Page 104 of Lesson Learned

I felt used in my home, neglected, but Conner? They bred him into a weapon.

I should be horrified, but warmth floods my chest at the thought of him. Warmth and so much love that it’s frightening. If I lost him, it would devastate me. I could pour emotion into him for the next hundred years and still find more.

He’s put himself in danger to save me. I need to repay that favour in kind.

“We should find her,” I say as Floss trembles as a response. “It’s best we stick together for the moment.”

“No.” She jerks away. “He might be with her. If we’re going anywhere, we should find Brooke. Harrison always sticks to her like glue, and he’s got a dozen mates his size who’ll throw down for him.”

I want to tell her she has nothing to fear from James, not any longer, but I can’t without confessing to her. A confession that isn’t just mine to share.

“Okay,” I say, needing to get moving. Once we get to Brooke, I can try again. Maybe she’ll be calm enough in Harrison’s large, friendly presence to talk about what happened, the harm he obviously inflicted to wind her into this agitated state.

I rub my hand under my chin, and it comes away with a smear of blood on it. The wound James caused isn’t deep, but the cut resists healing. I hope that’s not a metaphor that’s going to continue. All I want is for his assaults to be relegated to the past.

The room gets a last glance as I pull the door shut, moving aside so Floss can lock it. Something from the final snapshot niggles at me, tugging like a hook at my brain as she finishes, and we turn in the direction of Brooke’s room.

Then an alarm blares.

I shriek in competition, grabbing hold of Floss’s arm as the steel grates around the lobby bang down, followed in quick succession by the same happening to every window along the corridor.

The overhead shouts a robotic message for all students to move to the cafeteria and I experience a horrendous tug of dread. I reach for my phone, to call Conner, to alert him, but it won’t connect to a service. They’ve put some kind of cell phone blocker into action; a sign that they’re not running a drill.

Better I don’t contact him, anyway. If they’ve found James’ body before they should do, it’ll just drag him further into my mess.

He tried. He tried to save me from what I’d done, and I love and respect him for it, but this is the end of that road. I refuse to catch him in the net of blame that’s about to fall on my head.

And until they arrest me and cuff my hands behind my back, I’m not admitting to anything.

I take Floss’s hand and we head for the cafeteria, following the blared instructions.

It’s only as we reach the door and see the blank walls of steel surrounding the lobby that the fishhook in my brain finally reels in its catch.

The gun.

When we left her room, the desktop was clear.

Floss brought the gun.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX

PAISLEY

I stickto Floss like glue, terrified that in her current distressed state, she might act with disastrous consequences. When she gets a little ahead of me, I loop my arm through hers, not only showing solidarity but slowing her so she doesn’t plough straight into danger.

“What’s happening?” I ask Dex, a boy from my chemistry class.

“Fucked if I know. I’d only just served myself breakfast, and we had to turn all our trays in.”

“Probably so we can’t stab each other with cutlery,” a girl calls from a group standing nearby. “Though if they’re using the shutters, chances are someone’s got a weapon a lot more dangerous than my stainless-steel fork.”

“It’ll be a drill,” Harrison says, though his tight grip on Brooke speaks volumes more about his worry levels. “Like when they spring fire alarms on us out of nowhere just to time how long we take to reach the quad.”

“If it’s a drill, they’re going all out,” Dex says, nodding to where the security guard is stationed with his taser in full view. “They usually have to keep those locked in their vans.”

When I shoot him a frown, he explains, “I asked them to use one once. The guy was so bored he took me through a complete demonstration.”

“They found a body,” a boy calls from across the lobby. He’s tall enough to be commanding if his shoulders weren’t hunched over so far. Dyed black hair frames his pale face, his mouth like a red slash. “I saw them when I was out vaping. They pulled it out from underneath the building.”

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