A Grave Problem

25. Closing In

By the time P.E. started, Mia had managed to make herself pretty nervous. Math had been bad enough, and that was with Zev sitting across the room from her. Even though the whole class would be in the gym right along with her, students were much more spread out in P.E., and there was a much bigger chance that she'd have to actually talk to Zev. She changed slowly and was one of the last people out of the locker room. She walked through the gym doors at a snail's pace, trying to tell herself that everything would be ok. Even if there were less people around, the fact that they were all in the gym still meant that he would have a harder time confronting her.

Class passed incredibly slowly. The only good thing was that Zev was on the other team, meaning that Mia didn't have to go near him all period. If he ever came anywhere near her, she'd just take the ball and head across the court. Once or twice she'd ended up backtracking a bit just to get away from him, but for the most part, her plan worked pretty well. Zev had looked at her strangely a few times, even when she wasn't playing terrible basketball. But he didn't say anything. Mia hoped that those glances were his attempts to remember what exactly had happened the other night and not his way of trying to get her attention.

After she changed back into her school clothes, Mia headed towards the cafeteria to meet up with Anna and Carmine. She was halfway across the courtyard and thinking about how lucky she was that she hadn't had to talk to Zev when he caught up to her. He fell into step beside her, but Mia pretended not to notice. As casually as she could, she sped up.

"I was wondering if you were busy this weekend." Zev said nonchalantly, as if nothing was wrong. Mia actually stopped walking and just stared at him for a minute.

"What?" she asked. How could he possibly think of hanging out now?

"Do you have any plans this weekend?" Zev asked again.

"Um...yeah." Mia said, thinking fast. "I'm going out of town with my parents. Sorry."

She hoped she sounded sincere enough, but the look on his face told her she'd probably been just a little too nervous for her lie to come out convincingly. Zev sighed, turning serious.

"Look, I need to talk to you." he said in a tone that told Mia he thought it was urgent.

Mia remembered how much she'd liked him and hesitated. Then, she remembered how he'd turned into a wolf and chased her into someone's backyard, and her resolve was back.

"I really can't. I'm sorry." she told him. She started walking again, across the grass and towards the cafeteria. Zev took a few quick strides ahead then turned back to face her, effectively cutting her off and forcing her to stop.

"Why not?" he asked looking at her intently, searching her face for something. Mia didn't like the scrutiny.

"Because." she said, but left it at that. What was she supposed to say? That no matter how much she liked him, she didn't want to talk to anyone who'd tried to kill her? She would have gladly done it just to watch the look on his face as she told him that she knew, but she held back. There was still the possibility that he didn't know for sure who'd seen him. Earlier this year, she'd walked into an admission with Summer, and she wasn't going to do that again. If he thought she'd seen him, he was going to have to come out and say it. Until then, she was going to keep her mouth shut. Zev, however, wasn't giving up that easily.

"Mia, this is really important." He glanced around before lowering his voice. "I'm not really supposed to be doing this, but...it's about what happened Saturday night."

"I don't know what you're talking about." she said evenly. Then, glancing down at her watch, she said, "I have to get to class."

"But you have lunch next." Zev protested. When Mia looked surprised, Zev told her, "School's been in for a little over three months now – of course I know your schedule."