Page 61 of A Scandal in Homeroom
“Hmm. Yes. I didn’t think he had it in him to actually hurt Wick like that, but it seems you never really know what a person is capable of until they’re pushed far enough. I know I wasn’t aware of what I was capable of until they shut down the home.”
I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I never talked about those last days at Thornfield. I didn’t even share them with Janie. I wanted to spare her. Protect her innocence for a little while longer. We’d been only fourteen, but in so many ways we weren’t.
Heath certainly hadn’t been.
He couldn’t know, could he? What I’d reported? No one knew but me and Mrs. Darcy. We’d been the only two people in the room.
“You should confess to him about the List. To Fitz. If he finds out you were behind it the whole time, he’s going to be pissed.”
“Fitz has his own problems to worry about right now and you don’t know anything. Let me repeat that for you, Adler, slowly so you’ll get it through your pretty little head. You. Don’t. Know. Anything.”
I shrugged. “Whatever.”
“See you later.”
He turned then and walked away, and I was left with a weird sensation in my gut. The way he saidlater,like he was implying something would happen later today, exacerbated the unease I felt.
I waited until he was out of sight before heading to the Acme for the milk. My gut getting tighter with every step.
What if I’d played this all wrong?
What if I should have told Beth what I suspected?
What if she found out it was Heath, and I knew about it all this time, and she hated me for it?
All of this could explode in my face, but there didn’t seem any safe way to turn. Locke hated me. Beth could potentially freeze me out. There was only Janie, who would be so incredibly disappointed in me for not sharing what I suspected.
It wasn’t like I had proof!
The lame defenses were already building in my brain.
Buy milk. That’s all I could think about right now. Go to the store. Buy milk. Bring it back to the Sumners.
Then I could figure out what came next.
14
Later that Afternoon
Reen
This was crazy. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the List and what I knew. The only way out of this mess was just to come clean. Tell Beth everything I suspected and let her decide if I should have shared earlier or not. We were friends. Friends could get through shit. I was almost positive. I just had this crazy feeling that if I didn’t tell her everything now, if somehow she found out from someone else, that it might be worse.
So why was I behaving like a chicken shit, hiding in the woods when Beth was already here?
Wait. Holy shit. Was that Heath walking toward her? What the hell was he doing here?
It was like the thoughts formed in my head. I knew. I already knew what he was here to do. He was going to make me the fall guy. He was going to make everyone think I was behind the List. It was his way out.
I booked it out of the woods, running directly towards her.
“Beth! No, don’t trust him!”
I pulled up to catch my breath and we both turned at the sound of another car door shutting. Awesome, now Fitz was here, too. This felt too planned. Had Heath just guessed I was going to come clean to Beth? Or more likely, he followed me.
“Did you text Fitz, too?” Beth asked me.
I shook my head.
