Odd One Out

CHAPTER 23

Bailey
Wednesday, November 5

Jake didn't want to tell the cops. He really fought me against it no matter what I told him.

I wanted to clear my name already, and prove that I was innocent. I could very well be guilty of the crime, but at this point I just wanted to either be arrested or get all my finals over with. One or the other. I was tired of this game that Francisco had us playing.

Livid is an understatement. I was seething when I found all the papers. There was tangible proof of what happened to us, and yet Jake wanted to keep it in?

To be fair, his arguments were valid, and it pissed me off that they were so valid. It pissed me off that once again, we had reached a point where there was nothing to be done.

He mentioned that none of these papers were initialed or signed, there was no name on any of them, no direction as to who wrote them. So if we turned them in to Summers, they could easily blame it on one of us and say that these are actually our plans. I rebutted with the initials on the margin of the book, and he explained that they could also pin that on us and say we did it, maybe on purpose to give them the wrong lead or to remember where we had hidden all our information.

And if we told them that it was Francisco's keychain that had helped us find all this stuff, they'd realize that we all had something that belonged to Francisco, so they'd ask us why we didn't bring it up earlier and that would only make us look more guilty.

Not to mention all the missing pages in the book that were ripped out to make room for all the neatly folded papers. We would most definitely be held accountable for that and for the murder, and with the way Summers had treated us before, Jake theorized that maybe keeping the information to ourselves would be the best option, at least until we found more solid proof.

I was kind of glad that he told me that because it distracted me enough to not think about much else afterwards.

And by not much else, I really meant Viktor.

The events in the library were starting to stress me out, and I felt so so embarrassed afterwards that I had to pretend as though it never even happened, which I was sure he found weird.

And for a moment, while he held me close to him I nearly thought he would lean in until we inevitably kissed, but then he didn't, and I felt so weird about having that thought that I ended up tripping over the same freaking stool, all over again.

And when he caught me again, I felt this weird sensation that was simultaneously calm and nerve-wrecking, and I decided I would not let myself get distracted by this. Not by him. He and I were strictly platonic.

My phone suddenly broke the silence, the text ringtone making it buzz right beside my thigh.

Ellis: so...are we not going to talk about those papers anymore?

Almost immediately Naya responded.

Naya: Ellis, just drop it already

Ellis: dude, we could go to the cops RIGHT NOW and save ourselves

Naya: they already told us why we can't do that

Frustrated, I typed back:

Trust me I WISH we could go to the cops, but Jake is right, we should just wait

Ellis: damn, fuck 12 for real

Jake: it's 1 in the morning, can you guys please go to bed

Ellis: fuck you too, Owens

Naya: ELLIS, STOP BEING RUDE

Bailey: Let's just all go to bed