Reining Her In (Student/Teacher Romance)

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

I'd spent the day looking through party photos. It was nostalgic, and my mood was see-sawing. Cringe was a big factor—so many photos of me that I could have done without seeing again.

My purpose was to make a note of all the people I knew had taken a pill, and then to find out where they'd gotten them from. Mr. Campbell had told me to leave it alone, but I couldn't. I wanted to find out more about this, for his sake. It was the least I could do.

I left my room with a list of fifteen people. There were more I felt sure had taken the ecstasy, but I couldn't be certain. I didn't want to go asking people I wasn't sure about.

I wasn't telling anyone about this. If Ruby or Barney asked I wouldn't lie—about my objective, anyway. My motive was staying private.

The most awkward part was going to be finding these people alone. Walking up to them when they were with people and demanding where they got their pills wasn't an ideal scenario.

I took to the stables first. There were always people milling around there. If I was lucky, someone on my list would be. I wasn't a shy person, but walking into the common room and approaching people was too far.

In the stables, people were preparing for an extra dressage session that was taking place, and it meant lots of the people I had lessons with were here. Ruby was one of them, which was a bit awkward.

I skirted around her, and she was too absorbed with Pepper to notice me. I headed for the other end of the building, where one of my list was adjusting the girth. "Hey, Sarah," I greeted her, trying to make sure we were out of earshot. I swallowed the awkwardness. "I have a bit of a weird question for you, do you mind?" Sarah and I were friends, kind of. We sat next to each other in English and gossiped all day long. I doubted she'd be offended by my question.

"Go for it. I can't stay long, though, the lesson starts in a few minutes."

"No worries. I wanted to ask you where you buy your pills from."

She raised an eyebrow, but I'd made sure no one was within earshot. "Teddy normally. Sometimes Barney. Why?"

"Curiosity mainly. I had a bad trip on one of Barney's pills, and he said he wouldn't be offended if I tried one from someone else."

"Well I've never had an issue with Teddy's, so I can recommend them." She swooped up into the saddle. "Sorry, got to dash. We'll catch up in English, though."

"See you then." I let her ride off, and processed the information.

I didn't know Teddy really. He'd been a new addition to the school four years ago and he'd mixed with the crowd that was opposite to mine. I was friends with the dance-music fanatics, whilst he tended to go with the rockier people. Taste in music was important when it came to partying.

Still, I knew him, and we'd had conversations before. Now I just needed to find him, and find out where he was getting his pills from.

If he told me the truth.

***

I didn't catch up to Teddy until a few days later. I spied him coming out of the music classroom when I was heading for the stables. He didn't do horse-riding, so it was a rare occurrence for me to see him after school hours.

I jogged to catch up to him. "Hey, Teddy."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Penny."

I glanced around at the corridors. There would be cameras in here, no doubt. "Mind if I talk to you in private?"

He dealt in pills, so I couldn't imagine this was an uncommon occurrence. "Sure."

We headed outside the building, and paused near a cluster of trees. "You want a pill?"

"Ah, not exactly." I shifted my weight. This was a stupid idea. I barely knew the guy, he wasn't going to tell me anything. "I was wondering where you got them from."

He stared at me, expressionless, for a few moments. "What?"

I linked my hands together and bounced on my heels. "I was wondering where you got your pills from," I repeated, as though it wasn't a completely absurd request.

"Why?" There was only one reason I could want to do this, and it was because I wanted to bust his dealer.

I cleared my throat. "I want in."

"What?"

I stared at him. My first question had been stupid, but that was fairly obvious. "I want to sell pills, too."

He raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Really? Why? Your dad basically owns the school. I don't think you need the money."

"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly heading for greatness in the riding world." There wasn't any reason he would notice, really. "I want to have some money that's my own, not my dad's. He's going to be cutting everything off when he realises that I'm never going to compete."

Teddy was still sceptical. "Letting someone else take over my business doesn't sound like the smartest move."

"We don't go to the same parties, and you know it."

"And your good pal Barney, how is he going to feel about this?"

This was the part I hadn't thought through. In fact, I hadn't thought any of this through. I didn't want to get involved in selling drugs, I just wanted to know what Barney was hiding from me. There was something fishy about his need to cover up the truth.

"He'll deal with it. We're friends, he'll understand."

"And that's why you're here asking me where I get mine from, rather than him."

I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck. "He gets them from someone at home, and that guy wouldn't have enough for the both of us. I'm serious about this. So, are you willing to help, or no?"

Hands deep in his pockets, Teddy took a few minutes to think about it. "Fine. It's no skin off my nose. I think you underestimate how pissed off Barney is going to be about this, though. Serious warning."

"He'll be fine." Though the reality of whether I'd be okay was starting to sink in a bit. Taking drugs was one thing, but dealing them could land me in jail. Even having pills on me was more of a risk than I would normally take.

Besides, how would I resist taking one when I had them literally at my fingertips?

"Well then I'll give you a bell next time I'm going to meet my dealer. See you around."

.