Page 82 of Bewitch

“Talking and looking aren’t crimes,” she protests.

“He might move on from you if you keep ignoring him, but the next girl… what if he’s bolder with her? What if he takes it too far? What if he makes a move that isn’t wanted? You telling me about it is one thing, and my mom said she’ll look into this, and she’s working on getting me his schedule, but I want—”

“I don’t want him to be fired if I’m just imagining things,” she protests.

“And that might be what he’s hoping. He’s gaslighting you into thinking that what he’s doing isn’t all that bad, but your feelings are important. Your gut is right.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know you, and I know that you aren’t the kind to freak out about small matters.”

She smiles. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Any chance you have Melody’s number?”

“Yes.” Eliza gives it to me. “Are you going to talk to her?”

I nod.

“Mind if I come with you?” she asks, her tone almost desperate. “I thought Kaylie would be back by now, but she’s taking longer, and I don’t want to be alone right now.”

“Sure thing.”

I figured I would just call Melody, but Eliza calls her up and asks if the three of us can hang out. Melody agrees. She’s down on the first floor, and we knock on her door a few minutes later.

“Come in,” she calls.

Eliza enters first. “Hey, Melody. This is Dawn.”

“Hi,” Melody and I say at the same time.

We make some small talk for a little bit, and then I give Eliza a look.

She fidgets a bit and then murmurs, “Melody, do you remember when I asked you about Carl?”

“The janitor?” Melody flinches and looks at me. “Did he do something to you too?”

I shake my head. “No, but I’m trying to see if there’s something there.”

“Her mom’s on the board,” Eliza says, sitting forward on the edge of Melody’s bed. “Anything you can tell her—”

“He will just watch me, all creepy like,” Melody says. “He hasn’t talked to me much, not since I lost it on him.”

“You lost it on him?” I repeat.

“He would ask me all the time about how I was, if I could pick up something in front of him, something that I was pretty sure that he dropped himself just to ask me to pick up, and I told him that was his fucking job and to leave me alone.”

I let out a low whistle. “He hasn’t talked to you since?”

“She said much,” Eliza points out.

“He asked me how I am twice since that time even though I’ve passed him ten times now. I used to avoid him, but I’ve stopped doing that, and I think he’s backed off, but there are times when I feel like I’m being watched. I don’t check to see if I’m right or not, if it’s him or not, but I think it is. I don’t want to know, though. At least he hasn’t said anything to me in an entire week.”

I nod slowly. “Can I give you my number? If he does anything, says anything to you, let me know. Film him. I told Eliza to as well. If you find out from any other girls that he’s creeping on them, ask them to contact me please.”

“I could give you names now,” Melody says. “I’m not sure they’ll want to talk to you, but…”

And she gives me a list of three names.

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