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I nodded. “Thanks.” I still couldn’t think of anyone I wanted to contact, but I added, “I might take you up on that.” Maybe I could do a little research on Aspen Kavanagh, see if I could dig up any good dirt on her.
She waved me off, telling me I didn’t need to help her anymore, so I wandered toward the front room until I reached her computer. My first Google hit led to her LinkedIn account, saying she was an English professor at the college Noel attended. That was strange. She didn’t look old enough to be any kind of college professor, and besides, I’d seen her searching the newspaper for jobs, meaning she was unemployed, so I figured that page was for another Aspen Kavanagh.
I logged onto Facebook to check her out. The profile picture for the only Aspen Kavanagh I could find showed some literary quote, and that Aspen wasn’t friends with Noel, so I figured it was the account for the other teacher-Aspen. I was about to leave Facebook when a friend request popped up from a Sarah Arnosta.
I squinted at the name, trying to figure out how I knew her. Her pic showed flowers—typical—and her page was private, meaning I couldn’t get any other details without accepting her request. So, I did.
We didn’t have any friends in common, so I popped her a quick message, asking her who she was.
She told me she was Mason’s sister, which made me glance around the room and ask, “Who the fuck is Mason?”
After typing the question, she answered quickly.
He works at the Forbidden Nightclub with your brother Noel.
Oh... right. Now I remembered Mason. At least I think I did. Noel had taken us to some barbecue picnic thing with a few of his coworkers over the weekend, and I was pretty sure I knew which one Mason was.
He’s the one that has the hot brunette girlfriend with the nose ring, right?
A second later, a little bubble popped up, telling me she was typing.
We call the hot brunette with the nose ring Reese, but yeah. That would be them!
I grinned. Mason’s sister seemed cool. But I still wasn’t sure why she’d picked me to befriend. I did a quick check on her page and saw that she hadn’t friended Noel, so she wasn’t the type to just befriend everyone.
But she answered my question before I could even ask. Reese said one of Noel’s brothers would be transferring to my middle school next week. I’m guessing that would be you.
Oh, so she was my age. Sweet. Maybe I could actually get to know someone before starting a new school. I hadn’t exactly been looking forward to the first day.
Unfortunately, yes, that’s me, I typed. Not that I’m excited to start a new fucking school.
Sarah sent a sympathetic frowny icon and said, Who is? I’ve only been here since January. We moved from Florida, and the first day sucked big time. I thought I was going to throw up I was so nervous.
I nodded, glad she got it. Hoping maybe I could get a little intel from her about Aspen, I began to fish a little.
Do you
know why we had to move here? I asked.
No. That’s why I was super curious and went snooping on your page. Sorry for being snoopy, by the way. I just know Noel was the guy who worked with Mason that was sleeping with his teacher and got her fired.
My jaw dropped. But...what? Noel slept with a teacher? No...well...
No!
No way.
Before I could tell her she was whack, she kept typing.
And then suddenly he was moving all his younger brothers and sister in with her. But I couldn’t connect the dots as to how that came about.
I immediately typed, Wait, wait, wait. ASPEN was Noel’s TEACHER? No fucking way.
My mind spun. How was this even possible? Aspen—or Noel for that matter—didn’t act like people who’d do something so wrong.
But Sarah typed, Oops. Did you not know that?
NO! Of course, I didn’t know that, because— It can’t be true. Aspen’s way too young to be a college professor.
