Page 83 of A Vicious Rumor

"Nah man," the one of them said.

"Hey, think she'll do that for me?" the other one said with a laugh. I didn't even hesitate before putting a fist into his jaw. He landed on the ground, clutching his face. People around me started to gather, and I'd had enough of it.

"All of you can mind your fucking business!" I yelled at them. "Or I swear to God you're next," I added.

That seemed to do it, and people started to shuffle towards wherever they were headed. I made my way to the nearest staircase, intent on starting at the bottom of the school and working my way to the top to find Lily. Instead, I ran into Paper.

"Have you seen Lily?" I asked him.

He shook his head. I pulled out my phone and held the screen up to him. "Have you seen this?"

He nodded.

"Can you do anything about it?"

"Who released it?"

"Who do you think?" I responded.

"Kitty," he said, more as a statement than a question.

"Kitty," I confirmed.

"Yes, I'll handle it."

"I gotta find Lily," I said to him. "But, I need to talk to you at some point about the investment."

Paper furrowed his brow. "What investment?"

“In my dad’s company.”

"I assure you, I've not made any investment in your father's company."

My heart began to beat rapidly as my stomach dropped. "What do you mean? What happened to the money from the summer?"

"I invested it," he clarified, "in a variety of other places so that it could grow and turn into something useful for your father's business. It was far too low a sum to make any difference considering what your father owed."

"We gotta talk man," I said. "But not now."

"Don't forget about this afternoon." He was talking about the fight, the thing that had started all of this mess.

"Yeah, I know," I said, rushing off down the stairs.

I'd skipped all my classes for the second half of the day and still hadn't been able to find her. If I knew her class schedule, I would have just shown up to her classes, but I didn't and the whole thing was irritating.

Paper had managed to get Kitty's nonsense taken down, but not before it had already done serious damage. I could hear the hushed whispers in the hallway when I walked by. People were definitely talking about me and Lily. It was pretty sickening, actually. You really couldn't tell from the video that the girl I was with was Lily, but of course, people were highly suggestible and didn't question it.

The bell sounded, signaling the end of the day, and there was a rush of students walking this way and that on their way to better things. I tried to just stand back and watch out for Lily, but I knew the task was hopeless. The Academy was far too large. It would have been sheer luck for me to run into her.

A buzz in my pocket had me pulling out my phone. It was Paper sending a wide message. "This afternoon's event has been postponed due to a faculty tip off. It will be held at dusk. Location to follow closer to the start time."

I shook my head in disbelief. I never thought to check the administrative offices for Lily. It was entirely possible that she was the one that had gone to the faculty and told them about the fight. It would have been just like her to do something like that. Plus, with me being out of class, there's no way that the administration could have called me to the principal's office if they wanted to scold me. Not that they would have, but more for appearances than anything else.

I let out a sigh. I'd been really looking forward to landing a few good punches on Scissors. My stress levels were at an all-time high and it was basically all his fault anyways. Now I had to wait an entire fucking afternoon in order to give him what he deserved. Plus, I was highly irritated by the fact that I was still unable to find Lily anywhere.

I thought about trying to sneak into Scissors' house to see if she was there, but I knew she wouldn't be so dumb to go there. I'd just have to wait it out until later today and see what happened. I had a feeling that despite what she said, she was still going to turn up.

LILY

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