A String of Secrets

Chapter 11

Once all the students cleared out from the library, I made a prediction that the police would go through cameras to see if they could catch anything in the science building. I hoped that they would catch something. Anything.

While walking to my car, I heard a student crying to one of the officers. I assumed that she was the one who found the body. I heard broken phrases such as It's horrible and There was so much blood.

I had no doubt that Professor Anderson's throat was slit like the other victims. I thought we would have more time to establish a pattern before the killer struck again, but I was wrong. I got into my car -- double checked that no one was inside of it -- and checked my reflection in the mirror of the visor.

My gloss was smeared, and my lips were slightly swollen.

At the memory of Eli's bruising kiss in the library, -- my back pushed against the shelf, his hands tight on my waist and his lips on my neck -- that forbidden mixture of molten heat, sparks and want flooded my body again.

That stupid feeling in my stomach resurfaced when I thought about the small flush on his face, or the look in his eyes that indicated he was about one more kiss from hate fucking me right there in the library.

I shook myself out of my daze, started my car, and started driving to the restaurant where I had planned to meet Dana.

Still, my heart wouldn't stop racing, and though my brain was focusing on the road, the rest of my body focused on what it wanted. A part of me felt wrong and even guilty. This is all so wrong. Eli and I hate each other. I kissed the man I hated and felt more than I ever did with the man I dated for half a year. What does that even say?

I tightened the grip on my steering wheel and got ready to turn down a street. I'm only reacting like this because I hadn't been kissed in almost a year. Besides, I did it because he told me to make him shut up. Punching him would've gotten me in trouble and stabbing him is illegal. But enough about Eli, for fuck's sake. We have work to do.

When my stomach grumbled impatiently for probably the fourth time in the last hour, I rolled my eyes. And food to eat.

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"There you are!" Dana exclaimed happily when I arrived at the restaurant and saw her waiting for me.

I sat in the seat across from her, and at the sight of her usual smile, my stomach twisted. I wanted answers about what I heard in the bar, but I knew she wouldn't give them to me no matter how I asked her. I thought about our friendship and how close we all were. Would Dana really play a part in Alex's murder? Was all of it fake?

"Sorry, I'm late," I said quietly.

"Are you alright?" She asked as her smile fell. Her face twisted in worry, and my heart thudded in my chest at the possibility of her concern being an act.

I found Alex's keychain in the woods between the Trail and Phantom's Campsite.

I saw you talk to Isla about someone who was murdered, and it's clear you're hiding something severe.

Professor Anderson was murdered. The killer was right on campus and I had no clue.

"Mari?" Dana's voice was careful, and she reached across the table to gently grab my hand. "What's going on? You can talk to me."

The truth was that I did want to talk to Dana, but a part of me was so scared. "I had a small panic attack in the bathroom earlier," I said, choosing something that was at the bottom of the list of bullshit that happened.