Page 125 of The Villain We Tempt

She turns and starts to walk away, which I gather is my cue to follow her.

I’ve picked up by now that Bella is alittleodd. Socially, she can feel a little off sometimes, and she has some fairly quirky habits. For instance, we’ll be in class, and she’ll glance over at the clock on the wall at 12:34 and quietly mouth “one, two, three, four”. Other times, I’ve caught her twisting her ponytail in front of her face and counting the individual hairs under her breath.

Nothingcrazy, just…diferent. Whatever. I’m sure I have weird shit that I do too.

I catch up to her outside and sling my bag over my shoulder as I fall into step beside her.

“So, where are we going?” I ask.

“Montclair Gymnasium.”

“And what do you need my help with?”

Bella glances at me but doesn’t slow her stride. “I need you to put something in a locker.”

My forehead wrinkles with curiosity. “Whose locker?”

She glances at me again but doesn’t say a word.

“You don’t have to tell?—”

“Okay.”

I bite back a grin. So, yeah; Bella’s a little nuts. Maybe more than alittle. But for some reason I like her.

“I can give you the locker number and combo, though. Oh, and it’s in the men’s locker room.”

My brow raises as I glance at her. “Ooookaaay…”

“I’m not, uh…” Bella clears her throat. “Not really welcome in there.”

I laugh.

“Yeah, me neither? Cause it’s themen’slocker room?”

Bella cracks a smile. “Fair. But it's…a bit more complicated than that.”

I shrug as we keep walking across campus in the direction of the gym and the athletic field. “I’m all ears, if you feel like sharing.”

She sucks on her teeth in silence for another few steps.

“You know Marco Cervi?” she suddenly blurts.

I wince. “Yeah. That’s really terrible about his uncle?—”

“Oh, no.” Bella frowns as she waves a dismissive hand. “His uncle is fine. He doesn’t have cancer.”

I frown. “I thought Marco was leaving school because?—”

“Or, maybe he’s leaving school because he’s a sexual predator,” Bella says with a casual shrug, looking dead ahead. “Andmaybesomeone made a convincing argument to him that it would be better to leave campus, even if it meant telling a shitty lie about his uncle’s health?”

I glance at her warily. Bella keeps looking straight ahead.

“But honestly,” she shrugs, “who really knows what happened?”

I get the distinct impression thatBellaknowspreciselywhat happened. But I decide not to push it.

“In any case, for various reasons…” She coughs delicately. “It wouldn’t beidealfor me to be seen in the men’s locker room.”