911 and try to get help and just deal with the consequences.
But now that they’d lied to Kip—well, what if Kip changed his mind and came back tonight? Or hell, what happened when he came back in the morning? Then he’d know that Kinley had lied. He’d know they all lied.
And they’d all be linked to Stratford’s death.