Ragged✔|18+

TEN

CLYDE

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

I've never gotten the true meaning of that saying until it happened to me.

I swear, I didn't mean to erase all her documents. I had a moment of panic when I viewed what exactly was in those files and in my whirring state of mind, I accidentally pressed on the delete key.

I assumed she had a backup drive or something, considering the information she had stored. I still can't shake my head off what I discovered.

The words CIA, first degree murder and Cecily Miller are all jumbled in my brain, and as I sit here looking at the black monitor on my computer, I totally understand why the dark-haired girl seated one row beside me in class is beyond pissed at me.

It didn't take long for her to get back at me. It had been barely five minutes into the class when she completely destroyed the hard drive of my computer. Mr Knox wasn't buying any of my explanation that someone hacked it and was insistent that I'm the one who's trying to make an excuse to get out of class. As such, he told me I'd just have to tough it out and pray to God to give me a photographic memory for the duration of this lesson.

The bell rings and it's a race to see who gets out of class the fastest. I collide with a lot of people while trying to get to her.

"Hey, wait up." I tap her arm but it does nothing to slow her down. "Look, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, whatever."

"I swear, I didn't do it on purpose. It's just. . . well, I sort of panicked and pushed the delete key and—"

She suddenly stops and whirls around to face me. "In case you didn't get the memo from my earlier statement, leave me the fuck alone."

"I'm sorry and I mean it. It was stupid and insensitive of me to wipe out all that data when it was important to you."

"Did you go through the files?"

The word “no” is on the tip of my tongue but I decide to go with the truth. "Yes."

She breathes in deeply and exhales in one sharp breath. "Guess it's settled then. Stay the fuck away from me if you know what's good for you."

"Is that what you wanted help with?" I prod, making her stop in her tracks. I lower my voice. "You're working on a murder case. Cecily Miller, right?"

That question breaks her facade and her brown eyes widen a fraction a bit. They're full of fear. "What do you want from me?"

"She was your mom." Not a question and I sure as hell know I'm right.

She doesn't answer, just directly portrays her vehemence by saying, "Leave. Me. Alone."

And then she's off again. Her feet shuffling so fast, she's practically running.

* * *

I'm a mess when lunch comes around. My head's hurting from thinking too hard about why the fuck I'm still giving two shits about a girl who's made it so perfectly clear that I should steer clear of everything that concerns her.

It's an open and shut case, really. I don't know her and she doesn't want me all up in her business. It's that simple.

Maybe it's just me relating to her situation that's making me care. Yeah, that's it. It wasn't the same with my mom, but I know what losing a parent feels like.

It feels awful and even though Reyna's currently glaring at me, I know the pain she must be going through.

She looks away first and focuses on the tray of food before her. We've been doing this for a while now. Trading glares. She's seated at a table across from mine, all alone like the antisocial she is, and none of us have wavered on our defiance.

I apologized for fuck's sake. What the hell does she want me to do next?

As if my prayer for distraction finally gets answered, I'm sucked into a conversation two of my friends—Trey and Andre— are having right now about some weird math teacher.

"I'm telling you," Andre's saying. "No one can slip past that man. It's like he's got eyes on the back of his head or something like that."

"Says the guy who was loudly whispering for me to give him the answer to question four of the math quiz." Trey rolls his eyes at me.

"That doesn't solve the mystery of the back-of-the-head eyes."

"Oh God."

Andre bumps his elbow with mine. "You okay, man?"

"Yeah."

"You seem stressed."

"Oh, really? Thanks for noticing, mom."

"I'm not even going to touch that." He follows my line of gaze and when he sees Reyna, he turns to me with a stupid smile on his face. "Oh, now I see the problem."

"Shut it."

"You're not even going to say Hi?"

I pin him with a glare. "We're really going to have a problem if you don't lay off me."

"Hey, hey. Don't want any problems. So what's her name?"

"Reyna."

"Never seen her before."

"That's because she's new here."

"Then why are you trading glares like you're the worst of enemies?"

"Because I don't fucking know, Andre. You're working on my last nerve here."

"What? I'm just trying to—"

"Just don't push it."

"But—"

"Don't."

Deciding that I'm going to attempt to make things up with her again, I take the pudding cup from my tray and head to her table. She's shocked at first when I sit down across from her but relaxes when I slide the cup toward her.

"I'm sorry."

She eyes it for a moment and I'm relieved when she takes it.

"You need to stay away from me."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Then you're screwed."

"I'm screwed? How so?"

"You read the files, Clyde. You know what I'm dealing with here."

"You could go to the police," I suggest.

"Yeah," she deadpans. "Why didn't I think of that before?"

I shrug. "Just saying."

"The police were involved and in the end, it was ruled out as robbery with violence."

"It was more than that?"

"Yes, it was more than that. There was definitely no robbery and the whole thing was orchestrated by someone."

"You were right there when it happened?"

Panic washes over her face. "I have to check something with a teacher." She stands up, gathers her stuff and shoots me a shaky smile. "Thanks for the pudding."

"Hey—" She's already gone before I can form a sentence. "See you later, I guess."