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“No, it wasmyfault, I’m the one who leaned in and kissed him—”
She put her hand on my knee reassuringly and said, “No, Gracie, you’re not going to throw yourself under the bus for this. That. Wasn’t. Your. Fault.Period. He’s older than you. He has power over you, over your job. It sounds tomelike he lured you alone in his office under false pretenses—”
“Not everything’s a set-up,” I argued, feeling my irritation flare. “I had that meeting with him for the math club—”
“I’ll bet you a million dollars homeboy orchestrated the whole thing. Hewantsyou to feel like you’re feeling now. Dude’s a manipulative asshat.”
That gave me pause.HadI been set up? I thought of all the interactions I’d had with Sawyer in the past… just casual, professional ‘hello’s’ here and there. There was nothing that could have been manipulated; no marionette strings I could trace back to his fingers.
“I acted of my own free will—”
“Stop. Stop it. You’re not a martyr, quit trying that crap with me.”
“Of course I’m not a martyr. Being a martyr would mean I was pure in some way.”
Effie rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, Grace. Cut the good girl act. I know you’re trying to be all‘little-miss-perfect’as some kind of coping mechanism to deal with Grayson, but don’t try it on me. I want you to be real with me. Please. Have an honest conversation.”
I pursed my lips, feeling the pressure build in my chest. No one could cut me to the core like Effie.
She saw the look on my face and softened her voice. It was gentler now; soothing. A truce. “Look. You’re not fired yet, right?”
I tensed, but I admitted I wasn’t.
“And you haven’t gotten any texts or emails from him, right? No sign of anything going down?”
“Not yet.”
“Then it won’t.”
I frowned, but I felt the tightness in my chest loosen a little. “How do you know?”
She rolled her eyes again as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.“Because.Sawyer just wants to get you feeling like this. He knowsyouwon’t report it because you’ll jeopardize your job.Hewon’t report it because he liked it, and he wants it to happen again.”
“I dunno, Eff. I’m still waiting on getting called to a meeting with the board—”
“Oh, you can plan on being called to a meeting ‘with the board,’”she air-quoted. “Only you’ll get there, and it’ll just be Sawyer, making excuses for why the others aren’t present. He’ll come up with all sorts of reasons to talk to you in private. The whole goal is to get you alone so he can get you to kiss him again.”
“I think you’ve been watching too muchof that serial killer stuff.”
“No, I’ve been researching this stuff for my channel,” she explained. “Every story’s the same. There’s an older guy in control of some kind of power structure. He gets to the top of whatever food chain he’s in, and then he gets his pick of the women. From what you told me before, this dude sounds like aclassicsociopath.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes, but I couldn’t help but feel something chilly crawl up my spine. “That’s ridiculous.”
“No, they’re super common!” she said with wide eyes. “This is how it always starts!”
I sighed. I had enough on my plate without extra helpings of things to worry about.
“You can sigh all you want, but you’re prime sociopath bait, Gracie. You’re one of those helpy-helperton types. Theylookfor people like you.”
I fidgeted as I reluctantly considered the possibility. I didn’t want to talk about this anymore; I didn’t want to talk about anything anymore.
Effie read my face, then dropped her case. Her voice was softer, gentler again. “Look. The good thing is, you can count on the fact he won’t tell anyone about this. You’re not gonna lose your job.”
I brightened a little.
Effie frowned, and the single line on her face appeared between her eyebrows. “But you should stay away from him as much as you can.”
“I can’t. He’s the superintendent.”
