Nor (Wattpad Featured Story, WriteAffair finalist)

Chapter 39: The Girls

Brooke comes looking for me at school during lunch the next day. I'm almost at the cafeteria when she suddenly pops up next to me, her hand finding my shoulder.

"What – ?"

"Sullivan, I want to talk to you."

"Well, I want to eat."

"You can eat later. Come on." She drags me off down the hall, pulling me this way and that, making me wonder where we're going. Finally, she ducks down a staircase all the way to the bottom where the rooms are for storage rather than classes. Instead of taking the hall however, she whips right round the railing and under the stairs, into a dark, hidden space laid with mops, buckets and brooms. There's a potent smell here, but it doesn't seem to bother her.

"And why am I here?" I ask her slowly, holding my nose in the shadows.

She sighs, turning over a bright red bucket and sitting on it. Oh, how glamorous she looks. "You were with Glenn Costa for a while, weren't you?"

"Uh, what?" I am taken aback. My relationship with Glenn was pretty hush-hush, and the last person I'd expect to start talking to me about it is Brooke. Even Pia and Brian didn't know about him. Besides, I don't like to be reminded of Glenn. I was disappointed by him. Or betrayed, I'm not sure which. "How do you know?"

"He came down here once, didn't he? To pick you up?"

Oh, right, on his bike which I didn't want to get on. "So?" So you have the hots for him and want my permission to go out with him? Go ahead! You guys seem to have plenty in common from what I can see – you're both major jerks.

"I talked to him the other day."

"The other day?"

"Yeah. I live a few blocks from him."

"Oh. I didn't know that."

"Yeah. We've been in the same neighborhood for years. I'd been wanting to ask him for a while what was going on between you two, but apparently, you guys have already broken up. Is that right?"

"Yeahhh. So?"

She nods thoughtfully, like this is some new scientific fact to wrap her mind around. "Is it true that you're a Watcher?"

He told her. I can't believe it. I will kill him. I will TORTURE him.

Brooke mistakes my angry silence for guilt. "You are, aren't you?"

"No."

She laughs, seeing right through me. "Unbelievable. I never would have guessed it – Daniel S.'s daughter himself. But Glenn said that was exactly it, that you hated your father and you were going against him."

"That's not true. It's not because of him – " I stop myself before I can go on, but I know it's too late. I've practically blabbed to her that, yes, I am one of them. I am a Watcher. And now, she's going to turn me in. She's going to offer me up to the police like a bird on a platter. "I swear, you tell anyone, I'll take you down with me."

"Sullivan, cool it. I'm not interested in giving you up."

"You're not?"

"No."

"Not even for a reward?"

"What reward? There's only a reward for information about who killed Gerringer. You didn't kill Gerringer, did you?"

"No."

"There you go. As if I liked Gerringer anyway. I don't care if he's dead."

"Right." I put one hand on my side, taking the moment to breathe out slowly. At least I can relax a little.