Unexpected Rendezvous

Chapter 14

Leigh-Anne's POV

The sun slips behind a cloud outside, darkening our corner of Crave Doughnuts as Perrie pins Jade with her gaze and asks, "Why would Mr Gray circle your name?"

"No clue," Jade says. 

She looks like she means it, but the thing about Jade is, unlike Perrie, the girl can lie. Or she could anyway, back when we used to hang out. Ms Badwi is one of those super involved Mums who's always up in your business, and Jade was constantly blocking her. We weren't trying to get away with much, just normal kid stuff like watching movies we shouldn't and eating too much crap. But she'd never get caught.

"He circled you, Aaron, and Nelson," Perrie points out. 

"Yeah. I saw." Jade shrugs. "I don't know why."

I should say something, but I can't focus. I'm still fixated on the "J" card that was in Andre's day planner. It wasn't addressed to him by name, but I can't convince myself that it wasn't his. Whoever gave it to him knows him well enough to be familiar with his favourite painting, which isn't nearly famous enough to be sold in every random card shop the way that, say, Monet's Water Lilies are. You'd have to really search for it. It's the kind of thing I would have done, if it had ever occurred to me to send Andre a card.

See you later, sunshine. Let's make it happen. Half of my brain is making excuses for why those words probably don't mean anything, and the other half is frantically analysing who J might be. There's something pressing against the edge of my subconscious, whispering that I already know the answer, and it's frustrating as hell because I don't.

At least, I don't think I do.

I glance at the list in Perrie's hand; the only J to be found circled is Jade, but something is telling me it's got nothing to do with her. And still, Nelson and Jade both have what Andre would probably call "interesting faces." My jealousy from this morning flares up again as I imagine Andre sketching Nelson in his studio. And maybe...ugh.

Please not Jade. 

"Oh my God," Perrie says in a low whisper, eyes huge. "What if this is his kill list?"

"What?" I blink, startled, then flush when I realise what completely different tracks our minds were running along.

Perrie tilts her head towards Jade, oblivious to my confusion. "Why are you on here? What does Mr Gray have against you?"

"Nothing," she says. "I told you, I've never even taken his class."

"There must be something," she insists. "Some connection between you and Aaron and Nelson. Are you and Aaron friends? Or acquaintances? Or...anything?"

"No," Jade says. My eyes flicker between them like I'm watching a ping pong match, and I get the same feeling that the J card gives me: I'm missing something. "Maybe the list doesn't mean anything," Jade continues. "Maybe it's some kind of school thing, and it's just a coincidence that Nelson's name is on there." 

Perrie frowns. "I don't see how that's possible. Because it's not only the list, it's also the fact that he uses the studio on Tuesdays-"

"But he wasn't there," I protest, even though I'm no longer sure who I'm trying to convince. Perrie and Jade, or myself? "He had a spin class at the gym."

"A spin class," Perrie repeats, her voice flat.

"Yeah. That's what he told me."

"Oh, is that what he told you?" Perrie's lip curls. "Well, I guess that's that then. We'll just take his word for it, since he's such an honest person."