Dangerous Ties

Didn't I Tell You? Honesty Is The Best Policy

Chapter Six:

We were back in the library.

Seventh period started and when Mr. Fern took attendance today for his pre-calculus class, I was going to be marked absent. I tried not to think about that or the fact that I was probably missing a pop quiz. Mr. Fern was big on pop quizzes.

I sucked at math anyway. 2+2 was as far as I could go.

Axel and I were sitting in a more secluded part of the library, surrounded by extremely tall bookcases chocked full of every genre of literature you could imagine.

Okay, okay, so maybe I was exaggerating.

I loved the smell of books. It was my secret addiction. Seriously, sometimes I would open a book just to sniff the pages even if they were old or new. Everyone who knew me was used to my weird fetish and now they just settled for shooting me a weird look every now and again whenever we walked into a Barnes and Noble.

Right now, book sniffing was the only thing keeping me from leaping across this table and choking Axel Taverns for being so difficult. Thankfully we were far away from the librarian. She couldn't hear us talking from here but even then, I wasn't about to make any loud outbursts.

That woman had ears like a hawk.

Axel had his backpack sprawled across the table and the minute we sat down on the little wooden stools, he pulled out his MacBook. It was sleek and thin, and definitely ten times better than the heavy HP laptop I had at home.

For a while I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. When I asked him to tell me about Michael Pearson, he gave me some vague answer about having to show me instead.

So, I waited and soon I realized that patience really wasn't a virtue.

My hands wouldn't stop twitching and my legs kept bouncing. It was a habit of mine whenever my nerves were on edge. And let me tell you, my nerves were on edge. Partly because I was ditching class and also because I felt a little wary of whatever Axel was going to show me.

I listened to the sound of his fingers glide across the keyboard. The look of concentration on his face told me that he was being serious, more serious than I'd ever seen him. More serious than he'd ever been with me since he came barreling into my life two days ago.

A few more seconds passed, and it was all I needed to snap. "Just tell me." I said exasperatedly.

The typing stopped, and he glanced at me over his laptop screen.

"Look, I'm just trying to decide if you're worth trusting."

Me? He was worried about trusting me? What about him! Was I supposed to just blindly accept whatever he had to say? Yeah, because he sure did give me plenty of reason to when he blackmailed me.

Unbelievable.

"I risk getting an absence in my class just to hear you out and you're still talking in circles."

When he didn't respond, I rose from my seat grabbing my bag from beside me.

Enough of this. If he wasn't going to tell me, then I would stop wasting my precious time. Maybe, Fern will give me partial credit for attendance. I still had my pink slip from the nurse.

Scowling at him angrily, I turned ready to make a hasty retreat when his next words stopped me in my track.

"Someone is framing my brother for murder." He said solemnly.