They’ll do it again.
Slowly, I shove myself from my knees and get back to my feet. I’m shaking, sweating. I start to back away, but I hear one more exchange in the recording.
“You wouldn’t dare. You wouldn’t tell people that, would you?”
“Not if you help me. Now admit it, you’re the one that let her fall.”
“I didn’t mean to. I tried to save the girl—”
“Say her name, Dean. The girl you killed.”
“I didn’t. She fell.”
“I tried to save her. You let her drop.”
“No. I wouldn’t.”
“You did. Say her name.”
“Lucy Drake. God, I killed her, didn’t I?”The dean begins to sob.
“That’s right, Dean Wotherspoon. You killed her. And now you’re going to help me.”
I turn and run. I throw the door open, sweat prickling all over my skin, and sprint into the underbrush. I’m mindless, panicking. I hear someone shout my name, but I can’t respond, can’t form a coherent thought. It’s like the world’s pulsing all around me, like it’s one big lung. I run and run, legs pounding, and I feel brushes and bushes rip at my skin as I burst through them. I welcome the pain. Isn’t that what Emilio taught me? Pain can be good.
Emilio was there when my sister died. She was attacking him—I don’t know why—Dean Wotherspoon was somehow there too—he pushed her over the edge—
Dean Wotherspoon killed my sister.
And Emilio’s been covering it up.
They’ve been lying to everyone about what happened to Lucy.
Lying to me.
Fucking me and lying to me, and I think my head might break, and I’m afraid my chest might crack to pieces, but I keep running and running and running, and I can’t turn around or else he might catch me and I might be next.
Chapter22
Emilio
Istand on the dean’s back porch and stare at Kaye as she crashes through the underbrush. I feel sick, like my hands and feet are hollow.
How much of that did she hear?
“That one of yours?” Dean Wotherspoon’s voice is shaky behind me.
I can’t turn around and face him. If I do, I’ll have to accept all of my darkness and all of my betrayal, and I can’t handle it right now.
Not now, not with Kaye hurting so bad.
Fuck. Kaye. I have to find her and explain. I have to make her understand.
It isn’t just me I’m protecting now—it’s all of Calico.
It’s everyone I care about.
If Dean Wotherspoon decides to come down hard, I won’t be the only one fucked. Terrence, Dirk, Lesley, Paola, Jayson. Even Nathan and Dom. Even Kaye. We’ll all be fucked, kicked out of school, potentially prosecuted.