Page 67 of The Obsession

The breath rushed out of me. Delilah sagged with relief. Both of us stared at the broken pieces in my hand, and one of us laughed, I wasn’t sure which, but soon both of us were laughing, and it felt so good, so right.

And her reaction was so much better, so much purer than what I’d dared imagine. I’d thought Delilah looked beautiful before, but now she became transcendent. Little worry lines I hadn’t even noticed were there disappeared. Her eyes brightened. She was radiant, completely, wholly. She shone so brilliantly.

“Oh, Logan.” She flung herself at me and grabbed me in a huge hug. “I can’t believe it.”

I laughed, buried my nose in her hair, and inhaled the wholesome scent of her. My god, if I’d only done this sooner…

“Thank you for destroying the video, Logan,” she said. “I’m just—I’m so grateful. I don’t even know what to say.”

I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her close. “You don’t have to say anything.”

Through my happy haze, I heard Delilah say, “You left this at my house the other day.” She pulled something out of her bag. My sport coat. I grinned stupidly and reached for it, frowning when I missed and the coat dropped onto the ground.

Delilah watched as I bent over to pick it up.

“Here, I’ll help you put it on,” she said.

“Naw, I can do it myself,” I said. I shook my head, trying to clear it, and almost fell over. Somehow putting the coat on had become a huge ordeal. Finally, I gave up and raised my hands like a little kid to let Delilah pull the coat on.

An annoying ringtone pealed loud and sharp, shattering the silence. We both froze. Belatedly, I realized it was my phone. I fumbled for it, dropped it on the ground. Mom’s name was blazing across the screen.

“Hey, Mom, can I call you back, I can’t really—” I mumbled, my tongue thick and useless as a slab of meat.

“Logan, why would you do that?” she said. “Your dad and I are mortified.”

“Wha?”

“The school called us. You hit Josh? What’s going on, Logan? They said you were supposed to be at the principal’s office two hours ago and you never showed!”

“But—” I tried to say something more, but none of my muscles worked properly. Josh was right, I shouldn’t have exerted myself at the gym like that—

“I can’t believe—why would you do that, Logan? And the dean at NUS called. I’m so disappointed in you. I can’t believe my own son would plagiarize his college essay! I’ve told him to reject you. Did you think they weren’t going to find out? Did you think because I know the dean, nobody’s going to look at your essay? How could you be so—I just—I have no words.”

But I didn’t, I wanted to say. All that came out was an idiotic, babbly snort.

“Logan? Are you drunk?” Mom asked. “You are in so much trouble right now. Your dad is going to—”

The phone slipped out of my hand. My chest burned freezing hot, because I’d just recalled my study session with Delilah, when she’d asked to read my essay to NUS, I’d left her alone with my computer. I’d thought she was snooping to try and find the video, but now I realized what had happened.

I looked at her, and I couldn’t help the way my upper lip curled up with rage. “Did you do something to my essay?” I asked, tripping over the words. My tongue wasn’t moving properly.

“Why would you do that?” I shouted. Or rather, tried to shout. My words came out all garbled, my tongue a thick, dead thing I couldn’t control. Tears pricked my eyes. Why would she do such a horrible thing? Why would she ruin us like this? How much more shit did I have to take from her before she realized I was right about us? “Stupid bitch,” I growled, reaching out for her.

She dodged to one side as I moved closer, and I lurched forward. My balance was off. My knees buckled under me, and suddenly, Delilah was behind me. How the hell did she move so fast? I tried to turn, and the world spun around me, wild and fast. From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Delilah, and I lunged for her. But she was gone again, and suddenly the river was speeding up to meet me.

Water crashed into my face, so cold, stabbing me like knives. I screamed, and water rushed into my mouth. The freezing onslaught of it woke me up, gave me renewed energy, and I thrashed around. I broke the surface at some point, sucked in a mouthful of air. Delilah ran toward me, panic written all over her face, but as I reached for the bank, something in her features changed. In that split second, she hardened, turned to stone. Gone was the fear on her face. Now she wore the same expression she had when she’d turned into a vengeful Valkyrie and crushed Brandon under his own car.

“Dee, please—”

She lifted her foot and stomped on my injured hand. I screamed, an animalistic sound. Then she reached out, grabbed me by the hair, and in a split second I was back underwater, and it was cold, cold, cold, and the river was sucking everything out of me, relentless, pounding. This was not how it was meant to go. I was going to save her, I was going to—

Chapter Twenty-Two

Delilah

Time lost all meaning, warping, going both fast and slow, trapping me in that moment where I caught hold of the back of Logan’s hair, shoved his head into the water, and held him there. The generous mix of downers I’d put into the hot chocolate—Ambien, mostly, plus a bit of MDMA to really fuck him up—made sure he wouldn’t fight hard enough to actually overpower me. It was too easy, actually, which made it harder. He should have been given a fair chance. Murder shouldn’t be easy. Not like this. It shouldn’t feel natural.

Logan’s arms were floating, the sleeves of his coat ballooning with trapped air.It’s done. No, not yet. I wasn’t stupid enough to let go right away. God help me, I was a natural. I held fast for one more minute, just to be sure. No room for errors, not down this dangerous path. A minute passed. I pried my frozen fingers loose. Logan veered downriver, but his legs were still on the bank, and he stuck fast. I gave him one last push and watched as he floated downriver.

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