Chapter 37
“So… maybe he’s just hoping you’ll call him instead of snooping around,” Lucy said just before she shoved another cheese-covered french fry into her mouth. Her full mouth should have deterred her from saying more, but it didn’t. “Maybe he’s the good cop.”
“He’s not a cop.” Emma rolled her eyes. “He’s a drug dealer.”
I held back a giggle. “She’s not being serious, Em. It’s just a saying. Good cop/bad cop.” Sometimes Emma couldn’t tell when people were being serious. She also wasn’t good at plays on words, puns, or idioms.
“Oh,” she replied, chewing on her ham and cheese sandwich. “Well, if Elliott is the good cop, who’s the bad one?”
“Aaron,” Lucy replied, sticking her finger in her mouth to remove the last bits of cheese before reaching for a napkin. “He tried to blame everything on his boss, right? Saying he couldn’t tell you stuff or Aaron would get mad?”
“Yes.” That was the impression I’d gotten anyway. I’d called both of my friends the evening before to go over everything with them, but this was the first time we’d gotten a chance to talk about it in person. I had warned them both about how serious Elliott had gotten when I’d asked about Jamie and how he seemed to think we should let this whole thing go, but both of them were undeterred, though it had given Lucy chills when I explained that Elliott knew both of their names. But then, I thought it was possible he’d gotten that information out of my phone. Everything was starting to blur together for me, and I wasn’t sure what to think about much of anything anymore.
“So, your sister never came home yesterday?” Lucy asked. “She went shopping with Eliza and then went straight to Kansas City?”
“I guess so,” I said with a shrug. “I sent her a text last night before I went to bed, and she said she was in KC having a blast, and she’d call me soon.” Cadence’s messages hadn’t been long, and I hadn’t pressed her. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to be exactly forthcoming with information.
“I just wish I knew what it was about mentioning Jamie that had set him off,” Lucy thought aloud before taking a swig of her pop and moving the empty can back away from her.
“I have no idea.” I had been wondering about that, too. “The only thing I can come up with is that he didn’t think I knew about Jamie, so when I did, it threw him off.”
“Why wouldn’t you know about him, though? People have been talking about him at your house.” Emma wadded up her napkin and shoved it into her plastic sandwich bag.
“Right, but they didn’t realize I’d been eavesdropping. It must’ve been an eye opener to Elliott that I know more than I should know if all I knew is what they had told me.”
Both of my friends went over that again in their heads before either of them spoke. “Well, I went over the social media accounts on both of them and couldn’t find anything,” Emma said. “No links to accounts for Elliott, Aaron, or Christian.”
“The information I found out about vampires does seem to suggest it is possible,” Lucy said, avoiding eye contact with Emma who was still skeptical of our theory about the undead. “And it would make sense that Elliott wouldn’t want to mention that to you.”
“Right.” I didn’t know what else to say. Of course, he wasn’t going to come out and tell me he was a vampire--and so is my sister. “The only thing is, he said that his associates didn’t kill Drew.”
“There could be warring factions of vampires,” Emma offered. I stared at her for a moment, wondering if this meant she was starting to give in to our theory. She shrugged. “That doesn’t mean that I believe in any of it, but isn’t it possible that your sister is on one side of a vampire conflict?”
“That is a good point,” I agreed. “I mean, even in Twilight, not all of the vampires are on the same side.”
“Why does everything have to come back to Twilight?” Lucy asked. “There are other vampire books, movies, TV shows.”
“I know,” I shrugged. “It’s just the one I know the best, I guess.”
“Maybe we should call Stephanie Meyer and ask her if she thinks your sister is a vampire.” Lucy laughed at her own joke.
“I bet a lot of people ask her questions like that.” Emma was quite serious. “They must think she is the foremost expert on vampirism.”
Before I could say more, I realized Liam was crossing the cafeteria, headed right for us. I took a deep breath and tried not to choke on it. “Hey, ladies,” he said, that winning smile beaming down on us as he pulled out a chair between Emma and I and had a seat. “How’s it going?”
Lucy had declared just a few days ago that she was totally over him. She shrugged and began to play with her fingernails. “Hey, Liam,” she said, bored.
Emma said nothing, only stared at him, as if he had intruded into our private conversation and couldn’t be excused. She had her arms folded on the table and was peering at him behind her glasses.
“Hi Liam,” I said, once words could escape my lips again. “What’s going on?”
“Well, I was just wondering if I could come over and get some help with my algebra this afternoon,” he replied, smiling at me. My insides began to melt. “I mean, if you think your parents won’t mind.”
“No.” His eyebrows raised, and I took a deep breath to try again. “I mean, no, they won’t mind. You can come over.”
His countenance changed and his eyebrows lowered. “Cool. Right after school work for you?”
“Sure. You can ride home with us if you want. My mom won’t care. She can take you home when we’re done.” The thought of having Liam in my car made my pulse race. From this day forward, whenever I got into my mom’s vehicle, I would smell hints of Axe Apollo body spray.
“Cool,” Liam said again. He brushed his bangs out of his right eye. “I’ll text my mom and let her know. Meet you out front after school?”
“You got it.” I tried to sound cool, but I knew it came out like something a goofy little kid would say. Still, I couldn’t help but stare after him as he got up and sauntered away.
“Gag,” Lucy said, shaking her head.
“What?” I asked, turning on her like a mama bear protecting her cub.
“What?” she repeated. “He’s such a fake. I’m totally over it.”
“I know. You told me that already.” It was fine with me if Lucy didn’t have any interest in Liam. That was just one less girl who’s way cuter than me trying to get him to ask her out. I told her that the other day, and she rolled her eyes, insisting I was cuter than her. Luckily, Emma had been there to tell Lucy her eyes were prettier, but I had a nicer smile. Good ol’ honest Em.
“I just think you need to be careful,” Lucy said, shaking her head. “I think he’s using you for your computation skills.”
“So, you think a guy like Liam could never like me? Thanks.” I gathered up my tray and my empty Dr. Pepper can.
“It’s not that,” Lucy proclaimed, following behind me. I was walking pretty quickly, though, and she rushed to keep up. I wished I could walk as fast as Cadence. “It’s not that at all. He’s just not a genuine person, Cass.”
I tossed my trash into the garbage can and stepped out of the way so other students could get by. I really didn’t want anyone else to overhear our discussion, so I thought about cooling it, but it really did irritate me that Lucy said I was prettier than her but still didn’t think Liam could like me. “Whatev,” was about all I could manage for the moment. I could tell Lucy wanted to say more, but she didn’t. Her eyes were wide in frustration, and maybe a bit of sadness. We hardly ever fought, and I didn’t want to let Liam come between us.
“Liam is a jerk.”
I turned and looked at Emma. She shrugged and headed off toward her next class without saying anything more or offering any sort of apology for her bluntness.
Catching Lucy’s eyes, I mumbled, “I’ve gotta go,” and headed toward Mr. Delgado’s World History class. I knew I’d see Lucy again for Biology later, and by then, we’d be back to normal. I just hated the thought of fighting with her at all, but now that she knew so much about what was going on with my family, it was even worse. It crossed my mind that she could start spreading rumors about me, about my sister killing Drew, or the fact that I thought Cadence might be a vampire, and in a matter of minutes, my reputation would be ruined. I knew Lucy Burk well enough to think she’d never do that, but it was just an illustration of how deeply I’d grown to depend on my two best friends, especially now that they were the only normalcy I seemed to have in my whole life.
