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“Do you have a picture?” she asks.
I dig my phone out of my pocket, showing her a picture we took last week.
“Oh my, she is beautiful. With her coloring, I think she’d look best in rose gold. Why don’t you come over here and let me show you what we have? From there, you can make a decision.”
When she opens the case for us and I’m confronted with these rings, a contentment settles in my stomach, a peace. These are it, any of them are, but now that I feel that peace, I know Caleb and I can pick out the most awesome ring ever.
Karina
“How did we get stuck doing this?” Trinity, the new librarian who’ll start in August, sighs as we move our mops and buckets to the girl’s locker room.
“It’s basically community service for the school. I was indoctrinated when I started, so they asked me to ease you into it. Honestly it’s not that bad, and I think it makes teachers more aware of what the janitors have to go through. At least I feel like I pay more attention and do my best to help out when I now know what it takes just to clean a portion of the school.”
She holds the door open as I push the mop and bucket in. It’s hot out here. There isn’t an air conditioner, and I wonder how the girls survive this, but then again they’re younger than I am too.
“How did you and your boyfriend meet?” she asks, as she dips her rag and gets to work wiping off the lockers.
“On a dating app.” I can’t help the smirk. “He had the sexiest picture as his profile. I always thought that he was catfishing me, but then I met him for dinner and saw he was just as hot in real life. We moved in together not long ago.”
Trinity makes a noise in her throat. “That’s romantic, I wish shit like that would happen for me. I’ve not been lucky in love, ever.” She laughs.
“How old are you?”
“Just turned twenty-one. I graduated high school early.”
“What are you? Like a prodigy?” I gaze back at her, going to one of the seldom used supply closets out here to wipe down the walls and make sure there’s no leaks from the roof.
“You could say that.” She shrugs. “I’m smarter than average, but I was home-schooled so this will honestly be my first foray into high school life.”
My eyes are wide as I look at her. “Oh honey, this is definitely going to surprise the hell outta you.”
“I’m ready for a change.” She pushes her hair out of her face. “Really ready for a change.”
“You’ve come to the right place.”
Taking my rag, I start washing the wall, but as I keep going, I hear water dripping from somewhere. “There’s a leak in here, wonder if it’s in the roof.” I grab my phone, turning the flashlight on, trying to look and see if the tiles are discolored.
Trinity comes over, listening with me. “It’s definitely going behind the wall, but I don’t see any discoloration.”
“Me neither.” I take a look at it again, trying to figure out where the sound is coming from.
“Karina, it’s not going all the way down the wall,” she gasps, pointing at the wall.
“What?”
Then I see what she’s telling me, the water is running down only so far, until it’s making it’s escape behind a crack, which makes no sense because I don’t actually see where the wall separates.
“I’ll hold the light, you see if you can get your fingers in there,” I tell her as we crowd around, me holding the light over her head, her crouching and trying to peel the wood back with her fingers. Just as I think we’re about to give up, the wood gives way. “What’s in there?” I ask as she lifts a full piece of it away from the whole wall. Her head is a good portion in, as she glances down.
“Karina, we got a problem. It looks like a whole shit-ton of bottled up moonshine.”
Immediately I realize what this means for the school. The fears that Mason had are founded – someone has been deliberately hurting the kids for the school year, and judging by the amount in there, they plan on continuing to do it. Putting my phone up to my ear, I dial 911. Other people besides us need to see this.
Even if the whole situation is doing nothing but making me sick to my stomach.
CHAPTER 24
MENACE
