Page 9 of Half Truths (Secret Society 1)
“It was part of her and dad’s agreement when they separated.”
“Oh. That doesn’t sound like a terrible outcome to a bad situation.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Her expression told me she didn’t agree, but she shrugged it off.
“It seems like she’s done well for herself.”
“She has.” She smiled. “Anyway, back to my interest in the societies. I’ve heard that one of the groups meets in The Tower. Smack in the middle of campus. Hidden in plain sight.”
“That’s an odd place to meet if you want to be secretive.” I frowned. “What kind of tower is it? What do they talk about in the meetings?”
“Um, hello.” Hailey laughed. “It’s secret.”
“I guess if they’re not bothering anyone, what does it matter?” I shrugged, but in the back of my mind, I remembered Ella Valentine talking about how Lana had been investigating them too.
Was that what happened to her? Had she gotten caught up in something with them? Something so sinister that they had to kidnap her? All the crime fiction I’d been reading wasn’t doing me any favors. If I said this to Lincoln, he’d laugh at me and tell me to snap back to reality. If I said this to my ex-boyfriend Travis, he’d roll his eyes and tell me I needed to put my books down and rejoin the real world, as if the real world ever had anything fun and exciting to offer.
“I just think it’s crazy that you have to be invited, and not everyone is. Even royalty has been turned down. It’s that exclusive,” Hailey said. “Organizations like that should be allowed, don’t you think?”
“I guess. What are they called? Does anyone know?”
“Well, we have Quill & Dagger, but they’ve agreed to let the paper publish their names now. I guess the whole secretive thing wasn’t working out for them anymore.”
I remembered hearing my brother George talk about Quill & Dagger. Of course, even if he had been in a society, he wouldn’t have told me. George was thirteen years my senior and the only things we ever spoke about when we saw each other were my grades and babysitting duties when I watched my nieces. My second oldest brother, Edward, didn’t really talk about much at all, and now that he was living in Spain, we rarely communicated outside of Instagram. Lincoln was the only one who would talk to me about these things, and being that he didn’t want to talk about anything pertaining to the school, I knew that was a longshot.
“I’m not sure which one meets in The Tower, but there are two or three on campus and I think I know a few members of the ones with no names.” She slapped her hands on her knees, leaning in to look into my now empty mug. “So, you ready to go?”
“Yup.” I stood up and thanked her as she took my mug and set it over by the counter. We walked outside and headed in the general direction of my apartment. It was difficult to navigate with no phone or GPS to go on.
“Speak of the devil,” Hailey said under her breath.
I glanced forward in time to catch four guys walking in our direction. They were all wearing different variations of dark clothing, black, grey, dark green. All tall with handsome features and don’t fuck with me attitudes. One, in particular, caught my eye—the guy I’d bumped into the other day, the one I was ninety-nine-percent sure had been standing outside my apartment building smoking and probably talking to these three guys. My heart beat faster as we walked past them. I focused on not looking at them, at him specifically, despite being hyper-aware of his presence. A shoulder bumped me, hard, and my gaze snapped up to his.
“Oops. My bad,” he said in a tone that was nothing if not patronizing.
“You should reconsider your shoulders,” I snapped.
“You should reconsider what sidewalks you walk on.”
My eyes narrowed, but I kept walking. I wanted to punch him. Each step I took away from him, with my blood pumping in my ears and my hands shaking in rage, I focused on my breath—in and out, in and out, and tried not to react to him again.
“That guy is such an asshole,” I said loudly to Hailey, hoping he’d hear me.
“Trust me, I know.” She looked over her shoulder. I didn’t bother giving him the satisfaction. “That’s Fitz and he’s an asshole with a capital A. He’s also captain of the hockey team, which two of them play in. The other two play some other sport . . . lacrosse I think? And I think they’re also part of one of the secret societies. They’re very particular about who they socialize with, but I guess that could mean anything. I mean, you know jocks.”
Yeah, I knew jocks, but the ones I knew, like my brother and ex-boyfriend, weren’t self-centered pricks who got off on being mean to the new girl. Finally, despite myself, I looked back and caught him looking right at me. He seemed upset, his jaw clenched tightly as he watched me. It took all of my control not to roll my eyes as I tore my gaze away from his. I guessed in a way he did look like someone who could be hiding some deep, dark secret, but who wasn’t?
