The Devil Inside

3: Unwanted Questions

Cooper still wasn't sure how they'd gotten here. How, after years of skating around each other, he found himself with his arms around one of the most popular girls at Greenwitch High. He knew it had something to do with his newfound notoriety—well, not so newfound anymore.

It was as if he'd been invisible his entire life, and only after surviving a brush with death had the veil been lifted, revealing Cooper Daniels to the rest of the world...and to Venus Upton

She planted a kiss on his cheek before twirling away. "See you after school," she called.

Cooper stared after her, dazed, as she joined two other girls near the entrance: Hayley Singleton and The Other One whose name he could never be bothered to remember. All three girls gave him a wave over their shoulders, grinned, and then flounced inside, looking far too pleased with themselves.

Grumbling, Cooper caught up to Vincent—who also looked far too pleased with himself, one arm curled around Calla's waist—and gave a dramatic sigh. "Girls."

Calla tsked.

"You are not a girl," Cooper interjected quickly, jabbing her shoulder with his index finger.

"Oh?" she asked, baiting him as they filed inside. He sighed as the air conditioning hit his face. Inside, a horde of bodies milled around, delaying the inevitable moment when they would have to make their way to first period.

Calla's eyes danced with mischief as she tossed him a look—daring him to say what, exactly, she was.

A wolf, he wanted to say. A wolf in sheep's clothing.

Before he had the chance to speak his mind, Vincent pulled out his schedule from the pocket of his letterman jacket and sighed. "I'm off to calculus."

"At least it's a half-day," Cooper reassured him. "And tomorrow is—"

"Hibachi," they said in unison.

"Something to live for," Vincent said with relish. He leaned down, planted a kiss firmly on Calla's cheek—she wrinkled her nose playfully—and headed down the hall, off to face his mathematical doom.

"You two are so dramatic," Calla said with a sigh, eyeing her schedule. "You have psychology third period, right?"

Had she memorized his schedule? "Abnormal psychology," he corrected, flustered.

"And a free period during fourth," she continued as if he hadn't spoken. "Excellent. So do I. See you then."

And that was that. She turned to go.

"We're not going to talk about...college?" he asked her, his voice low.

She hesitated. "We spoke in the car."

And they had. But not at length. Calla had mumbled something about prints and denial, but had otherwise been tight-lipped about her encounter with Astrid. Something had been eating at her. He'd known it. Just as he'd known that she wouldn't be letting this Astrid Baker murdered my best friend thing go.

Everyone has their breaking point.

"We need to speak more," he pushed. Don't shut me out. Not after everything.

She glanced at him. Speculative. "Okay," she relented. And then her brows furrowed. She dug in her back pocket and produced a wrinkled polaroid picture. "Here. Take this."

Cooper glanced at the photograph. Rachel. "What is this?" he asked softly.

"A picture," Calla drawled.