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The second I woke up, I checked my phone for word from Dawson but found none. That’s fine , I told myself. It’s still early. I kept my head down and barreled through my assignments in physics and study hall to distract myself, and used lap-running in PE to burn off my frustration, but when I glanced at my phone while changing and saw that I still hadn’t gotten an update from Dawson, my nerves began to fray.

So I’m not trying to be dramatic but if you don’t let me know what’s going on ASAP I’m going to fully snap and I won’t be held accountable for my actions which is going to be messy for you

Not sorry

“Who are you texting?” Tabby asked as she pulled her shirt over her head.

“Dawson. I’m waiting impatiently for an update in the case,” I explained as I leaned in closer, “and it could be huge .”

“We like huge,” she replied with a wide smile that lit her whole face with anticipation.

“I bet you do,” a girl said from the far side of the room, side-eyeing the Canuck mean-girl style.

“Oh, shut up, Sam,” Tabby snapped in a no-nonsense tone that actually made me stand at attention. “Not everything is about dicks.” Ignoring the snickering, my bestie returned her focus to the matter at hand. “When will you find out?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m texting him.”

“Well, Dawson will let you know as soon as he knows,” she said with confidence. “That’s just who he is.”

“A month ago, I would have argued that point, but now I’m inclined to agree.”

Tabby slammed her locker shut and grabbed her bag while I adjusted my shoes. “Then I guess, for now, we wait.”

“Which is not my forte, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Oh, I’ve noticed,” she countered as we walked into the hall. “You’re rubbish at it. You should use this as a growth exercise.” Sam walked past us, mouth opening to respond, but one look from Tabby shut her down. “So help me, Sam, if you say one thing about ‘growth’, I will shove my water bottle down your throat. Got it?” The petite brunette scowled as she walked away.

I turned and marveled at the monster I’d help create. “I don’t know if I should be proud or horrified right now.”

“Ugh, she’s just a pain in the ass who needs to be brought down a peg or two, that’s all. And maybe get laid. That might help clear her mind a bit.”

“It’s my experience that getting laid tends to do the exact opposite.”

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”

“Waaaait, you mean you and Mark haven’t…?”

“Despite his gross display of raging hormones and nonstop innuendo, he’s actually a perfect gentleman. He knows I haven’t before and hasn’t put even the slightest bit of pressure on me about it.”

“Wow…”

“You don’t have to look so shocked. He’s a really great guy.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “I know he is. I just thought he’d be a total menace about that stuff.”

“He’s all talk,” she said with a wink. “For now, anyway.”

The bell rang, pulling me from my intrusive thoughts about those two getting it on and slapping me with another. “Oh shit, I’ve gotta run, Tabs. I want to catch Callahan before he disappears into the teacher’s lounge so I can drop off some more make-up work and feel like I’m actually getting ahead of it.”

Surprise, then worry bled into Tabby’s expression as I walked away. “But—”

“I’ll be back in a sec,” I shouted over my shoulder. “Grab me a slice of pizza, please. And don’t let the boys eat it!”

“I will! And good luck,” she called after me as I raced as fast as I could (while still technically walking) down the hall and up the stairs to room 333. I was taking a risk going up there at lunch because not only might I miss Callahan, but I might also find AJ. I prayed he would be hung up in the lunch line long enough for me to get in and out unseen.

I knocked on the open door, then stuck my head in. “Mr. Callahan? It’s Kylene…I got that assignment done in study hall and wanted to drop it off.” Nobody answered as I made my way through the classroom, headed for his attached office. The last time I’d been in there, I’d rifled through his personal calendar to see if he was a killer. Oh, how things had changed. “Mr. Callahan?” I said again as I knocked on his office door. No answer. I tried the handle to no avail and let out a heavy sigh. “Well, then,” I muttered to myself, “I guess I’ll just leave it here.” I tossed the papers on top of his keyboard at the front of the class and took a picture of them for proof. Tucking my phone in my back pocket, I turned to leave.

“What are you doing here?” a male voice asked from the far side of the room, stopping me cold.

My heart sank to my shoes as I looked up to see AJ standing in the doorway, lunch tray in hand.

“I…I was just dropping off some make-up work for Mr. Callahan. I was hoping to catch him, but no dice.” He said nothing in response; he just stood there staring at me like I was a complete and total stranger. One he hated with the fire of a thousand suns. Fabulous . “I’m just gonna go,” I said, pointing to the door he was blocking, “if you could maybe—”

“I don’t want to be like this any more,” he said, his sentiment in stark contrast to his delivery.

“Are you sure?” I asked, edging forward. “Because you sound pretty firm in your hatred.”

“I don’t hate you, Ky.”

“Does your face know that?”

He stared at me for a moment until his expression softened and the smile I’d always loved spread unhindered. “Apparently, it didn’t get the memo.”

“Ah yes, well, your secretary always was a bit shit, so—”

“She’s fired. Don’t worry.”

“Definitely not worried.”

“Good.”

“ Good .” I tugged at the dangling straps of my backpack while the tension in the room grew. “So…I should probably get out of here so you can eat your lunch—and Garrett doesn't have time to eat mine.”

“He’s a real dick when it comes to that.”

“ Right ?” I replied with awkward enthusiasm. “Total dick.”

He laughed a little, and it felt like balm to my soul—a sign that not all hope was lost for us. That maybe, just maybe, we could salvage a friendship from the wreckage of our dating attempt. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized just how much I wanted that.

“So,” he said, running his fingers through his tousled hair as he took a step closer, “what do you say? Should we call a truce?”

“I mean, ‘truce’ seems like a strong word. I’m not sure we have to go all Geneva Convention on this.”

“The Geneva Convention has to do with the treatment of soldiers and civilians in times of war, Ky—”

“I’m behind in world history, okay?” I snapped jokingly. “You know what I meant.”

He put his tray down as he grew closer, his eyes never breaking their gaze. “I do know what you meant.” He stopped just shy of me, and my heart that craved some sense of normalcy thundered in my chest once again. “So where does that leave us?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Friends?” he asked as he edged nearer until our shoes almost touched. “Is that what we should call it?”

“It does have a nice ring to it,” I replied, swallowing hard.

As I tried to figure out what exactly was going on in Callahan’s room of doom, my phone began buzzing in my pocket.

“Better check to see if that’s Tabby calling to tell you your lunch has been eaten.”

“Good idea,” I said as I frantically tried to pry my phone out of my back pocket. Once I had it, I fumbled with the volume in an attempt to silence it. And in that attempt, a name appeared on the screen in plain view of both AJ and me.

DAWSON. In big, bold, shouty caps. Stellar .

I scrambled to put it away before he noticed, but the way he took a step back from me told me everything I needed to know. The second I looked up, any sign of the boy I’d just made up with was all but gone.

“What is it with that guy?” he asked, anger rimming his tone. When I didn’t bother to answer, he shook his head. “He’s really got his hooks in deep, doesn’t he?” He picked up his tray and walked past me, giving me a wide berth. “Glad to see nothing’s changed.”

I exhaled like he’d hit me in the gut, then turned to leave without saying a word. Because what could I say? The very reason he and I had broken up had literally and metaphorically just flashed before his eyes. Dawson himself wasn’t the reason, but what he represented sure was. AJ couldn’t stand the danger I’d placed myself in investigating my father’s case, and while I understood where he was coming from, he couldn’t accept my reasoning. It was an impasse we’d never bridge, no matter how we felt about each other. And if I was being honest, there was a tiny part of me that couldn’t help but think there was an ounce of jealousy in the mix, too.

Maybe Dawson really was part of the reason.

“AJ—”

“He’ll keep calling if you don’t answer.” He said those words without even looking back at me. “And you wouldn’t want to keep him waiting.”

I opened my mouth to argue, then snapped it shut. It was clear that whatever forward progress we’d made only minutes earlier had been set right back immediately, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

“I never wanted this,” I said softly, unwilling to trust my voice beyond that. “I’ll see you around.”

Torn between the memory of a time long past and the reality slapping me in the face, I slinked down the hallway, arms folded across my belly to hold myself together. But instead of heading to the cafeteria, I slipped into the third floor girls’ bathroom, locked myself in the far stall, and cried.

* * *

By final period, I’d mentally checked out. I didn’t want to hear about what we’d be reading next in English. I’d only just finished The Count of Monte Cristo (and gotten a C+ on my report that I’d thought I nailed). Choosing the next dismal classic to suffer through just seemed cruel.

As Ms. McManus droned on about our options, I stared out the window and wondered how long I could dodge my friends so I didn’t have to explain why I’d stood them up at lunch. Garrett might catch on with a sidelong look, but Tabby would lovingly drill me until I crumbled under the weight of it and told her everything. I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle the sympathy in her big blue eyes if I did, so I prayed to a god I was pretty sure had long ago forgotten about me that they would lose interest by tomorrow.

“Kylene?” Ms. McManus called. The confused tone in her voice told me it wasn’t the first time she had.

“Yep. Sorry. I’m listening.”

She smiled the way adults do when they’re trying to be understanding because they know you’re going through some shit but all it does is make everything worse, then made her way over. “I think you’ll like this one,” she said, laying down a plain green hardcover with embossed gold writing. “It’s much lighter than your last read. And the main character has a lot of spunk. I feel like you might relate to her.”

“Thanks,” I said, forcing a smile as I picked up the weathered copy of Pride and Prejudice . A romance filled with upper class, hoity-toity types from the Georgian period. Yeah. Totally relatable. “I’m sure it’ll be great.”

“You’re welcome. Now, everyone, let’s turn our attention back to the whiteboard so we can go over the anatomy of early 18th and 19th century prose.” The collective groan soured her expression but didn’t dampen her spirit; I had to give her points for that. But as she neared the front of the room, a distant but growing ruckus out in the hall began to draw the collective attention of the class, and she was having none of this interruption. She stormed to the door and opened it outward to accost the offending party, allowing the din from outside to waft into the room.

“I’ve already told you she is present and accounted for today,” Principal Thompson said in a clipped tone. “You don’t have the right to disrupt her class.”

“This says otherwise,” a familiar voice replied, and I could practically see Dawson flashing his credentials at Thompson.

I didn’t realize I’d been slowly rising with every heavy footfall in the hallway until I was fully upright in the middle of the room. While Principal Thompson sputtered on about Dawson’s behavior, the young agent in question barged into the room past Ms. McManus like she wasn’t even there.

“What’s going on—”

“Kylene,” Dawson barked out over her interrogation, “grab your stuff. You’re leaving.”

“What happened?” I asked, unable to make myself move. Seeing the abject terror undoubtedly in my eyes, he walked over to my desk, picked up my bag, and took me lightly by the arm.

“We have to go, Danners. Now .”

“Kylene,” Principal Thompson called, “you don’t have to go anywhere with—”

“Yes, she does.”

“It’s okay, Principal Thompson,” I said, pulling myself together. “I should go.” I turned my attention to where he and my poor English teacher stood. “Sorry for the disruption.” With my legs now responding to mental commands, I walked out of the room behind Dawson. The second we were free, he took my elbow in his hand and ushered me through the halls like I didn’t know how to find the exit.

“Why the fuck haven’t you answered your phone?” he all but growled in my ear. “I’ve been trying to reach you for over an hour.”

“I’ve been in class, Dawson. You know, like the one you just crashed.” I wrenched free just before the staircase and wheeled on him. “Tell me why you’re freaking out right now.”

“Because Jimmy Barratta was just found dead in his cell. He hung himself, apparently.”

“Hung himself…or ‘hung himself’ Epstein-style ?”

“The latter, according to Dean.”

My heart slammed to a stop. “And you thought something had happened to me—that’s why you charged into my English class like a bull seeing red.”

“All the top dogs in the Vollero family are being taken out because the AD thinks they’re liabilities, and I just…I tried calling you and you didn’t answer, and all I could think about was the night of the pageant and trying to warn you and what nearly happened on that rooftop.” He looked at me with eyes wide and wild with fear. “I had to make sure you were all right.” I realized how hard he was breathing, how frazzled his appearance was, and in that moment, it became clear that it wasn’t just me who was rocking a case of PTSD.

“I’m okay,” I told him as I rested my hand on his forearm. “Nothing bad happened to me—well, actually that isn’t entirely true, but not bad in the way you were thinking. More like teenage-girl-drama bad—”

“You’re rambling.”

“Is it helping? Because I can keep going. Another of those top-tier coping skills of mine.”

He exhaled hard, then gently pulled his arm away. “We should go.”

“Go where ?”

“Back to your place for now. I’m not leaving you alone.”

“Oh. So, like, you’re staying for dinner?” I asked nervously.

“No, like, I’m staying until the AD has been caught.”