Page 320 of A University of Betrayal

Larissa glanced at my empty hands, then at the empty white velvet-covered bench behind me. Finally, she gave me a scrutinizing look.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t found one.”

“I’ll look again tomorrow... maybe somewhere else,” I said quickly and pulled her out of the aisle.

“You won’t have much time.”

“Never mind, letmeworry about that,” I replied quickly and was glad to see Julie at the checkout with a box and Grace with Vivienna on the other side of the store.

“At leastyoufound something,” Larissa said to Julie, giving me a shake of her head.

We left the store and Julie drove me and Larissa to my house in her white Mazda, where Larissa had parked her motorcycle.

Larissa wanted to see Alice’s room and after a long discussion I agreed. But only because my mother was in the lab until seven pm and would hopefully not suddenly turn up and hold the barrel of a gun to my friend’s head.

Cellar

Jay Varton

“It’s like she never moved out of here.” Larissa stood in the middle of the small room and looked around. “I have the urge to rummage around here and look for private things. It feels like the rest of the diary is still here.”

With more veneration than usual, I looked at the shelves and at the picture I had destroyed. This time I examined it with a different eye. I knew that one woman was Alice and the other was my mum... and the third, Vivienna’s mother. Now it made sense that I had recognized her then.

“This picture alone proves that she didn’t write crap, but reality,” Larissa said behind me and finally turned to the other part of the room.

I continued to look at the picture.

I wondered if she had any other photos. A photo album? Maybe even with photos of the others... the guys?

“Bayla, I think I’ve just found a solution to your dress problem.”

I turned to Larissa, and my jaw dropped when I spotted her in front of Alice’s closet. She had simply opened it and was now holding a black large box in her hand; the lid had just slid to the floor and now the box revealed a dark turquoise fabric like I had never seen before, more like teal. It resembled the color of my one eye.

“Larissa, put that back!” I hissed and hurried to the wardrobe.

I wanted this place to look as little like someone had been here as possible.

“No,seriously!This would looksogood on you!” Larissa lifted the corset-like top, which was made of lace fabric. “The color and shape alone...God,this must have been expensive.”

I took the box from her hand and bent down to pick up the lid. “That’s exactly why! And if my mother finds out, I’m screwed.”

She would be there that evening. We both knew that.

Larissa apparently had a different opinion and pulled the box out of my hand.

“Larissa,come on.We shouldn’t even be here,” I sighed, gesticulating.

However, she simply rushed to the door with inhuman speed, the massive box tucked under her arm. In the other, a bloodyhoop skirt.

“Larissa!”

She came back to me, only to pull me out of the room with her and close the door. Then she pushed me down the stairs.

“We’ll take it with us for the evening and if you don’t find anything better tomorrow, you’ll have a dress.”

“It belongs to a dead woman!” I tried again and swore I wouldneverwear the dress, but for Larissa, the discussion was already over.

“So what? I’m sure she’d be happy if someone else wore it. I’m sure she would.”