Honor Among Friends (NaNoWriMo14)

Chapter 12-A

Drowning.

She was drowning in a sea of emotion. They whirled around her, taunting her. Each threatening to drag her under, but she kicked and fought her way to the surface. She drew in a deep breath, air filling her lungs for what felt like the first time since he picked up the coin.

Focus, she ordered to herself. Focus on what you need to do right now, then you can worry about Carson.

Even as she thought those words, her body was torn between cleaning up the mess or chasing after Carson and begging him to give her a chance to explain. But she knew she had to give him space. He just received a sucker punch of information and needed time to process. So Madison forced her knees to bend and slowly lowered herself to the ground. One by one she picked up the incriminating evidence, cursing herself for bringing it to school. At the time, she thought it was a good idea. Keeping the bag close to her lessened the chance of her mother finding it while snooping in her room. But obviously that backfired.

Then a thought dawned on her. What if Carson told somebody about he saw—like his dad? She, along with the rest of FEC, would go down in a pile of flames. Panicked now, she hurried along, scooping up the coins and chucking everything into her bag. She dashed out of the room and sent an SOS text to Avery, praying she would respond. Thankfully, she did. A text popped up seconds later.

What's wrong? —Avery

We have a problem. The study group was compromised. —M

What?! How?? —Avery

Before she could respond another text appeared on the screen.

Wyatt says to meet us by the football field near the bleachers. —Avery

Great. As if her day couldn't get any worse. Madison changed directions and headed toward the field just as the bell rang. When she got there, Wyatt and Avery were waiting for her. They were seated on the bottom rung, their heads bent and touching as they whispered back and forth. When she approached the bleachers, Wyatt stood and scowled, while Avery clutched the bench, her eyes full of worry.

"What happened?" Wyatt demanded, not wasting time on pleasantries.

Taking a second before delivering the bad news, Madison wet her lips and swallowed. Then proceeded to explain everything that occurred in Mr. Perez's room. As she talked, the lines on Wyatt's face grew more pronounced as his scowl deepened. By the end, his expression was thunderous.

"Do you know what you've done? You've jeopardized all of us! And for what? A little remorse?"

"You don't think I feel bad?" Madison snarled, feeling just as upset as he was. "Of course I do! But it's also wrong what we're doing. Stealing people's things isn't right, it isn't ethical."

"If you were experiencing a moral dilemma with what we were doing then you should said have spoken up." He shook a finger at her. "And you never should have accepted our invitation to join."

"Oh so it was an invitation now?" she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Because I'm pretty sure the picture you took of me was a direct threat."

His face screwed up in disgust. "That picture was a way to insure you wouldn't tell anyone. I wouldn't have used it if you decided not to join."

"And how would I have known that? You ambushed me and then threatened me. It's not out of the realm of possibility."