A/N: I’ve been calling Cam “Camilla” in full, because I forgot that I meant to call her Cameron… Henceforth, she will be known as Cameron. She doesn’t suit Camilla.
I stare at him, frozen for a heartbeat, before I shake my head. “No one can cheat the test,” I say again. “It’s perfect. We both passed fair and square.” The words sound hollow to my ears.
Jules watches me closely. He doesn’t say anything. I squeeze my mouth shut tight to prevent the urge to keep talking and fill the silence.
Jules smirks. “You’re good,” he says. “I’ll give you that. But come on, you can talk to me. I’m not going to dob you in. Just like I know you’re not going to dob me in. Do you want to know how I knew you cheated the test?”
I don’t respond. He continues speaking, looking off into the distance. “I’d say that the way you said sorry to that Lesser was a dead giveaway, but I’m afraid I wasn’t that smart. I just couldn’t believe that anyone else had gotten away with what I had. It wasn’t until I saw you unable to give them an order that I realised.” He looks straight at me. “You’re trying too hard to cover it. It’s making you falter when you realise how difficult it is for you to do what you think should come naturally, but even the most compassionate person would be able to order a Lesser to empty his pockets. They might just say it a little nicer. You’re overcompensating. It’s going to get you noticed.”
He shifts in his seat while I process what he just said. From what I can gather, he has no proof. So I could keep denying it and maybe he would give up. But then, maybe it would be worth him knowing if it meant I could finally talk openly.
I look up at Jules to see that he is staring straight at me, waiting.
“What are you going to do about it?” I say instead, going for ambiguous.
He smirks, not fooled in the slightest. “Nothing,” he says, surprising me. “I just liked the idea of not being in this alone. But if you’re going to insist.” He stands up.
“Wait, wait,” I say, exasperated. “Fine. Say you’re right. I don’t see where this would get us. It’s not as though we could do anything about it - there’s nothing to do! We’d just be two screwed up people who managed to escape justice. We’d be better off if we didn’t know about each other.”
Jules shakes his head. “Not if I’m right about The Dollhouse.”
He has a point. If they suspect Jules cheated, which they seem to, and if Jules could see so easily that I had cheated too… it’s only a small jump to suspect me as well.
“Alright, what do we do?”
Jules shrugs and leans back. “That’s why we need each other. We need to find out what they’re doing before we can make any plans. And I can’t figure out how to do that on my own.”
“Why don’t you run away?” I ask, thinking over what he heard Katrina say. “They seem pretty certain that you cheated.”
YOU ARE READING
The DollHouse
Teen FictionI want to be more than what they say I am. "We were told that in the early days of implementing the Motherhood project there were protests. ... but when I look at my own mother, I can't help but feel that some of them were relieved. They just handed...
