“Hands up in the air.”
Kovak obliges, lifting both hands in the air.
“I want the video footage that you have of me,” I say. “I want it deleted, and then I’m never coming back here again.”
“Abe…” He starts to lower his hands. “Come on. Threatening me with agun? This isn’t you.”
“Hands up,” I say so sharply that his hands shoot way up in the air. “I swear to God, I will kill you if you don’t give me that video. I’ve already done it once before.”
He must see in my eyes that I am serious. I am not messing around. I am a good person, damn it, but I will kill this asshole if he makes me.
“Fine… fine,” he stammers. “I’ll get it for you.”
I follow him into the examining room, where he digs around in the back of the cabinet. I keep the gun pointed at him the whole time. It’s amazing how easy it would be to pull the trigger and just end it all. I don’t want to kill anyone tonight, but it almost seems like it would be a service to the world to do it. After all, he’s responsible for so many bad things.
Finally, Kovak retrieves a flash drive from the cabinet. I hold out my hand, and he drops the flash drive into my palm.
“This is your only copy?”
He nods. “You think I want a bunch of copies of that lying around?”
I close my fingers around the flash drive. “If I find out there are any other copies, I will come back here and kill you.”
He frowns. “I just don’t see you doing that, Abe. You’re too nice.”
“Fine,” I say. “Then I’ll just beat the shit out of you.” I pause meaningfully. “It wouldn’t even be hard.”
He presses his lips together, but he doesn’t contradict me. He knows I’m right.
I stuff the flash drive into my coat pocket and hurry out of the office. I’ll destroy the drive as soon as I get home. But before I get home, I have one more stop to make.
Patrice sent an email to the entire class, informing us that she would be hanging around her office the day before the exam, just in case one of us is in crisis. If I go back to the school, she will be in her office. And since most of the students will be focusing on studying, she will likely be all alone.
I reach into my pocket and feel the handle of the gun that is still nestled inside. I have a feeling that when there’s a gun pointed at her face, I might finally get the truth out of Patrice.
I’m looking forward to it.
PART III
RACHEL
32
THE FIRST DAY
“Lookto your left and look to your right.”
I roll my eyes as I look to my left. Just as I thought—Heather is doing it. Heather McKinley: my new roommate. Ugh.
Heather wants to be my best friend. She keeps suggesting we go out for drinks and asking me questions about my life. But the truth is, I can’t stand her. She’s nice, I suppose. But she’s so painfully annoying.
First off, she broughtsomuch stuff with her, you’d think she was moving into a mansion. Like five suitcases. And what’s the deal with all that lotion? I’ve never seen so much lotion in my entire life, except maybe in the lotion aisle of a drugstore. And all her shampoos smell like fruit, which means Heather always smells like fruit. Usually peaches. Ihatepeaches.
Plus all she wants to talk about is her stupid boyfriend, Landon. He is justsowonderful, by the way. Did you know his favorite food is fried chicken and his favorite band is the Glass Animals? I know it. And the worst thing is that now, I can’t unknow it, as much as I wish I could.
Oh, and did I mention she sings? Oh yes. She’s constantly singing or humming a song by Beyoncé or Christina. And she’s really, really off-key. I want to stuff tissues in my ears.
I’m using like a fifth of our shared closet, yet Heather had the nerve to look uncomfortable when I hung a few posters on the wall. She started mumbling something about how we were forbidden to use thumbtacks in the dorms. By the time I shoved the last thumbtack into the wall, she’d started to get it through her thick blond skull that the two of us will never be friends.
