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“This might cheer you up,” Jensen said, reaching into his other blazer pocket. “I got you one of those cookies you like.”
He held up a white paper bag with a pink bakery logo printed on the side. I opened it to see the burner phone he’d promised me.
“Thanks. I’ll eat it later,” I said brightly for the benefit of whoever might be listening in on our conversation through my bugged phone. I was fairly certain they couldn’t listen in twenty-four hours a day, because that seemed like overkill, but I had to be careful just in case. I had no idea just how far the Rosmerta Society would go to ensure my silence.
“Check out this meme I saw on Twitter earlier,” Jensen said, showing me his phone. “It totally reminds me of that girl we saw on Halloween. Don’t you think?”
I peered at the screen. His Notes app was open, and he’d written a message for me. Play along with whatever I say next. You’ll be able to leave your phone for a few minutes.
I nodded. “Oh my god, it does look like her! That’s crazy!”
“Yeah, no shit,” Jensen said with a fake laugh. “Anyway, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“Well, seeing as you’re good at writing, I was wondering if you could take a look at my English essay. I don’t know if it’s good enough to hand in yet,” he said. “I know you’ve got a lot on your plate right now, but it’ll only take five minutes to read. Maybe a little more. Is that okay?”
“Sure, I can take a look. Now?”
“Yeah, if that’s all right with you,” he replied, showing me another note on his phone. Put your regular phone in your locker and we’ll go and talk somewhere.
I did as he said and followed him around the corner. If anyone happened to be listening in on my phone right now, they’d think I was quietly reading Jensen’s essay.
He looked over my shoulder to make sure no one was standing too close to us, and then he leaned forward. “I saw Addy earlier,” he said. “She’s got a black eye and a broken arm.”
My brows shot up. “What happened?”
“I don’t know for sure, because she ran away when I tried to talk to her.” Jensen rubbed his chin, brows furrowing. “But I overheard a couple of girls talking about it. They said she had some sort of flu on the weekend, and she tripped and fell down the stairs because she was so delirious.”
“Wow, that sucks for her,” I said. I cocked my head. “Why couldn’t you tell me this in front of my phone?”
Jensen lowered his voice. “The other day, I said you can only trust me. But I think you can trust Addy too.”
“Are you serious?” I said hotly, brows shooting up. “After everything she did?”
“Let me explain.” He lifted a palm. “Remember what she said at the dance? How she was trying to make you leave town?”
I frowned. “Yeah. What about it?”
“Do you remember her exact words?”
“Um… she said she was trying to do me a favor,” I said.
“Exactly. Think about what happened next.”
I scrunched up my nose. “Zara came over and took her home, right?”
He nodded. “Yup. As soon as we told her that Addy had been trying to bully you out of town, Zara claimed she was drunk and immediately forced her to leave. We weren’t allowed to continue the conversation with her so we could get more of an explanation about her behavior. She looked really scared, too,” he said. He paused for a second and tilted his head. “Then she got badly hurt, right after all of that. Pretty convenient, don’t you think?”
“You think Zara did something to her?”
“Not just Zara. I have a feeling Addy knows something about the Rosmerta Society, and they know she knows,” he said. “Zara was probably worried she was going to tell you everything at the dance when we confronted her, so she dragged her home before she could say anything else. Then the society punished her as a way to make her keep her mouth shut. Now she’s probably too scared to say anything.”
My brows furrowed as I considered his theory. It was quite strange that Addy had claimed her campaign to bully me out of town was ‘doing me a favor’. At the time, I thought it was just a stupid excuse she made because she got caught, but Jensen could be right. It could have a more literal meaning—that she was genuinely trying to help me, albeit in a very weird way.
“I guess we should talk to her,” I said.
Jensen glanced at his watch. “Lunch is almost over, so we’ll go to the Mill after our last class,” he said. “Addy’s always there in the afternoon.”
