Manhunt

Chapter 25

"Call me or text me if you end up deciding that you don't want to be here." Emma insisted, shooting Julia a soft smile. "I'll understand if you don't, okay?" Julia nodded, kissing her mother on the cheek before she left the office with her late pass and headed to her locker. Once she grabbed her books, she went to AP World History.

Her heart was having a seizure, knowing just as well as she did that Zane was going to be next to her in class. She wasn't sure if she'd wanted to see him so soon...since he grinded her heart into minced meat and left it splattered on the pavement to get run over by a 10-wheeler truck.

She opened the door to the classroom weakly, barely having space for her to slip in, and walked over to Mr. Torrez to give him her note. He accepted it with a small frown and furrowed eyebrows, looking at Julia carefully as she trudged her way over to her table. They were in the back of the classroom, and she realized that today was one of those spontaneous days in which Joey—Mr. Torrez, would change where groups would be seated. She still had everyone in her group, which, to her slight dismay and even slighter relief, included Zane as well.

"Hi." Julia greeted in a whisper, taking her usual seat in front of Sydney.

"Hey..." The three said in unison, sounding slightly awkward together. She hoped that wasn't her fault.

"Why did you come so late?" Caroline interrogated her, staring straight into her eyes. "We're twenty minutes into class already, you're lucky that we aren't doing much besides getting old material back."

"Me and my parents had something to deal with earlier this morning." She explained as honestly as she could, rubbing at her tired eyes.

"Did you have trouble sleeping?" Sydney observed, her expression full of worry. "You seem to be lacking sleep lately, Julia. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She lied, giving her a smile in hopes of relieving her. "I keep making the mistake of leaving everything to the last minute or watching late night marathons."

"Of course." Both girls said at the same time, shaking their heads. "The Nanny marathons."

"I can't help it." Julia gave them a sheepish smile and shrugged, turning around to watch Mr. Torrez give out old tests, homework, quizzes, packets, and class work. He caught her stare, the frown he had on before from overthinking, now deepened. Julia tried to smile at him, but Joey always had an ability that made it impossible for her to lie or fake any type of emotion around him.

He had been a very difficult babysitter because of that.

She felt something touch her thigh and she looked down to find a note sitting there, neatly folded. Slowly, her fingers picked it up and carefully unfolded it, seeing Zane's handwriting. In the middle of the paper were the words, Can we talk?

Julia flipped the piece of paper over and wrote out her response.

In a civilized manner? I don't think so. Not yet. My insides are still shriveled up.

He flinched when he read the note, running his hand over his face. Looking up, Julia found Sydney and Caroline discretely trying to observe the two of them barely speaking. They gave Julia a pointed look when they saw how uncomfortable Zane looked. Seconds later, he slid his response onto her desk.

It's not what you think.

"I advise you to choose words that don't make you sound like a partner who was caught cheating." She murmured to him, finally looking at him. "If it isn't what I think it is, then can you please tell me what happened yesterday?"

"Is it alright if we talk about it...alone?" He asked and Julia glanced up in time to see her friends rapidly turn their heads away to the opposite direction. There was a faint crack.