Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57888 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57888 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
“Do we know you?” a voice to my right says.
I swing my head slightly to size up this male who feels comfortable enough in Josie’s presence to say something. He’s slight with brown hair and brown eyes. He wears the standard boy uniform of open plaid shirt over a T-shirt. His is gray. His shoes, though, are unusual. They’re not sneakers but some kind of slip-on loafer. He couldn’t run more than two feet in them without getting tripped up. I could take him down and fold him into a box in under a minute.
“He’s a friend of mine,” Josie interjects hastily, as if she can sense the direction of my thoughts. “He’s thinking about transferring in.”
“We’re in the last semester. You can’t transfer.” The guy has such a punchable face. Josie drops her palm over the top of the fist I didn’t even register I’d made.
“He’s behind in school,” she provides as an excuse.
“I can’t imagine why,” the guy responds with heavy sarcasm.
His attempt at insults just slides off my back. I don’t really care what this random person thinks of my intelligence. I get by fine.
“He’s actually very smart,” Josie snaps. I give her a wink for coming to my defense.
“He’s in a gang. You can tell by his tattoo.” He points to the dark ink that peeks out from under the sleeve of my short sleeve white T-shirt.
“It’s more of a collective.” I put my hands behind my head so that more of the tattoo is clearly visible.
“A collective of thugs,” he shoots back.
“Matt,” Josie says in warning.
Her classmate makes a face as if he’s swallowed something sour. “I’m just watching out for you.”
This time I give him my full attention. He clearly has some feelings for Josie, and that needs to go away immediately. “You don’t need to do that. I’m here.”
“He’s helping me with the disappearances,” she explains, even though I don’t feel like he deserves one.
Matt’s attention is diverted. “Are you talking about Cole? What do you know?”
“Nothing really.” She shoots me a silent request to not bring up the fact we found—and lost—Cole’s body. It wasn’t necessary. I wouldn’t be sharing details of anything with this guy, not even what I plan to have for lunch. Steak po’ boy from Room Seven, if anyone was wondering. “Have you heard anything?”
The guy slumps back in his chair. “No. Everyone liked him. He wasn’t a star on the team, but he contributed a lot of good minutes. I don’t know much about his home life. Didn’t seem like he had much of one, to be honest.”
“What about his family?” I ask.
Matt shrugs. “Lives with his dad. Mom died a while back. She was religious. I remember Cole going to church on Wednesday nights for some kiddie Bible study. I’m not sure what his dad does. I think Cole said his old man was overseas a lot.”
“I was thinking about getting his file from the office.” Josie nibbles on the end of her pen. “It would have more details.”
“You should ask Cameron,” he suggests. “She could hack into the system for you.”
“I don’t know her very well, and I heard she hates journalists because of how the press kind of tore her mom apart.”
“I’ll ask for you. She likes me.” He turns to me. “Everyone does.”
“Not me.” I sling my arm across the back of Josie’s chair. “I pretty much dislike everyone except Josie here.”
The guy makes a face and then turns toward the front of the classroom where the teacher has appeared. The older woman stares at me over her glasses, but before she can say anything, the fire alarm starts blaring.
Chapter Ten
JOSIE
Inarrow my eyes on Bam, wondering what he’s up to. He holds his hands up, giving a slight shake of his head, saying that it wasn’t him.
“All right, everyone out,” the teacher announces to the room. Everyone is quick to hop to their feet. Bam’s hand comes out, gripping my forearm. I halt my movement.
Out of anyone in this building, I trust Bam. From what I’ve seen so far, he’s street smart in a way that can only be learned through experience. He might be young, but he tends to know shit or have those spidey senses.
“What’s up?” I ask when the last person filters out of the room.
“For one, I don’t smell smoke, so we’re not rushing out. No clue who or possibly why someone pulled the fire alarm.”
This is very true. Pulling the fire alarm has triggered everyone to rush out of the classrooms, filling the hallways. “Second, the window would be a faster exit either way.” I glance over to the window. I hadn’t even thought about it as an exit. I could definitely learn a thing or two about surviving from Bam.
“Are we going out the window?”
“No.” He stands. “The teacher left her laptop open.” Bam is already moving toward it. “Good, didn’t have time to lock.”