Page 16 of Friend

No!

That was thelastthing we should do. We had to dissect a rat next week, and my stomach was already lurching at the thought. Besidesthatbeing worrying enough, I was already stressed out with everything else on my plate. Adding Bianca’s idea of ‘research’ into our daily activities was sure to lead to long-hours with no breaks, and many moments where—even though I loved her—I had to fight the urge to say something mean.

I didn’t work well without sleep.

“Let’s not.” I pressed her hands back and moved to my feet. I glanced at her, but she hardly seemed to be listening. She still stared at the spot where Cory and his friends disappeared, and my heart sunk further.

We were going to do it. I could see that some story was already forming in her mind. She’d never stop without getting answers.

It was time to play my last card. The only thing that might distract her.

“Did you see that Vogue’s new spring collection came out?” I asked, offering her my hand. “I heard there are some nice sandals.”

I had no idea what I was talking about, but Bryce had said something stupid like that in our group chat. He tended to know these things.

Bianca ignored me as she jumped to her feet, already over the ordeal she’d suffered. She was nothing if not resilient. “Finn, we’re going to find out why Public Enemy Number One is acting so strange.”

Why, though? Why couldn’t we just keep hating him from afar and only dealing with him when we had no other choice? It’d been working for eight years already.

“He’s not acting any differently than normal,” I grumbled. Although I could admit, at least to myself, that wasn’t true either. Cory had always been a scumbag, but this was a new low. “I think you’re imagining things.”

She finally looked at me, mouth dipping into a frown. “He askedmeout on a date. This could be his way of reaching out for help.”

“Who cares?” I certainly didn’t, and Ireallydidn’t like that she was now thinking about him for longer than five minutes. “Let’s just go home.”

“Okay, but we’ll talk about this later tonight.” She’d picked up her fallen backpack and was already on the move. “We need to plan.”

I stared after her a moment—my to-do list replaying through my head—and sighed.

This was going to be a long night.