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I awoke to the sound of a muffled thump, followed by a muffled curse, then the hitched breath of a sob. It was still pitch black in my room, not even a sliver of moonlight shone through the heavy curtains over my window. I thumbed the button on my phone and checked the time. Three-thirty.
The thump came again. What the hell?
Extricating myself from my covers, I cracked open the door and peered out into the common area. It was dark out there too, but a light shone from the open bathroom door, and I padded across the thick area rug and poked my head around the corner.
“Everything okay?” I asked softly.
Julie jumped nearly a foot in the air, muffling a shriek as she did so.
“Shit, I’m sorry.” I hastily stepped into the light. “I didn’t mean to…”
My words trailed off. She’d tried to turn away from me so I wouldn’t see, but it was too late.
“Jesus, Julie, what happened?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly. She held her arm tight to her body, suspended in a sling that looped over her shoulder, the protruding wrist wrapped tightly in a self-adhesive bandage. “I was brushing my teeth and it was hard to get the toothpaste out one-handed. I’m sorry I woke you.”
I noticed the uncapped tube in the sink, but looked pointedly back to her arm. “Is it broken?” I asked softly.
“No, it’s just a sprain. It’ll be fine.”
I met her gaze in the mirror, and I don’t know what she saw in my expression, but hers grew defensive.
“Dammit, this is why I didn’t want anyone to know.”
My eyebrows rose. “How exactly were you planning to hide it from us?”
“I wasn’t going to wear the sling during the day, obviously.” She rolled her eyes. A second later her gaze turned anxious. “Promise me you won’t say anything to Nora or Frank.”
I hesitated, trying to decide what to do, before sighing and settling on, “I promise.” I picked up the tube of toothpaste from the sink and squirted some out onto her brush, then replaced the cap and returned it to the shelf. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
She looked surprised for a second, and I wasn’t sure if it was because she hadn’t expected me to agree to keep her secret or because I hadn’t forced her to tell me what happened. Either way, her expression morphed quickly to relief.
“Thank you,” she said, and by her serious tone I could tell she meant it.
I nodded and made my way back to bed, but the anger roiling in my gut kept me awake for a while after that.
25
Drew hadn’t spoken a word to me in weeks. I’d been trying so hard to stay under his radar, and so far, it seemed I’d succeeded at avoiding him. But after the events of the previous night, I didn’t think I could leave it alone any longer.
Besides, I’d promised Julie I wouldn’t say anything to Nora or Frank, and I’d kept that promise. Anyone else was fair game. It was probably a really stupid move, considering I was already on Drew’s bad side, enough so to earn a vague death threat.
But fuck him.
He was in European history when I arrived at class early on Wednesday. Fortunately, the room was still mostly empty. His head was down over his expensive laptop, which he had open on his desk in preparation to take notes in class. As I passed his desk, I swung my backpack down off my shoulder as if I was getting ready to set it on my own desk. I let my leather bag sweep across his desk and knock his computer to the floor with a crash.
“Fucking hell, Camilla,” he exclaimed, jumping to his feet to rescue the machine. Pity, it wasn’t broken. I slid into my seat next to him as he set the laptop back on his desk and spun around to face me.
“Watch what the fuck you’re doing, or I’ll—” His words broke off as he met my eyes, and realized it hadn’t been an accident.
“You’ll what, you fucking bully?” I taunted him. “Break my laptop? Oh, wait…”
I didn’t have one. I was pretty sure I was the only student in the school that took notes with a pen and paper. I used the computers in the library when I needed to type something up.
“Maybe I’ll break your arm instead,” he said with a glare.
