Page 33 of Delilah In Discretion

“About time you showed—”

I spoke in a low tone, cutting her off. “I think Benjamin and Reginald know what happened the night of the auction.”

Kimiko stared at me as if she couldn’t believe it. “They know?” she whispered, and I sighed.

“Yes. Maybe? I don’t know. They were just acting weird—” I began, and we both went quiet as George exited the car and came over to open the door for us.

I smiled at him. “You didn’t have to, George... We were eventually going to get in.”

He gave me a knowing look. “Keyword:eventually, Delilah.”

We thanked him as we entered the car, and he returned to the front. He pulled off, and Kimi and I stayed quiet as tension was building in the car. Feeling it, George sighed as he lifted the partition and blocked himself from our conversation.

We looked back at each other simultaneously, and she was the first to speak.

“You could be overthinking this... Maybe they know something else?” she said, trying to reason otherwise, but we both didn’t want to admit what could be true.

“They noticed my change in routine. They know something is up,” I muttered, and she rolled her eyes.

“Can’t they occupy their time with other things than the personal lives of other people?”

“Unfortunately, their job description must require them to be overly involved in everyone else’s business,” I muttered, shaking my head.

Eventually, we reached the school grounds, and George opened the door for us to step out. I thanked him one last time, and we made our way inside to our classes.

“What do you want to do for our free period?” I asked Kimi as I walked her to her first class, which was on the way to my first.

She made a face. “Actually... The board has shifted my free period to be when I meet with a few council members so we can have meetings as frequently as possible.”

“Oh,” I said softly, and the mood instantly shifted.

Kimiko stopped walking and grabbed my arm softly.

“I’m sorry, Dee. I know we haven’t spent much time together, but—”

I shook my head. “It’s okay, Kimi, really. You’re literally the president now. I can’t have you all to myself now, can I? You have the whole school to worry about now.”

“You know I’ll worry about you first, Delilah. What will you do in that time?” she asked, and I shrugged.

“I could go study in the library or do something else. It doesn’t matter; I’ll be fine, Kim-Kim,” I said, and she gave me a sad smile as she hugged me and entered her class.

“I’ll see you in a few.”

I nodded and walked to my class, holding back a sigh.

I’ll be fine.

A few hours went by, and I entered the library to do a bit of studying. I loved Kimi to death, and I didn’t want her to feel bad about not coddling me. So I had to suck it up, despite me missing her protectiveness as we roamed the halls together.

Sitting on one of the tables designated for studying, I unpacked my things and opened my laptop to begin. I heard someone sigh heavily, and I couldn’t help but turn to look in their direction for a split second. I wasn’t expecting to see Brad, the former president, sitting with piles of work. I stood up and walked over to him slowly.

“Hey, Brad,” I said, and he looked up at me as if he hadn’t slept in days. My heart sank. “What’s the matter? You look exhausted,” I asked.

He looked around the room for a moment to see if anyone was near, then he responded, looking back at me, “I’m paying Luca’s price for not winning the election.”

I took a seat beside him. “What do you mean, paying the price?”

“I-I’m not really supposed to say...” he said, trying to look back at the book before him, but I closed it quickly, causing him to jump.

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