House of Korba: The Ghost Bird Series: #7 (The Academy) (27 page)

“I know you can do it,” he said.

My heart was thundering in my chest for so many different reasons, but at the forefront was North, so close that I thought he might kiss me. “He... Silas...” I said. “Silas asked me...out.”

North stopped, and very slowly pulled back just a bit. “What?”

“Silas asked me to be his girlfriend the other night. When I spent the night?” I don’t know what compelled me to tell him. Maybe somehow it would help with Silas.

North was quiet for a long time, studying my face. My cheeks heated at his scrutiny. “What did you say?” he asked.

“I said yes.” I was going to follow up with something else, but once I got out the truth, the other things I thought I wanted to say disappeared. The words jumbled in my head.

North’s thumb traced across my cheek slowly. His lips pursed. His mood was impossible to judge. The quiet was almost eerie. “Did you tell anyone else?”

“No,” I said, and at first I meant it, because the way he was touching me, I was just talking and not really thinking. “I mean, yes. Mr. Blackbourne knows.”

North released a breath between his lips. “Good,” he said. “What did he say?”

“He said to trust you all and to keep him informed.”

He nodded. “You should do that. Right now, I need that favor, though. I’ll be fighting with him later. He won’t want to share, you know.”

My eyes widened. “What?”

North moved his hands from my face and leaned forward a little, bracing himself on the counter. “You think I’d give you up to him? You’re crazy. If he’s trying to cut everyone else off by making you his girlfriend, he’ll need to wait in line.”

Every fiber inside me heated up. Didn’t Mr. Blackbourne explained we all needed to get along? Or was that what they talked about? “But...” I sputtered for an answer but didn’t have one.

North smirked. He moved his head and hovered over me. “Do you still like me?”

“Yes,” I breathed out quickly. “Do...do you still like me?”

“Worse,” he said as he leaned in a little further but then stopped.

I waited, anticipating him leaning in further, maybe to bite me somewhere, but he stopped when he got close to my lips. I didn’t know what
worse
meant, but the way he said it, with almost a growl, it didn’t feel like a bad thing. My heart nearly tripped over itself. He’d been close to kissing me before but hadn’t yet.

My eyes were partially closed. He was too close to look at.

“Tilt your pretty head.” His deep voice rippled through me, a command this time.

I don’t know why, but I instinctively moved to tilt my chin down, away from where he was hovering.

He huffed, his breath warming my face. “Other way, Baby.”

I did, slowly. This time I didn’t look. I didn’t think. I moved where he wanted me.

My lips touched his, and soon pressed.

He puckered. I did the same.

For a long moment, that was it. The realization was slowly sinking in that it was a kiss. It was my first with him, and one where I kind of saw it coming, and really wanted it. Not that I wouldn’t have with the others, but in this instance, knowing it was coming sent some different emotions scurrying to the surface. Anticipation and in North’s own way, assurance that this was what he really wanted.

His hands came up around my face, like they’d been before, and held my cheeks, cupping my face. His lips started moving, pushing back against my mouth, and he leaned in a little. I didn’t know where he wanted me to go, and afraid of hitting something behind me or falling backwards, I pushed back a little, resisting.

A growl came from him. It started low. The more I pushed back on him trying to push me, the more vocal he got. It was a fight between our lips, a swell of something like anger building up, but I wasn’t really angry with him. I wasn’t angry at anyone. It was just energy, and it built up from his lips pressed to mine.

I mimicked his movements as best as I could, unsure if I was doing it properly.

There was a loud groan from him and he pulled back. The flare in his eyes and the sternness in his face scared me for a moment. Had I done it wrong?

He quickly released one side of my face and then yanked his cell phone out of his back pocket. He frowned and then answered it, one hand still cupping my head, his rough thumb rubbing against my skin. “What?” he barked into the phone. “Yeah, I’ve got her. She just needed a minute...I’ll bring her in a second.” He looked at me, quietly leaned in, kissed my nose and then bent down to quickly kiss my lips before pulling back to talk into the phone again. “Yeah, I hear you. Nothing’s wrong. We’re heading there now.” He punched at the phone and tucked it back into his pocket. “We’re taking too long.”

“Do you feel better?” I asked.

North laughed, shaking his head. “Sang Baby, I’ll fight with Silas, or Hendricks, or goddamn terrorists any damn day if I get to hide in the bathroom and make out with you.”

––––––––

N
orth walked me to the front office, where a collection of police officers and men in suits stood around.

Before I went inside, North gave me my bag and phone. It no longer had the pink case, and I almost didn’t recognize it. “Keep it in your...bra,” he said with a side smirk. “You need pockets.”

I’m sure my cheeks were red as he held open the door and let me walk in, following behind.

The usual chaos after a bomb threat had descended on the front office. The phones were being monitored by the assistants as students sat out front, waiting.

“Sang,” snapped a woman at the front desk. She pointed back to the door. “Down the hall to the left. Second door on your right.”

I stared at her, hearing her but taking a minute to process what she had said. She knew my name, my face, and was directing me elsewhere and not to Mr. Hendricks’s office.

“Okay,” I said, starting to turn.

“I don’t like this,” North said as he pulled open the door and held it for me. He waited until we were around the corner and in the hallway before he took out his phone. He typed into it. It vibrated almost immediately. “Shit,” he said, his voice lowered.

“What’s wrong?”

“This isn’t a Mr. Hendricks’s call. This is the police following up on leads. Your name came up somewhere.”

My eyes widened. “As in Mr. Hendricks gave them my name somehow as a suspect?”

“I don’t think so.” He hesitated, looking around the hallway. “I guess that’s why they’re in a rush.”

“What do I do?”

“What can you do?” he asked. “Don’t worry. At this point, as long as it isn’t Mr. Hendricks, you’re just going to play dumb. You don’t know anything.”

That seemed pretty easy to do.

The room I’d been directed to was really one long space with an office and several doors on the other side. A woman sat behind a wide desk. Leaning over the top of the desk was a male police officer. He was writing something on a notepad.

As I entered the room, I stopped, looking back at North. He stayed in the hallway, and I could tell by the look on his face that this was as far as he could escort me without being noticed.

Before North could shut the door, someone showed up behind him. “In or out?” the guy asked.

North partially turned while still holding the door. It was Jay behind him. I hadn’t realized the Jay being called down was him.

His eyes were cold, and he was frowning. He usually seemed neutral, even distant. But right now, he was angry, which, with his tall, broad frame and shaved head, made him look intimidating. I took a half step back into the open office to get out of his way.

But before he came in, he and North shared a look. I wasn’t sure what they were saying to each other. I’d thought that after everything that had happened, they were getting along. Maybe they were, but right now, Jay seemed agitated.

Jay didn’t say anything to North, but after the exchanged look, walked around him to get into the room.

“Sang? Jay?” The woman had finished talking to the officer. The policeman went through another door down the hall and the woman at the desk snapped her fingers at us, gesturing that we should approach.

I glanced once at North, who gave me an encouraging look and then closed the door. I had a feeling he’d be listening and waiting just outside in the hallway. I wondered if Mr. Blackbourne was already listening.

Jay moved with me, standing next to me at the front of the desk. We shared our own look, silently asking each other what this was about. He seemed suspicious of me, but I could understand why he would feel that way. He didn’t really know me and it was strange we were getting called down at the same time.

The woman swung a pointed finger between us as she spoke. “Either one of you know Arthur?”

“I know
an
Arthur,” Jay said, seeming to relax a bit. “Which one are you talking about?”

“Pale kid, freckles, red hair?” She spread out a file on top of her desk and then pulled up a photo to show us.

It was a school ID photo of the same Arthur I’d once met. He’d been in a fight at school, drugged by Jade, and then later I had talked to him at a football game about what had happened. He’d seemed friendly enough. Was this about him being drugged? Would they bother with this now?

My breathing became shallow and hard to control. I held onto it, trying to not appear too crazy. Was this about Jade? Would they be asking us questions about her? Had Arthur mentioned I’d asked questions about her, and had Jay found out somehow?

Did they know about what Jade...

“I’ve seen him around,” Jay said. “What’s this about?”

“We think he’s the one calling in the bomb threats,” she said. “Or at least the one this morning.”

My eyes widened, my mouth dropped open and I leaned forward against the desk, pressing my hands against the wood. “What?” I asked without thinking.

The woman turned to me, her eyebrows scrunching together. “So you know him?”

“I...bumped into him a few times,” I said. “I don’t know him that well. But he...I don’t think he’d do that.” I really couldn’t picture Arthur being someone to call in a threat like that. And why?

“We’re still trying to sort it out,” she said. “Someone said he was dating you or had a crush on you or something. When we brought him in, he had your name scrawled out on one of his notebooks.”

Shocked, I rocked back where I stood. I didn’t even know where to start with this information: Arthur had been writing down my name, this woman knew about it, and somehow it was relevant to the bomb threats.

“What’s this have to do with me?” Jay asked.

“He knows your sister,” she said. “And we thought you might know something since she—”

“She’s been expelled,” he said, his voice deep and cold.

I stared at the wood of the desk, feeling the burn at my cheeks and not wanting to look at Jay anymore. I didn’t know how he felt about Jade. I was smothering the flighty panic inside of me at all of this.

“Oh I know,” the woman said casually. She waved us off. “Don’t worry. Just have a seat for a bit. Someone will talk to each of you. No big thing, just to ask a few questions.”

I followed Jay to a small sitting area, with chairs that were cushioned in ugly orange and brown. I sat across from him and I studied the area. I wondered where a camera would be if there was one in here. Plus, with the school so crowded, I wasn’t sure what this office was used for exactly, and who the woman was behind the desk. What was she in charge of? She was organizing talking to each of us with the police, but couldn’t that have been done in the main office?

For a long time, I stayed quiet. Jay had his phone out and was poking at the screen. When the woman at the desk seemed preoccupied with something else, and Jay wasn’t paying attention, I pulled my phone out. I didn’t have much else to do.

Before I could think of what to do with my phone once I had the screen turned on, it buzzed in my hand.

Mr. Blackbourne: Talk to Jay. Ask him about Arthur.

I swallowed, trying to find some courage. I put my phone in my lap.
Don’t think. Just say something.

“Jay?” I asked quietly. “Do you really know Arthur?”

Jay looked up, his eyes focusing on me. That coldness was still there, but also a twitch of understanding. We were sort of in this together and weren’t in trouble, and I wasn’t a threat, so maybe he considered me safe. “Not really. I’ve seen him around.”

“Kind of the same here,” I said. “Although I wouldn’t have suspected him to make those calls.”

Jay shrugged, dropping his phone face-down on the seat next to him. “He seems more like a guy who gives in under pressure. I’ve heard he’ll get into a fight if provoked. Some guys will do dumb things if they’re told what to do.”

“Do you think he might have been told to call in a bomb threat?”

Jay shrugged again and shook his head. “He doesn’t seem the type to do it on his own. Could have been a dare. Could have been he’s been framed, or he didn’t even do it. I don’t know. I’m not psychic. I just know a loser when I see one.”

I bit my lip, not wanting to say anything. I didn’t like the loser comment, but I understood what he was getting at and didn’t want to confront him. “It’s just odd that they called us down here, I guess. I mean, I’ve only run into him a couple of times.”

“Who knows,” he said. “If they’ve got this guy on lockdown, they’ll follow whatever lead they can. You get notes in class sometimes, right? Silas told me about that. Is he one of the ones writing to you?”

The thought hadn’t occurred to me, but he had a point. “I don’t know,” I said. “Honestly, I never read them. No...Silas might have looked at a few. I generally throw them away.” I’d almost slipped and said North read them.

“I used to think you were a snob or something,” he said. “Kids said you wouldn’t talk to anyone. But Silas was saying you’re just shy and get picked on a lot, so you tend to stay close to him and his friends. I can understand that, though. A lot of kids around here are pretty stupid.”

I nodded, not really agreeing with what he was saying, but trying to be sympathetic. “I don’t mean to not talk to people,” I said. “I...” I was looking for a term without saying out loud that I was shy, or that prior to coming to Ashley Waters, that I was often ignored, for perhaps the same reasons.