(REWRITING) The Skylar Experiment : Coveting

Chapter Forty-Three - Covering Up The Incident

RILEY

"YOU WHAT?" Devin shouted.

I'd waited for her in the same classroom where I'd spoken to Chuck. She wasted no time in appearing after I said it was bad.

I repeated exactly what happened, from the moment Miles walked inside trig class to the second I called her. The deeper I went into the details, the more noticeable that vein looked on her forehead.

"And why the hell did you break the damn windows?" she asked, throwing her arms up.

"I don't know." My hands smacked off my sides. "It just happened and I didn't mean it to. I almost killed Miles!"

She stared at the floor.

"Maybe you should have."

I quieted over the desk I sat on and refused to think about it. Killing him would have made matters worse. The hunters may come for us all and Emma would resent me for good. I couldn't even do such a thing, just wondering churned my stomach and made me want to vomit even though it was empty.

"Did you see Chuck?" I said, not wanting to consider that option.

"I did. He walked straight through the cafeteria and left through the back door in a hurry. But by looking at him, I couldn't tell something was wrong. At least he didn't go crazy in front of everyone..."

There was this fear that he'd tell a friend or a family member and intend to make them keep quiet, but it would still be a risk. One person could secretly turn into two, then three, then four... Who knew how it'd affect us if many people found out? We'd be in more danger, for sure.

Devin used her phone to call Mr. Kennedy and said he'd come over in two minutes. I'd have to reiterate everything.

"What are we going to do about Chuck?" I asked, my legs dangling off the desk.

She gazed at the windows. "Watch him. That's all we can do for now until we see that he's trying to spread the word. The school staff is also going to be looking for the cause of the shattered glass in trig. Greg's going to take care of it and calm the teachers down."

"Do you know where Luc and Ben are? They're not answering their phones."

"I think they skipped class together. They do it sometimes to escape this place, so you're stuck with me." She gave a tight smile. "Isn't that just great?"

I scowled. "Couldn't be happier."

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It wasn't long after Mr. Kennedy arrived that the math teacher alerted the headmaster about his damaged classroom. Staff had gathered around the scene and called the repairmen to take care of it, but they couldn't find the perpetrator. 

Nobody saw anything. Only Miles and I had been present up until the incident, and we were both gone when the teacher returned. Our names were on the suspect list. Later that day, the headmaster called me to his office and interrogated me—as I assumed he had or intended to with Miles—and I deflected the questions. 

I said I went to the bathroom and had no idea what Miles did. He sat in the class until the moment I left. I wasn't helping him cover his ass. 

They found blood on some shards, which confirmed that someone had been there during the explosion. It was my blood and it could be traced to me if the school decided to send a sample for analysis at a lab. I offered what Mr. Kennedy wanted me to say : I left the bathroom because of a bad nosebleed and drops of blood must have dripped on the floor before the windows shattered. 

"Miles Spencer said you were still there when he forgot something in his locker," the principal declared over his desk, fingers threaded together. "Someone's not telling the truth, here."

I crossed one leg over the other and sunk into my shoulders to look smaller, willing my tone to sound shaken. 

"But-but why would I even try to do such a thing? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to break thick windows... unless I punched them hard." I held up my closed, unscathed fists. "Not only would you be able to see the injury, but that wouldn't break the whole wall of windows. You can also search my bag or locker if you want to check for tools. I don't have any."

Someone give me a freaking oscar. 

"I don't know what Miles told you, sir. All I know is that I got a nosebleed and rushed to the bathroom to fix it. It wouldn't stop, so it took a long time before I came out. When I headed back to grab my books, teachers stood around the door and I saw the glass-strewn floor."

The man leaned back in his chair with a sigh. He didn't push a lot given that I was only a teenager, my story was solid and nobody got hurt. This wasn't a police investigation, after all. Miles probably had some explaining to do since his version seemed more rickety compared to mine. But since his father worked as one of the teachers, he might get away with it, too. 

He dismissed me, and I collected my things at the end of the day. I found Luc mounting the steps to head inside the school like a man on a mission. He froze when I came out the doors, and I joined him next to the railing. His hands were bunched in the pockets of his jacket, a deep crease lining his forehead despite the way he slouched over the ramp.

"Tell me you blew up my phone because of a tasteless joke."

"I blew up your phone to mess with you, yeah." My face told the opposite as I'd had enough of lying since rolling out of bed. I thought of the talk with Emma this morning in the locker room and wanted to cry right there. 

His eyes widened as he bent over to my level. "Whoa, what's going on?" 

I eyed the flood of students walking from the doors and into the snow, nearing an overspill of emotions. "We lost Emma, Chuck knows, Miles screwed me over and I..." I lowered my voice, " I broke the windows from a classroom. How's that for one hell of a Monday?" 

He didn't look surprised. I figured he must have talked with Mr. Kennedy and Devin already and that he was up to date with the gist of it. But he couldn't have known about Emma. His gaze was sincere when it snared mine. 

"Look... we can't talk about this here. Let's leave this godforsaken building and go home. You wanted to continue studying, and we can go over everything there. Okay?" 

I nodded, wanting nothing more than to run away from school. Luc draped an arm over my shoulders to steer me away from the doors, preventing me from staring behind. 

"You handled it well," he said as we hastily approached his Rover. "You did what you had to do. The principal won't find anything and you won't get in trouble."

I didn't worry about that. My worries were about Emma and what would happen to her with Miles watching over her, about what Chuck might do with the scattered truth and what it could mean for us. Was he going to encounter the hunters and choose their side? I wanted to believe chances were slim, but they weren't. 

Emma stepping away from me was hurtful enough because she was my friend, but to see a disturbed guy pick their side chilled my bones. 

  ➹➹➹  

Mondays, amirite. They're horrible. 

This one in particular was brutal. I was glad to include the tiniest tidbit of Devin/Riley interaction here, though, so there's a bright side to everything. Well, kinda XD. Hope you liked this clever chapter about the aftermath.