Clear Lake Academy holds the worst of the worst delinquents from around the country. Each and every student there holds a notorious background that led them there and almost everyone avoids them.
After setting the tenth building on fire, which just...
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I woke up to silence. A sort of silence that made you wonder if you were the only person left in the world.
Sadly, I wasn't.
I groaned, sunlight beating down on my face as I twisted further into the couch
"Good morning, sunshine."
I startled up at the world, head snapping over the jacket laid over my chest.
Another groan escaped as I squinted past the bright light, dropping my head back against the arm of the couch. "Good morning to you too, asshole."
The boy muttered beneath his breath, shooting a foul look that I could feel even without looking. "Feeling better?" He asked, voice strangely heavy.
I finally allowed myself to really look at him, and two things became immediately clear.
First—he looked nothing like the boy I'd met on my first day. There was no trace of the egotistical, cocky edge I'd written him off with back then. Whatever mask he usually wore wasn't there now.
Second—his features were impossible to ignore. His black hair sat unruly and messy, straight tips falling past his brows. His eyes caught the light like wet stone after rain—steady, observant, unsettling in the way they seemed to notice everything. Freckles were scattered across his face, softening him, giving him an almost boyish innocence.
Almost.
He was anything but.
His words quietly echoed in my mind. "Not everyone around you tells the truth." Now that only messed with my mind even further. The thought lodged itself deep, twisting into something sharper. What if the person behind all of this wasn't distant at all? What if they were closer than I wanted to admit?
Too close.
I ran through names instinctively, dismissing them just as fast. It couldn't be my friends—we'd been through too much together, bled too much trust to betray each other now. And Will—just the thought of his name erased every flicker of doubt before it could form.
So who did that leave?
For a brief, sickening moment, my parents crossed my mind. But even that didn't hold. They would never risk their image, their reputation. Whatever their flaws were, self-destruction wasn't one of them. That left me with nothing.
No answers. No suspects.
Just the growing certainty that I was missing something—and the unsettling realization that whoever it was already knew exactly where to stand to watch me fall.
"Yeah." I grumbled, pulling the jacket closer.
And then it hit me.
I sat up so fast the jacket slid into my lap as I scrambled for my phone. My fingers moved on instinct, unlocking the screen, tapping straight onto Will's contact. My breath caught when I saw it—the folder attached to the message.
