Page 42 of Whispers of Obsession

I finish brushing, spit, wipe my mouth, and notice the same dried substance on my lips still.

“Cora!” Slater bellows from downstairs.

Quickly wetting a wash cloth with cold water – no time to wait for the hot to heat up – I scrub my face and lips, the icy temperature helping to shrug off the last crumbs of slumber.

I bend at the waist and take a drink from the tap, wincing at how much my throat hurts, and then I’m halfway down the stairs before Slater has even finished yelling my name again.

Wordlessly, I slide my feet into my shoes and follow my stepbrother out to the car. He’s revving the engine before I’ve even closed my door.

The journey to school is silent, with Slater keeping his eyes firmly on the road. There’s a tense set to his shoulders, but his hands are light on the wheel. He’s such an enigma. Virtually a stranger to me now.

“Thanks for the ride,” I say, mostly to break the tension. As we pull into the school parking lot, Slater looks over at me briefly. After he parks, he faces me fully.

“Can’t trust you to get anywhere on your own safely,” he snarls, and I resist tutting at him and flicking my eyes heavenward. For some reason, I think that might anger him.

“Whatever,” I huff. I don’t want to argue with him. I turn to flee the car, but he stops me with a warm hand on my wrist.

“Wait, I’m sorry.” His hold is firm but gentle, and my pulse comes alive under his touch. He takes a deep breath, but I’ve lost the power to breathe under his stare. “You look pretty today.”

His compliment slams into my chest, and I suck in a shallow breath. Somehow.

“Minus all the…uh, toothpaste, dried on your neck?” He lifts a brow, and I frown.

I can’t tilt my chin down far enough to see what he’s talking about. I could flip the sun visor down to check in the mirror, but I can’t handle this tension for another second longer, so I wrench my wrist free and make a run for it.

Once I’m inside the building, I slow to a walk, keeping my head down. My hand covers my neck self-consciously. I can feel something dried onto my skin, and I’m hoping it’s just a dribble of toothpaste like my stepbrother suggested. I hurry to my locker, planning to grab my books for first period and then make my way to the bathroom before class, but I stop in my tracks when I open my locker and find my phone sitting innocuously in front of my books.

I definitely didn’t leave it here last night.

What’s more, it’s fully charged. Meaning someone took my phone from my home, charged it, and left it in my locker for me to find this morning. But why? And who?

It lights up with an incoming text and vibrates, the sound loud against the metal. Books forgotten, I grab it.

Unknown number

Go to the ladies’ bathroom on the top floor immediately and wait.

Trembling, I close my locker and clutch my phone to my chest like it’s a dirty secret I’m trying to hide.Mr. Spiro.He must have changed his number. My knees shake. Why would he risk coming back to school though? And why reach out to me?

I have half a mind to ignore the message and go to class when another buzzes through. I almost drop my phone.

Unknown number

Don’t keep me waiting. You won’t like what happens next if you do.

I don’t know how I manage to make my feet move, but I do. The fear of what Mr. Spiro will do – the photos and videos I stupidly sent to him flashing through my mind – has me taking the stairs two at a time.

The top floor is deserted. I don’t have any classes up here, so I don’t even know what it’s used for – if it’s used at all. Maybe a throwback to when this was the only high school in town and had a lot more students enrolled, and so every inch of available space was used.

Now we have to compete with the newer, posher school across town that only opened last year, and a lot of parents pulled their kids out of here to go where the grass is greener. Don’t blame them. I would have switched schools too if we were zoned for it or could afford the bus fare. But it means that with fewer butts in seats, the funding is seriously cut, and so there’s a lot of space not being used and falling into disrepair.

The bathrooms are labeled and easy to find. The ladies room is deserted when I enter, and it takes me a moment of feeling along the wall in the dark to locate the light switch. I’m that spooked that it doesn’t even occur to me to use my phone’s light to see better.

“Hello?” I call out weakly. “Is anyone here?”

This time, when my phone vibrates, Idodrop it. Luckily, the screen doesn’t crack.

Unknown number

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