Page 89 of Snitches and Serpents

“Yeah.” He heaves a deep sigh. “Look, this is supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. But so far, you’ve given me nothing.”

“I’m trying.”

“Try harder.”

I squeeze the phone in my hand again but say nothing.

He blows out another long sigh. “Alright, here’s what I can do. I’ll text you the contact information of a doctor who can write a note that you had some contagious disease this week which made you unable to go outside for risk of spreading it. But you’ll have to talk to him and pay him off on your own. All I can do is to give you the contact information. Got it?”

“Yes, got it. Thank you.”

“Uh-huh. But now, you really need to give me something. You’re not the only one who has strict deadlines.” He sounds stressed. And exhausted. “Get me some results.”

Then, before I can reply, he hangs up.

Lowering the phone, I stare at it as the call ends and my home screen comes back into view.

Uneasiness slithers through my stomach like cold snakes. I suddenly don’t like the idea of spying on Tristan for this stranger. But at the same time, I need his protection more than ever now. Because once Tristan realizes that I was in fact not kicked out, he’s going to come at me so hard that there will be nothing left of me if I don’t have some kind of shield. But still. I don’t like it.

However, I push that feeling aside and block out everything else too as I steel myself. Because now, I have to do something else. Something worse than calling John Smith.

I have to call my parents and tell them that I missed exam week.

30

TRISTAN

Frustration and anger and sheer fucking disbelief thrash inside me like a storm. It is inconceivable. It is fucking inconceivable.

I gave Elle Saturday to pack up her stuff and leave. Then today, I went to the admin office to confirm that Elle Summers had indeed been expelled and left campus. But instead, what did they tell me?

That she had in fact not been expelled. That she had come down with some contagious disease, which is one of the exceptions that can be made for students who miss important tests, and that she would be allowed to retake the exams in two weeks.

How is it fucking possible?

How is it fucking possible for someone like Elle, who has never done anything even remotely shady in her entire life, to continuously be able to talk her way out of these kinds of problems? A contagious disease? She would have had to pay off a doctor to write that kind of proof for her.

Frustration and rage rip through my soul.

It doesn’t matter what I do, Elle somehow always manages to slink through and come out unharmed in the end.

It is absolutely fucking unbelievable.

She’s not even a rat anymore. At this point, she has leveled up to cockroach. Because she is simply impossible to destroy.

Flexing my hands, I shake my head in anger as I stalk towards her dormitory building. I don’t even know why I’m going there. To threaten her? To admit that I’m secretly really fucking impressed by her? To just outright kill her so that I can get rid of her infuriating presence in my life once and for all? I don’t know. I just know that I need to confront her.

Since I’m not sure if she’s even there, I decide to approach the building from the back so that I can glance in through the window first before I kick the door down and make my threatening entrance.

But I don’t even make it all the way to the window before a familiar voice stops me in my tracks.

The voice is so out of place here that it takes me a few seconds to process it.

When I do, I still need to sneak closer to Elle’s window in order to confirm that it’s really him. But the view does confirm it.

Adam Summers, Elle’s father and the mayor of our hometown, is standing there inside her room. She is sitting on the narrow bed, her hands clasped in her lap and her chin lowered, while he towers over her where he stands two steps away. He has his hands on his hips, and there is a furious expression on his face.

The sight of it shocks me. I’ve seen Adam Summers in public several times, and he has never looked angry. Never lost his composure.

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