“I heard she hooked up with him at the party. Do you think they’re an—”
“What did you do at lunchtime?” I asked William once we cut through the bottleneck of students and strode across campus, still the focus of several curious glances.
“I disappeared,” he replied.
“You didn’t mention me?” I asked. Wasn’t the whole point of this to get my name into the mouths of Level One?
“No,” William said, frustration bordering the edge of his tone. “That would make them suspicious in the wrong way. Like I’ve said before, permanent fixture. I need to bring you in slow. It would be weird if I automatically started dating someone and pulled them in straightaway.”
“Right.”
“You still don’t trust me?”
“This isn’t about trust. It’s about you keeping up your end of the deal,” I reminded him.
“I forgot it’s all about pulling puppet strings for you. Do you even have feelings?”
I clamped my lips against each other in a bid to stop myself from telling him to back off. We were just entering the parking lot, and I was thankful our cars were a fair distance away from one another. “I’ll see you at my house.”
As soon as I fell back into the leather of my car seat, I let out a huff. Partly because I was pissed at William for making this more difficult than it needed to be, and partly because I really needed to take my shoes off.
William must have been going way over the speed limit because he beat me to my house. I pulled into the family garage and stepped inside quickly to grab a smaller purse.
“Let’s get this over with,” I muttered to myself. As much as this would be a huge stride forward in my plan, it was also going to take a lot of energy.
“Okay, we need to sort out details,” William said after I slid into his car. “So to them, we’re dating. And I have the right to publicly dump you if you do anything to embarrass me or play any games. I’m safe, remember?”
“Fine,” I said. By the time I got to William, I wouldn’t need the protection of his status anyway. “But it has to be serious for you to resort to that.”
“And if you really want to feed them this dating line, we need some PDA,” he said next. His confidence was admirable. “What are your limits?”
I snorted. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were trying to get with me, Bishop.”
His knuckles whitened over the steering wheel. “You’re really not my type.”
“Whatever,” I said. I knew I shouldn’t be offended that I wasn’t the type for the guy I was blackmailing, but it was hard not to feel stung. “Hand-holding is fine. I guess we could hug. But that’s it. Nothing more.”
“That should be fine for a few weeks. As long as we keep up the act and people don’t ask questions. How long is this going to last?”
I thought about it. I needed the infiltration and collection phases to be relatively quick, but who knows how long it’d take to earn their trust. “A few months, tops.”
His eyes flickered from the road to me. “You’re saying I might have to pretend to date you for months?”
“Well, yeah.” He was the one who suggested me being a permanent fixture, after all.
He sighed heavily as he hit the brake pedal for a red light.
“Is there a problem?”
“Loose ends more like.”
“Oh, right.” Suddenly it made sense. “I’ll be stopping you from getting some.”
William didn’t say anything, his jawbone pulsing.
“Well, as long as people don’t know you’re cheating on me, it’s fine.” That was how relationships worked for Level One, wasn’t it?
“I think you’ll discover it’s more difficult than that,” he said.
“How so?”
He took a left, swinging into the parking lot beside a hidden building, decorated with overgrown potted plants in golden baskets. Across its front door was a wooden sign painted to spell Jermaine’s.
William inhaled deeply before killing the ignition. “You’re probably about to find out.”
Five
Monica,
Remember when bathroom stalls were our headquarters? I feel like we spent a million hours in them. You let me sit on the counter and vent about my dad until we were both late for class.
Of course, you had your fair share of bad mornings too. It’s still crazy to me how upset your mom got any time you had a graze or even a cough. You’re right. She is the most protective parent in our grade. I’ve never seen the other parents act like that, or even really care what their kids are doing.
I miss venting to you. These letters feel silly.
Love, Chloe
WILLIAM HELD THE door for me as I stepped into the snug little coffee shop. The inside was as dainty as the outside, adorned with flowers and ribboned decorations. It reminded me of those alternative joints that hipsters flock to for “candid” Instagram shots. It was the opposite of where I’d have pinned Level One to hang out. For them, I expected sophistication and glamour.
I regretted not changing from my school uniform when I spotted the girls at the table in the corner. Lola and Sophie sat on a light pink leather couch that lined the wall. Opposite them was Maddy with a cup held in her fingers. Unlike me, all of them had made a wardrobe change between school and here.
Sophie’s eyes were the first to flit up to mine. They were ever so slightly creased in the corners, as if she knew a brilliant secret that you’d never catch on to. Her gaze traveled between me and William, and then she lazily turned her head to Lola.
“What do you want to drink?” William asked.
“Um, coffee?” I glanced away from the group, not wanting to draw the wrong type of suspicion.
“No, I mean, what do you want to drink?” he asked.
I looked at him in confusion.
“This isn’t just a coffee shop. Not for us,” he clarified.
The appeal of the isolated coffee shop suddenly became apparent. “They serve alcohol?”
William nodded. “The owner’s a family friend of the Rutherfords.”
My eyes returned to the group, who was surveying us subtly over the rims of their cups. It made sense they were here for alcohol—only flaunting their status as above the rules—especially if it was via a connection to the evil twins.
I felt the gentle push of William’s hand against my waist and immediately stiffened. I’d forgotten we were supposed to look like a new couple. “Come on, go sit down and I’ll order us drinks.”
There was an empty table for two by the window, and I moved to take a seat where I could see the Level One girls, and they could see me. Being scrutinized by them was an unavoidable by-product of my plan, but it was also intimidating. I leveled my chin and crossed my legs, hoping a flush wasn’t developing on my cheeks.
If only I could hear their conversation . . .
William returned, pulling out the chair opposite me before glancing over his shoulder. As if on cue, Sophie raised herself from her seated position and clicked her way over the tiled floor. Her red painted fingers landed on William’s shoulder.
“Hey, Will, fancy seeing you here,” she said, her sky-blue eyes assessing his.