People Like Us(41)

“Sorry. Look, it’s not prison worthy. Just talk to her and tell her to ditch the evidence. The others have been pretty incriminating. Drugs, sex scandal, murder.”

“I don’t know if an animal counts as murder.”

Fear flashes in Nola’s eyes. “It counts as something. You said yourself they think it’s connected to Jessica’s murder. The point is, this one isn’t actually that bad. Just tell her now before it goes public.”

A thought crosses my mind. “Do you think we can stop that by just removing her name from the class roster? I mean, Tai might have been kicked out, but Tricia chose to leave, and you never had to.”

“Why is the class roster so important?”

“Maybe one website is linked to the other or something? I don’t really understand codes and algorithms and matrices.”

Nola holds up a hand. “You’re embarrassing yourself. I get what you’re saying, though. One might be programmed to detect an alteration to the other.”

I show her the email from Jessica again. “It doesn’t say the targets have to drop out. But the names have to be removed and I have to follow the instructions in the poems.”

“Which means you have to ‘knock her down.’ That sounds like a public callout to me.” Nola pauses. “So what did you do?”

The perfect lie is a misplaced truth. “Dear Valentine. Same as everyone else.”

We make our way downstairs, where every carrel and table is packed with students poring over books. Nola stops suddenly halfway down the grand wooden staircase that cascades down through the center of the main floor, and grabs me around the waist. She hooks her chin over my shoulder and places her cold hand under my jaw, slowly turning my skull down and to the left. Cori is sitting in a carrel across from Maddy, right in the center of the room, books spread out all around them.

“Do it now and it’s over,” Nola whispers.

I suddenly wish Brie were here, but she would tell me not to do it, and I don’t have a choice. I don’t think I could follow through with this if she were watching. I swallow hard and descend the rest of the stairs.

Cori looks up when I reach her side, but she doesn’t say anything, nor does she smile. Maddy gives me a little wave, then glances at Cori nervously.

“Can we step outside for five?” I whisper.

“No,” Cori says at a normal speaking volume. Several people look up, annoyed.

Holly Gartner glares up at me. “‘Ask not for whom the bell tolls,’” she says under her breath.

I look down at her. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

Holly folds her arms over her chest defiantly. “Whose life did you come to ruin today?” The other girls at her table exchange glances.

I’m astounded, not just that she used almost the same words Spencer threw at me casually a few days ago, but because she would normally never dare to speak to me this way. No one would.

Cori turns back to her book. “Tai, Tricia, then Holly. Give me your best shot, Kay.”

I throw up my hands. “Fine, Cori. You know what you did.”

Holly stands up and gets in my face. “What did I do?”

Nola pushes her with her shoulder. “Kay wasn’t talking to you.”

I pull Nola aside. “Thanks. I’ve got this.” Holly is roughly one and a half times Nola’s size. Good intentions will not result in a happy ending if she’s in a dramatic mood. I turn to Holly. “Let’s talk about this before next practice. Right now I need to straighten something out with my friend.”

Cori slams her book shut. “Nope. Not friend. We don’t even hang out anymore. You spend all your time with Necro Morticia Manson herself. I don’t know whether you’re besties with benefits or without, but I hope she’s damn good at something. Because she’s creepy as hell and she’s turning you into a freak.”

I glance at Nola, who is just looking at Cori with narrowed eyes and lips pressed tightly together. I feel like she’s waiting for me to say something, but I’m so angry, my jaw feels wired shut. I turn back to Cori, my face growing hotter, my eyes burning, aware that everyone has stopped studying and is watching us.

“You embarrassed yourself and your entire team by letting Nola play. You embarrass us by hanging out with her. You never ever went against the group before Nola. Now you ruin lives. Tai. Tricia. You want to try me, be my guest, bitch. Your credibility is gone. Everyone thinks you’re crazy. Maddy thinks you’ve lost it.”

Maddy gets up. “Cori, that’s not okay.”

“Shut up, Notorious.”

“I never said that, Kay.” She grabs her books and runs out of the room through a stunned crowd.

Cori takes a step toward me and keeps talking in her terrifying, rapid-fire speech. “Even Brie says you’re a lost cause. So until you pull your shit together, I am not interested in continuing this paranoid conversation, or any other one.” She sits and opens her book again.

I pick her textbook up and drop it to the ground. “Why are you even pretending? You don’t need to study if you have the exams in advance. You’re a cheater. And you can go crying to Klein to protect you from consequences, but now everyone knows it.”

For a moment, the entire room is silent as if muffled by a blanket of snow. Then Cori speaks again, with deadly calm.