Odd One Out

CHAPTER 17

Bailey
Friday, October 24

"I'm gonna have to call your parents soon, kid."

"I'm just waiting, for a friend."

The lady in the front turned to me, a bored look in her eyes. "Friend? You talking 'bout that kid in the interrogation room?"

It took all of two seconds for her to think about it, before proceeding to look back at the screen in front of her. "I'll give you five more minutes. Then I'm calling your parents to come pick you up."

If she called my parents, the entire scheme would fall. As far as my parents knew, I was in my room, resting from the emotional burden of being part of the Roosevelt Five. And as far as I knew, they had no idea I had climbed down from the side of the porch rooftop, nearly breaking a few bones in the process. Hopefully, they wouldn't look out the kitchen window to see that my bike was missing from its spot in the backyard.

It had been a few hours since I walked in, waiting for Summers to release Viktor but he was still nowhere to be seen.

I was the first to be called into Summers' interrogation room, and Naya went in after me. Jake was rushed to the hospital almost immediately after the fight, where he'd probably be interrogated once he became his full self again, and Ellis had already been let go but Viktor?

It had been literal hours since any of us heard from him. It's not like I was worried about him or anything, especially not with the way he'd spoken to me earlier, but the way Summers treated him made my blood boil. That stupid, condescending look she always gave us and that tone she used whenever she said "I'm just trying to help you".

She was so infuriating, patronizing, and just...vexatious.

Almost as if on cue, that tip-tap sound of her shoes began to sing its way down the hall until it finally reached the waiting room I had been sitting in, waiting to hear from Viktor.

"Miss Phillips," she said blandly. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Why is he still being detained? You know you can't keep him in there for much longer—"

"You don't get to tell me what to do."

The tone of her voice wasn't condescending, nor was it smug. It was strict.

It was serious.

I almost backed out of this discussion, but I refrained from actually doing so, keeping my guard up.

Summers must have noticed this, because she sighed out deeply, and suddenly I realized how exhausted she actually was. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before — her face suddenly seemed droopy, her eyelids half-closed and...were those bags under her eyes?

"He wanted to take the blame, Bailey."

"But it wasn't even his fault! The entire thing started because of that stupid twitter account!"

"Uh huh...the one who talked about Viktor's brother? Listen hon, that's not really much of a crime. What Viktor did is."

"What the account is doing is terrorizing us. We could be in danger."

It made sense. I had been thinking about it ever since I got the notification that salyourpal18 had followed me. We five were the only ones with Francisco that night, and we were the only ones the account had followed, in exception of Viktor who didn't have social media. But that didn't stop them from striking him.

And it didn't seem possible that the person had made the account and followed us all just to talk about Viktor's past. It was much more than that. It had to be.