Page 43 of Spearcrest Knight

They’ve worked hard their whole lives to provide for me, to send me to the best school possible. I know how ungrateful they’d think I am if I told them I needed more money. I’ve not even told them I’m applying to universities in the states yet. They think I’m going to Oxford or Cambridge, they have practically already told everyone about it. But I don’t want to escape Spearcrest only to end up somewhere exactly like it.

I just have to find a nice way of saying this to them.

The rest of the afternoon is a write-off. I can barely concentrate on my practice exams. My mind keeps being tugged back towards my parents, towards work, towards the difficult conversations ahead, and beyond that, the uncertain future.

I spend several hours forcing myself to concentrate, but my answers get increasingly worse until I realise I’m doing worse on the practice exams than I was when I arrived at the study hall.

In the end, I pack all my books and leave the study hall, defeat weighing me down. I’ve not had dinner yet, but I’m not hungry. I dump my things in my room and go for a swim, hoping it will release some of the tension building inside my chest.

The pool is empty, half the lights turned off. The water casts shifting dapples of blue light onto the walls and ceiling. Combined with the rush of the rain falling outside the open windows near the ceiling, it makes the pool feel quiet and eerie.

I dive into the water and swim all the way to the bottom. The cold water shocks my system, but my body adjusts quickly. I swim to the surface, breathe, and dip back in. I break into slow, strong laps, up and down, until my body is as tired as my mind.

The sky outside the windows is pitch black by the time I finally take a break, floating on my back on the surface of the water.

I watch the vaulted ceiling, blinking slowly. The glowing blue dapples there tremble and shift ceaselessly, strangely mesmerising. For the first time since receiving Freddy’s text, my mind is quiet.

Then droplets of water splash over my face. I flounder for a second, righting myself in the water as I look around.

My heart sinks.

The last person I could possibly want to see right now is sitting at the edge of the pool, feet tickling the surface of the water.

In my dream last night, Evan wore his school uniform, the tie undone, the crisp white shirt unbuttoned. I was kneeling on marble, and he stared down at me. He held a bottle of expensive champagne, and he tipped it, pouring it down into my open mouth.

His eyes never left mine as I drank, champagne running down my chin and chest. I woke up as shocked and embarrassed as if I’d had the filthiest sex dream, and thanked my lucky star I wouldn’t have to see him until Tuesday.

Of course, my lucky star has never been all that lucky.

If anything—it's more of a cursed star.

14

Treachery

Evan

Sophiealwaysappears,asif conjured by some spell or curse, just when I’m trying my best to get her out of my head. It’s almost as if she can somehow sense what I’m trying to do and chooses that very moment to materialise into my day.

Of course, this time she doesn’t so much materialise into my day as float into it like some dream mermaid.

I’m standing at one end of the pool stretching when I spot her in the water, floating with her arms out and her legs gently paddling. Her dark hair is in a plait, she's wearing a plain black swimsuit and her eyes are wide open as she stares up at the ceiling. She is almost otherworldly in the bluish light of the pool, her skin ghostly in the water.

I end up sitting at the edge of the pool and staring at her. I’m surprised she hasn’t noticed she’s not alone yet, but she is too deep in thought to have any awareness of her surroundings.

Not just deep in thought, but… sort of sad. Melancholy.

It makes my chest clench uncomfortably, and I act on instinct. Kicking out my foot, I send a tiny wave of water splashing towards her face.

She’s startled, and flounders for a moment in the water, arms splashing as she rights herself. She turns around and faces me. The sad look on her face is gone, replaced by a frown. “Are you following me?”

I scoff. If only she knew that it’s quite the opposite, that I’ve only come here tonight to clear my mind of her. But the last thing Sophie needs is for me to give her the ammo she needs to shoot me with.

“Areyoufollowingme?” I fire back. “You know I’m on the swim team. I doubt you're here by pure coincidence.”

“I happen to come here every other day,” she says coolly, “I’ve never bumped into you before.”

“Every other day, huh?” I lock that useful morsel of information away in my mind for later use. “That’s a lot of exercise for a scholar like you, Sutton.”

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