Well…yes.
But did he have the opportunity? I don’t think so.
“Why do you say that?”
“He gave Julien poison.”
My brow furrows. “How do you know?”
His fingers strangle the strap of his backpack like he’s auditioning for “Nervous Student #2” in a bad drama class. Too rehearsed. And flippant.
“I just do.”
Almost like a robot, he ends the conversation and sidesteps me without a goodbye. Except to say, “Be careful.”
And I’m left cold. Alone.
And confused.
thirty-one
“Bring up the camera feed,”I tell my hacker over voice chat. Eyes glued to my laptop screen, I wait.
Ashlyn’s little blip hasn’t moved in a few minutes. I’m proud of her for finishing her final, but it seems she got stuck around center campus for some reason. My throat tightens with a painful swallow. I wipe my sweaty palms down my jeans, then jiggle the mouse again, refreshing the browser, and stare until my eyes burn from not blinking. Still no movement. Watching that little dot on the map isn’t enough. I need motion.Proofshe’s okay.
I’m starting to panic if I don’t get visuals of her regularly. Like a strung-out addict, my mouth’s dry and ready for her taste on my tongue again.
Last night’sBetaparty footage claws at my brain. The seductive images of her threading through a ring of nerds like some bright new toy, turning heads she didn’t notice, the sway of her ass in those too-tight jeans... I forgot how quickly my stomach goes cold when I see her with someone else. Only the phone call to my cousin, Logan, was enoughto calm the pounding between my temples. He swore she’d only spoken to Rowan Greaves.
Already looked up everything about him. And his family. And grandparents. Seems he and his roommate, Julien, had athing. So he gets to live another day.
Ashlyn walked home right after, a couple of myThetainitiates tailing her from afar.
What’s now being referred to asZoo Heisthad my hands tied all night. Lan, in some cocaine and hallucinogenic-induced delusion, thought it’d be afantasticidea to liberate a sociopathic neighbor’s exotic pets. Which all ended up on our grounds.
After the peacocks flew to the roof and the camel shit in the kitchen, someone’sOmegagirlfriend called the police. I had to bribe them with another donation to the city to get them to back off, turn a blind eye to the piles of drugs, hordes of underage drinkers, and one dead freshman someone propped up on the sofa (from an overdose, we think). Instead, I had them focus on helping us get the creatures to rescue sanctuaries.
Animal control is still looking for the tiger.
A freshman thought it’d be entertaining to pour gallons of liquor into the pool and light it on fire. This scared all the prairie dogs away but, as karma would have it, they all ended up in Lan’s room under the bed.
I haven’t had a lick of sleep.
I haven’t done my routine.
It feels as if the poison of chaos has taken over my entire body.
And my mind.
“Can’t from this angle. She’s in the alley. Wait…”
Leaning forward, I make out some movement on one of the campus cameras. “There she is!” With a deep sigh of relief, my chest relaxes as she wanders out between the two buildings. But…
“Who was that fuck who walked the other direction?” I growl, teeth clenched. “Zoom in.”
“I can’t do that, Aiden.”
I rake my hands through my hair. He doesn’t need to. I know who it is. That weird fuck I saw her talking to in the hall that one day…