“Please tell me you didn’t read the letter,” shesaid.
I shook my head and jerked a thumb toward the wastebasket. “Nope. Tossed it straightout.”
She snickered. “Good. The last thing you need right now is any of his bullshit excuses,” she said. She picked up a book and held it out to me. “Anyway… are you ready to critically analyze Jane Eyre, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Heart of Darkness for the billionthtime?”
We spent the next two hours going through our old class notes, highlighting the most salient points and discussing them with each other. At seven, my stomach started to grumble, and Trina yawned and stretched out on the carpet. “I think it’s time for us to take a break and order a pizza,” she said, reaching for her phone. “What do youthink?”
“I think I’ll die if we don’t order it right this second,” I said with a grin, stretching out next toher.
Twenty minutes later, we were shoveling greasy, cheesy goodness into our mouths as we watched the first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale TV series. It wasn’t exactly proper study, seeing as we were meant to be concentrating on the book, but it still seemed relevant enough for us to not feel guilty aboutit.
Halfway through the episode, I wiped my hands with a napkin, balled it up, and tossed it into the trash by my desk. As my eyes fell on the wastebasket, there was a fluttering in my chest, and my fingers startedtingling.
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to read Hunter’s letter after all. Maybe he’d said something in it that could be construed as evidence against him. An admission of guilt, perhaps. Or an apology, which was basically the samething.
Or maybe he’d written something that would blow everything out of the water and prove that I was wrong about him this whole time. Maybe he was actually innocent allalong…
I knew I was heading down a dangerous path, but I couldn’t stop my thoughts from veering that way. Unable to contain my curiosity for a minute longer, I used another napkin to wipe my mouth, and then I padded over to the wastebasket and crouched to drop it in. With furrowed brows, I looked around for the envelope, but I couldn’t see it anywhere. It must’ve slipped beneath the otherstuff.
“What are you doing?” Trina asked, glancing over atme.
“Just throwing away the used napkins,” I saidlightly.
She returned her gaze to the TV, and I quickly rummaged through the papers in the wastebasket. It was all old notes and a few gum wrappers. Noenvelope.
“You’re looking for the letter, aren’t you?” Trina asked, looking over at meagain.
My face turned hot. “Um…maybe.”
“Laney, you can’t readit.”
“I know I shouldn’t, but Ithought—”
She cut me off. “No, I mean youliterallycan’t. It’sgone.”
“Huh?”
She held up her palms and bit her bottom lip. “Don’t be mad, okay?” she said in a timid tone, cheeks flushingpink.
I sighed. “You got rid of it, didn’tyou?”
“Uh-huh. I knew you’d get curious eventually, so I thought I should destroy it before youdid.”
“How?” I asked, brows rising. I hadn’t even noticed her go into the wastebasket atall.
“When I needed to pee earlier, I went to your desk to grab the keycard for the bathroom, and I saw the letter sitting right there in the trash can. I took it into the bathroom with me, ripped it up, and flushed it down thetoilet.”
“So now I’ll never know what itsaid.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, looking stricken. “I thought I was doing the rightthing.”
“It’s okay,” I murmured, padding back over to her. “I getit.”
“I didn’t read it, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just tore it rightup.”
“I was kinda hoping youdidread it, actually,” Isaid.
“Why?” she asked, tilting her head to oneside.