Elle pulled the lunch money out of her pocket to hand to the lunch lady; she was prepared today. She brought all the money she had saved up for the month since Nero had paid some of her tuition payments. Today, she was going to pay them a month in advance. That way, she wouldn’t feel any pressure swinging back into working every night again.
Elle reached the lunch lady and handed her the cash. “1089.”
The lady handed back her cash. “You’re already paid up for the rest of the semester.”
What did she just say?
“Excuse me?”
“You don’t have to bring lunch money anymore. Next.”
Elle dropped her mouth and slowly walked away. She quickly shut it when she passed Nero’s new table. It was the same one they had sat at when they had broken up before.
She quickly took her seat at the table in the corner and so did Chloe.
Chloe leaned over the table. “When has your lunch account ever been positive?”
“Never.” Elle pushed the tray away. “I don’t even want to eat it, Chloe.” Not if he paid for it.
“No, that’s free food. You better eat it.” Chloe sighed. “Elle, are you ever going to tell me what happened?”
Elle shook her head, staring at her food. She felt too bad to be hungry anyway.
“Elle, tell me something. They were my friends, too, you know.”
Elle looked up at Chloe. She had been starting to really like them, and she had actually grown comfortable around them.
She’s right. “Remember how we caught him at Poison with another girl?”
Chloe nodded.
Elle sighed. “Well, this time I caught him in an even bigger lie. He played me the whole time, Chloe. They all did.”
She was thankful when Chloe decided to leave it at that. Chloe knew when Elle kept a secret, and especially from her, it had to be bad.
Through lunch, Elle forced herself not to look at their table no matter what. When they went to go throw their trays away, Elle put her hands in her pocket and felt the cash that had been meant for her lunch money. Wait.
Elle darted out of the lunchroom in a split-second.
Chloe was hardly able to catch up with her. “Elle, where are you going?”
“The office.”
Elle hurriedly made it to the office and threw open the door. She went straight to the front desk.
“I need to pay my bill.”
“Okay, what’s your name again?” a woman with a tight, brown bun and glasses asked.
Really, you can’t remember my name one time after all these years? “Elle Buchanan.” When it came out hasty, she watched the woman stop to glare at her.
She clicked her mouse a few times, and Elle saw her face become shocked.
“You have a zero balance.”
Zero! He didn’t even pay the fucking bill due. No, he paid the whole thing!
“I didn’t pay it. Take it off!” Elle started pulling all the money she had out of her pocket and throwing it on the desk.
“I can’t do that—”
“Take it off!” Elle’s eyes began to water all over again.
For the first time in Elle’s life, Chloe grabbed her arms. “Elle, it’s okay. It’s all going to be okay.”
Chapter Forty
March
Chapter Forty-One
April
Chapter Forty-Two
May
Chapter Forty-Three
The Scariest Place on Earth
Now that it was officially June, the weather had turned into a hot summer in the city. Elle walked down the hall, looking at all the shorts, skirts, and dresses. She still wore the same things she had been wearing the past few months, and that was jeans and a three-dollar shirt from her favorite place on earth. She had grown to understand Chloe’s love for black, especially the super-faded, old black t-shirts with some heavy metal band she could barely read since the letters were peeled off.
Since her freak-out in the office, Elle had learned to flip her switch. Despite Nero paying off her tuition, Elle had worked every night to keep busy. When she went to bed at night, she would cry herself to sleep, having to flip over her pillow from the pool she created. Then, as soon as she got out of bed in the morning, she would shut down and become a zombie. Nothing would make her happy and nothing would make her sad. Then it would start all over again as soon as her face hit the pillow.
Every day, she would cry herself to sleep less and less until the zombie filled her whole. Almost all of her. Her thoughts were now hard to come by. It was better for her not to think at all; otherwise, she would have lost her mind, thinking about Nero.
She trained herself not to look at him, and eventually he got the memo and didn’t come near her anymore. What’s more, she no longer felt his stares at the back of her head. Nero didn’t have to follow her any longer; no one even talked to her besides Chloe.
When she heard about Sebastian being in critical condition and having the whole right side of his face burned off, she had pieced it all together. She realized no one had gotten a fucking cold. Nero had kept his promise of watching everyone who had ever hurt her scream in pain. Unfortunately, the latter—of her screaming his name—had also come true.
Elle couldn’t believe how she hadn’t seen how terrible they all were. They clearly all killed for a living. She made sure she and Chloe stayed away from all of them, including Maria.
Ultimately, Elle did feel bad for not talking to Maria, though. She couldn’t help who her family was, yet Elle knew if she and Maria stayed friends, that gave an opportunity for Nero.