Page 38 of Surviving in Everton

Ayden just laughs in response. “Oh, I know, but it was priceless. Fuck, we could get her to tell us everything she’s ever done with that spell.” He smirks. “Now, how are we gonna get her to drink it? She’s banned from the bakery right? That would have been easy.”

“Yeah, I haven’t seen her since I kicked her out. What about you, Declan?” Hudson asks.

“Nope, Emma walks herself to class everyday. I haven’t even seen her in the pick-up line come to think of it.” I scratch my beard as I try to remember the last time I saw her. I finally give up and shake my head. “I don’t even remember when I last saw her. Have any of you guys seen her lately?” I ask Nate and the twins.

“You know, now that you mention it, it has been pretty quiet on the Britney front lately. I’ve been so worried about Rowe, I honestly didn’t even notice,” Kayden admits. “I wonder what the fuck she’s been up to. You know when she goes quiet like this, she’s planning something.”

“I wonder if West will help us track her down,” I think out loud.

“I’m sure he will,” Ayden responds. “He seemed really pissed that someone would do that to Rowe. I don’t know what his deal is with her, but I think he wants to find the person that did this almost as much as we do. Now that we know who, and have a plan to get the info we need, I think he’d jump at the chance. Plus, honestly, who wouldn’t wanna take Britney down?” He shrugs. He’s got a point though, I don’t think she has any true friends.

“Well, call him then!” Nate taps his foot impatiently as Ayden rolls his eyes but dials the number and puts it on speaker again.

“What now Ayden? Don’t tell me you didn’t find him,” West answers.

“Ah, no, we found him. Turns out he wasn’t our guy. But he did give us some information that led to us figuring out who our guy is… Or should I saygirl?” Ayden says.

“What? A girl helped him? How do you know that?” We can hear the doubt in his voice.

“Let’s just say, Harris went to Brad for a love potion, when Brad told him no can do, he got pissed. But later, Brad saw him cozied up with a certain shady bitch we all know,” Ayden informs him.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!?” he roars into the phone. “Britney fucking did this?!?” Whoa, Ayden wasn’t wrong, he seems a little too pissed off for someone who has no real connection to Rowe. At least that we know of.

“Yeah, we’ve figured out how we’re gonna get her to tell us everything we need to know, but we just realized none of us have seen her all week,” Ayden explains.

“I’ll call you back,” West responds then hangs up.

“Not really the friendly sort is he?” I ask.

“You’ll get used to him. He’s never really talked to a lot of people. He’s always been a loner, so he comes off as gruff and a bit of an asshole sometimes. But he’s a really nice guy when you get to know him,” Ayden tells me.

His phone ringing puts a stop to that conversation. He answers and puts it back on speaker. “Yeah?”

“Sorry, I was in the middle of something when you called. When do you want me to find her?” he asks.

Well, damn, that’s all it takes? I notice everyone else is stunned by that response as well, so I answer. “Hopefully Rowe will hear from the doctor on Monday. It would probably be a good idea to wait to confront Britney until after we get more information from the doctor,” I suggest. “That gives us time to plan and get the potion ready.”

“Potion? You gonna spell her?” he asks and I can’t tell if he’s upset by that, or intrigued. Dude’s hard to read, especially over the phone.

“Yes. We are,” I declare without a second hesitation.

“Good. Hope the bitch finally gets what’s comin’ for her. Call me when you’re ready for my intel. I’ll keep track of her until then, just to make sure she doesn’t slip away,” he assures us before hanging up again.

“One problem solved. Anyone remember that spell?” Hudson asks.

“I think I still have it in a book somewhere in my room. I’ll look for it.” Ayden jumps up to do that while the rest of us consider the implications of what we’re going to do.

“ How are we going to do this so Britney will go down for everything we get her to confess to, but we don’t go down for spelling her?” Kayden asks.

“I know…” Nate looks entirely too happy with whatever he’s come up with. I think we should probably be scared.

“Oh, god. I don’t like that look on his face,” Hudson voices my concern.

“Yeah, me neither. It’s kinda scary,” Kayden agrees.

Nate's sadistic grin just gets bigger.

“We’re not gonna like this, are we?” I question.

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