Page 30 of The Knight

"I'd love to room with Holly again—if she's okay with it. Temporarily or... otherwise."

"Good." Holly doesn't look over when I glance at her surreptitiously, wondering what she's thinking. "Brenna, if you could just sign this agreement, we'll get your ID card programmed to open the door to your old room, and a few volunteers will be by to help you move your stuff."

The agreement, which I skim curiously, basically states that I don't hold Coleridge liable for the sewer leak, or any resulting health issues related to it. How brutally rich of them to think that I could sue the school in the first place. I sign it, because I don't really have any other option, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get the Black Plague from briefly stepping into a dirty room. Trust Coleridge to have a form like this ready to go less than an hour after I found the leak in the first place.

"Alright." I pass the form back, still feeling a bit like I'm in a dream. "Is that it?"

"That's it. You're ready to go."

I follow Holly out the office door, a thousand questions and a million words gathering inside me, waiting to burst out of my mouth. It takes all my strength to stay quiet long enough to let her speak first.

In a low, severe voice she says, "You will not steal from me again."

"I won't." Meeting her green eyes straight on, I try to convey with my face just how much I mean it. "I swear it, Holly. Everything I did was so stupid and so,soshitty. I won't do something like that again."

After studying me for a moment, she nods sharply. "This doesn't make us friends again."

"Of course," I say lightly, though it pains me not to beg her to let me back into her good graces. "Whatever you want, whatever pace you choose... it's all up to you. I won't push anything. I swear, Holly, you won't regret this."

She wrinkles her nose. "God, you sound so anxious. Calm down a little—it'll be okay. I wasn't gonna let you live in that sewer room. I'm not a vindictive person. One time my best friend in middle school cut all my hair off in my sleep."

"What did you do?" I ask, as she leads me towards my new-but-not room.

"I rolled with it. Turned the whole thing into a new hairstyle—an asymmetrical bob before they were even a thing. Can you believe people actually bought into it? A few girls even brought a photo of me to their hair dressers."

I can believe anyone would do anything just because Holly did it first. She's a natural trendsetter, the kind of girl who would make you want to buy a stupid tea based on an Instagram post, because she looks so flawless and laid-back that ofcourseyou'll look the same if you just drink the tea. What's worse is that Holly wouldn't shill something like that in the first place, because she's not the type to take advantage of her good looks or privilege, which takes all the bite out of being envious of her.

Her light is the kind that spills over onto other people and makes them glow in the most amazing ways.

One day, hopefully before I leave Coleridge, I want to stand in that light once more.

* * *

Two Days Later

"On a Wednesday?" I frown at Cole, uncertain if he's fucking with me. "You're really sure that Hass is going tobuy girlson a Wednesday? Of all days?"

Cole shoves some of his lunch in his mouth and talks around it, as if he wasn't raised by rich parents who probably taught him how to use a salad fork when he was four years old. "Wednesday is when the private airport is closed for new flights, and they only close it when someone has bought it out for something special, so it's the only day he could be flying 'em in. Also, I had Tanner contact Hass's dealer, and he told Tanner that if he wanted any molly he better get it before tonight."

"Tonight it is." Even though I've been preparing for this for weeks, practically salivating at having my chance, suddenly my palms are sweaty and my stomach is doing flip flops now that it's finally here. "I can't believe it. I mean... we're really going to do it."

Tanner pipes in. "Mostlyyou'regoing to do it."

"What do you mean?" I look back and forth between him and Cole, then over at Lukas, who's frowning at Tanner, and Blake, who's basically ignoring all of us in favor of pouring over some book he probably got from the restricted access section of the library. "You guys are going with me tonight, right? I mean, it's off campus and I don't have a car. Or off campus privileges. Or a camera to film any of it with."

"We'll go with you," Lukas reassures me, though he darts a look over at Cole to confirm. "Right? I mean, why wouldn't we?"

"We're needed here, on campus. While Hass is out on his little drug mission, we've got something closer to home to take care of. Something that's none of Brenna's business.”

I stare at him. "You can't be serious. There's no way I can do this alone."

"You can have my car," Cole says casually. "And Lukas's camera. But the four of us have to take care of something. Besides, how hard can it be? He's doing the handoff at a private airport. Just park the car on the shoulder of the road, roll down the window, and aim a telephoto lens at him. I'm sure you'll get enough for a warrant of his place, and once the feds find the girls, that's all they'll need. Just be sure to post pictures and video on your little blog with the most salacious headline you can come up with—the guillotine-lovers and SEO will do the rest." He smirks. "You know how much our generation slathers at the thought of eating the rich and guilty. Give them what they want, and Hass will be viral by tomorrow before classes are even over."

He makes it all sound so easy—too easy. I haven't been off campus alone since the night of the kidnapping, though, and despite myself, I'm afraid of Hass. He has a temper—I've seen that firsthand with Georgia. If he catches me taking pictures of him, whether I'm in a sports car or not, I may not be able to get away before he does something to me.

And I don't think that a little knife will be enough to scare him off a second time.

I find myself looking at the one person here I trust to defend me: Lukas. He's frowning at Cole, and when he meets my eyes, I can tell he's thinking of stepping in and saying something.

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