Page 105 of Spearcrest Knight

Inside, everything is warm and brown and gold, the silence undisturbed and the air rich with the smell of paper and leather.

Zachary is in his usual spot at a desk hidden amongst bookshelves, and I pull a chair to sit next to him. He doesn’t look up from the essay he’s calmly typing into his laptop.

“Well?” I prompt him.

“Well, what?” he asks, raising an eyebrow but not looking away from his essay.

“Well, what happened yesterday?”

Zachary stops typing. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean, you jackass. Tutoring. Bea told me that she was tutoring you before she swapped with Sophie.”

“Yes,” Zachary nods. “It went well, thank you.”

I glare at him. He ignores me, so I shove my face against his so that he can see my frown from up close.

“What do you want, exactly?” Zachary says, pushing my face away from his with one hand. “Do you want a minute-by-minute breakdown of everything that happened during our session?”

I nod eagerly. “That would be a great start!”

“Well, we met in E30, I was reading some critical theory essays of Jane Austen, you know, the anthology you’ve never touched?”

I roll my eyes at him and he continues. “Then Sophie came in, she sat down. I told her about my academic goals in regard to English Literature. We swapped copies ofPersuasionto share notes, then exchanged our critical theory notes based on the reading we’d done. We did this for two hours. At the end of the two hours, I thanked her and left.”

“And then?”

“And then, what? Then I went to eat supper, went back to my room, did some more work and went to sleep. I wore my bespoke blue pyjamas that you always make fun of.”

“I don’t care about any of that!”

“Then don’t ask!”

We glare at each other. But Zachary isn’t stupid, he knows what I want to know. He’s just choosing to be obtuse, probably because my torment amuses him. My stare turns into a glare.

“What did Sophie say about me?”

Zachary shakes his head. “Nothing at all. She didn’t mention you once.”

“What! What didyousay?”

“About you?”

“Yeah!”

“We met so that she could tutor me for English Literature, not to discuss the long and complex history between you two.”

I’m almost speechless from the shock of this betrayal. “You didn’t mention me?”

“Was I supposed to?”

“You’re—argh! Zach! Those tutoring sessions are meant to bemine!”

Zachary shrugs. “Is it my fault you made her quit?”

“I didn’t—” I start defending myself then stop since it’s not entirely wrong that I made Sophie quit. “Alright, I messed up, but now she’s tutoring you, I thought you could—why don’t you—”

“What is it you want me to do, exactly?”

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