Page 77 of Riot Act

“Now you’re furious about rubbers?”

“Yes. I’m furious about everything. And it’s all your fucking fault.” I blow an angry blast of air out of my nose, squinting at him while I consider planting my fist in his face again, and then I turn and continue my charge down to the ground floor.

Dash follows me. “Hey, what the hell do you have tied around your wrist?”

“What?”

He points. “You are wearing a friendship bracelet.”

“I am not.”

“What’s that, then?”

I shove my whole arm behind my back. “None of your damn business is what it is.”

If he fucking laughs, I will kill him. If he fucking laughs, I swear to God…

Dash is a smart guy. He sees my inner monologue expressing itself on my face, and he does not laugh.

Color me disappointed.

“If you want a ride up the hill, your ass better be in the car in the next fifteen seconds or I’m going without you.”

No English class today. No Econ, either, which means no Chase. Every Wolf Hall student’s schedule is available on the academy portal—I didn’t even need Wren to hack into the school’s systems for that information—and I already know I don’t have another class with Chase until Friday morning. I should be happy about that fact. I should be able to forget about her altogether—that was the whole point of this being just sex—but I’m still so livid over that message that I actually want to run into her. I look for her everywhere I go. From Math to History, I scan every face I pass, waiting for it to be hers. History to Photography. Photography to the parking lot. I even scope out Screamin’ Beans at lunchtime to see if she’s sitting at one of the booths with Elodie or Carrie, but she’s nowhere to be seen.

All afternoon, I barely pay attention to my surroundings, waiting for the burst of adrenalin to hit me when I finally set eyes on Chase. Only, she’s a ghost. I finally see her at the end of the day, as I’m pulling out of the parking lot, Dash sitting to my left, Wren in the backseat.

I apply the brakes a little more enthusiastically than usual and Wren nearly skids forward into the footwell. “What the fuck, man! Are youinsane?”

I apply the hand brake and get out of the car.

Dash rolls down his window and leans out, calling after me. “Where the fuck are you going? I’m starving!”

“Left the keys in the ignition, didn’t I?”

He checks. Frowns at me incredulously. “Yes?”

“Then fucking drive yourselves home.” I don’t hang around to witness the look on his face, though I’m sure it’s priceless. Dash knows that any warning he expects from me is implicit: if he so much as fuckingscratchesthat car, he’ll be eating through a straw for the rest of his miserable life.

Quickly, I jog across the parking lot and around the other side of the academy, heading in the direction Chase was walking when I caught that glimpse of her out of the corner of my eye. I half expect her to have vanished into thin air, but no. I round the corner and she’s there, heading down the steep slope that leads towards Wolf Hall’s maze.

Her battered old canvas military bag hangs off her shoulder, bouncing off the backs of her legs when she walks. The thick red waves of her hair sway from side-to-side as she walks. It’s warm today, like really warm, and an uncomfortable snapshot of a bead of sweat running down the curve of the back of her neck fills my head.

A memory, not my imagination.

I can almost taste the faint hint of salt on the tip of my tongue as I run down the slope after her. God knows how she got so far ahead of me. By the time I catch up with her, she’s already at the mouth of the maze. She has plenty of time to head inside, but she just stands there, looking up at the high hedge walls, clasping hold of her bag strap…

She doesn’t so much as give me a sideways glance when I pitch up next to her.

She squints, shielding her eyes against the sun. I follow her gaze, though I can’t tell what the fuck she’s looking at. All I see is blue sky.

She breaks the silence first. “Is this it, then?”

I blow out a long breath. “Is what what?”

“Is this the maze?Themaze.”

Oh. Right. I interlace my fingers behind my head, cradling my skull as I consider the splintering pathways that lie ahead of us. “No. This is justamaze.”