She was so beautiful. And soft. And smart. And so weird. What was up with all of that stuff on her desk, anyway?
Maybe she wore a wire. Maybe she was some sort of undercover cop narc, like those kids who stood outside of liquor stores and tried to get unassuming adults to buy them beer and then when the adults brought it out—boom, arrested. He could see Kinley doing that.
He smiled to himself a little bit as he limped along. Somehow, Kinley was the realest girl he’d met in a while.
One thing was for sure: if she’d been wearing a wire last night, it all would have gone very differently.
For one second, he wished that she had been. He’d never tell. But maybe—just maybe—things would be better if he could.
Cade
Monday, June 15
Cade watched Mattie from his car.
The kid couldn’t handle it. Cade couldn’t help but think of him that way—a kid. Young. He was pacing, back and forth, up and back. His backpack bounced on his shoulders, and sweat beaded his forehead.
There weren’t too many people there. This was the first class since . . . since that night.
And only five of them knew that Stratford wasn’t going to show up. Their tests would remain ungraded. Their class would cease to continue as it was.
The students who had arrived were casting looks at Mattie. Cade groaned and pushed open the door of his Mercedes. “Dude,” he called to Mattie as he crossed the pavement. He needed to get to Mattie before someone else stopped to ask what the hell was wrong with him. Cade wasn’t sure what Mattie might say.
Mattie stopped pacing for a second, his eyes moving frantically around the parking lot as Cade neared. “Cade,” he said, and his voice was tight, like he was on the verge of tears.
Cade patted his back. “Calm down, man. It’s okay. Everything is fine. But you need to man up and walk inside with me. Sit next to me. We’ll figure this out.”
Mattie nodded. “Okay. Yeah. Okay.”
For about a half second, Cade understood as he walked into the room next to Mattie. He wanted to freak out too. They all did, probably, except maybe Kinley. She was cold. Colder than he was, probably.
And then, he started thinking. His mind had started working again, after that night of being blank and scared. He felt like himself again. Almost.
Cade surveyed the classroom. The others were already here. The other three, at least. Kinley was sitting in the second row, her notebook and three colored pens laid neatly in front of her. She was a tough one.
Tyler was in the back again, as a slacker should be. He was in his trademark pose: ass scooted forward to the front of the chair, pen in his mouth, and a cap that he shouldn’t have been wearing inside the school pushed down over his eyes.
And then there was Ivy. She looked . . . well, she looked a little rough around the edges, like maybe she’d done a couple too many shots the night before, but in that hot-girl way: her hair was perfectly coiffed, and her outfit hugged her curves in a way that said Look at me.
Cade knew how scared they all were.
But Mattie—Mattie was the only one showing it.
Mattie was the weak link.
Cade watched him from the corner of his eye. “Sit next to me,” he said. He was going to have to watch him. Make sure he didn’t go too crazy.
It was one thing to get a little stressed about test results. It was another thing to show something was really wrong. But Mattie was verging on a full-on breakdown, and Cade had to stop it.
This class wasn’t going to be easy.
Cade glanced around the room.
Someone had been in to clean. Probably the janitor. The board had been wiped. The room had the sweet-sour smell of the recently mopped. And the tests, which had been left in a messy pile on Stratford’s desk, had been straightened up very neatly.
There was nothing to show that Cade—with the help of his friends—had killed a man there.
Nothing to show that their professor had died on the floor a few days earlier.
Cade’s throat suddenly went strange and numb. He cleared it and coughed.
Mattie shot him a look, alarm in his eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked. Mattie was kind. Easy to manipulate.
It would be his downfall.
“I need water, I think.” His voice came out hoarse. Cade stood up, but Kip waved him down.
“Don’t do it, man,” Kip hissed. “Stratford’s gonna be in any second. Do you really want to be in the hallway?”
Cade paused. If Stratford were really going to show up, would he risk it?
No.
No, he wouldn’t.
Cade sunk back into his chair and reached for his book. “Hey, man.” Kip leaned over again. “What happened after class? Did Stratford flunk you?”
Cade shifted, and he felt a strange warmth in his stomach. He hadn’t been prepared to talk to people about what had happened after class. “Uh, I don’t know. He was a dick about it. He said I’d figure it out when I got the test back and then he just left.”