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Ivy blinked once, twice, three tiht her off guard "No," she said finally "They’re not But Theo wasn’t just a justice He was a friend"

Not just Ivy’s friend The president’s friend, treated by one of theokay?" Ivy askedlike I’d just run a h ’s fine"

CHAPTER 24

The next day, Vivvie was back in school Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail on her head Makeup covered the bags under her eyes She did a fighting job of looking nor was fine

I wondered how blind the rest of the school had to be not to realize that she wasn’t

The two of us didn’t have a chance to talk before classes started In English, she kept her eyes locked on the board She wouldn’t even look at ned to work in partners

"We’re supposed to calculate the coefficient of friction," Vivvie said, busying herself with pulling le of the raaze but didn’t say anything, willing her to remember that, for better or worse, she wasn’t in this alone

"I got the phone" She said those words so quietly, I almost couldn’t h the trash"

Her hand shook as she set one of the metal discs on the scale On the other side of the roo Vivvie tried very hard not to look at hiaze down I reached out and steadied Vivvie’s hand

"You’re okay," I told her

She reached into her bag and slipped out a flip phone Her hand wrapped around it so tightly that her knuckles strained against her skin "Nothing is okay" For a moment, she pulled the phone close to her body, but then, like soe off an open wound, she thrust it across the table toward er I closed ht of it

"Girls" The teacher stopped by our table "No phones"

I dropped the phone into my blazer pocket before he could move to take it froer at me "Exactly"

The class passed torturously slowly We did the work But all I could think about was the phone in my pocket and the fact that on the other side of the roolances at Vivvie andbehind me in the lunch line, "it is possible that I do know soet information off a disposable cell phone"

"Even if the phone has been wiped clean?" In between classes, I’d checked the call log and contacts Both had been cleared

"My contact islet’s say, resourceful," Asher toldelectronic is ever truly deleted"

"Asher" Henry Marquette cut between the two of us "Any chance you’re actually intending not to skip out on your re he thinks you’re a bad influence on h bad influence standards set by yours truly, I’m pretty sure that’s a compliment"