“Good.”
“I’m saying you were really happy withLocke. He’s not just aguyto you. Just like Fitz isn’t some guy to me.”
“Is Fitz really mad at him?” I asked her.
“Uh, yeah. But that’s because he’s super hyper protective of me. He’ll get over it. Especially once he sees I have.”
“The truth is, I wanted last night to be about me, and Locke made it about him. Which, when I say it out loud, is kind of selfish.”
“He thought he was showing off for you,” Janie said. “It was his version of the peacock dance.”
“The something-cock dance,” Beth chortled.
“Shut up. Both of you,” I groaned. “Okay, I might forgive him. Maybe. But only after he suffers as much as my dress cost.”
Beth nodded in agreement. “The man does have to pay a little. It was satin, after all.”
* * *
AP Chemistry
Monday
Reen
He was sittingin my seat. It’s not like they had ever been assigned, but we all knew and kept to our places. Only now he was in my seat. I should have taken a seat as far away from him as I could just to avoid him. Except, I knew it was pointless. He’d done what he’d done for a reason.
With Locke, I’d learned, there was always a reason.
I swished through the row of desks and took the open seat in front of him.
As soon as I sat down, he leaned forward and dropped a note in my lap.
I smiled, because he couldn’t see that only looking at the back of my head, and thought of all the ways I was going to punish him for his stunt at the Cotillion. Right before I thanked him for getting me out of the trouble I was in.
It’s all anyone was talking about at school today. I might have been more worried about Beth and her sisters, but Fitz was a constant presence around them. No one dared say anything to any of them directly, not when they had Fitz’s protection.
Roger Bennet had been denied bail as he was determined to be a flight risk. With good reason, as he’d disappeared once already. Mrs. Bennet was a mess, as to be expected, but Beth had been right. At least this time she was dealing with the issue head-on as opposed to pretending it didn’t exist. Apparently, her first order of business this week was to hire a divorce attorney.
Our teacher, Mr. Crowely, started to speak. We were working toward balancing chemical equations, and I was barely holding my own these days. Getting beat up, falling for a guy, pulling free from an underground poker game will do that to a girl, it seemed.
Of course, today was going to be no exception, because rather than listen to what Crowely was saying up at the board, all I wanted to know was what was in Locke’s note. The paper was folded into a tight triangle, easy for passing under desks and over shoulders.
Except when I opened it, the page was blank. Was this some kind of message? Was he asking me if we could start over? To write our story on a blank page, if you will?
Or maybe something worse. Like he was trying to tell me he was done with me. That there was nothing left to talk about.
I knew I’d hurt him on Saturday night. The whole hand job comment. His face had turned red, and his eyes had gotten dark. I’d been lashing out and I knew it wasn’t fair, but I’d been so disappointed and well, wet. Really, really wet. Running mascara makes a girl say awful things to the person she...cares about.
So how was I supposed to interpret this mysterious blank page? Then I considered the person I was dealing with. Locke did like his puzzles. His mysteries big and small.
Reaching into my school bag, I pulled out a bottle of water, lifting it just to my shoulder so he could see what I had in my hand.
“Clever girl,” he whispered behind me.
I took the cap off, and while Mr. Crowely showed the class how to work the problem on the chalkboard, his back to us, I dripped a few small drops on to the blank page.
I had to move the water around with my finger, but I wasn’t wrong in my assumption. Locke had written a message in invisible ink.
