High School Hit List (CLIQUE BAIT)

Epilogue

I rose from to my feet and then sat down again. I'd stand out too much. I grabbed my purse from where it sat on the booth next to me and tried to look small. God, I was losing it. My head was going dizzy from lack of oxygen. What was he doing here?

I bit my lip hard and started searching for an escape route.

"Chloe, oh my God!"

Maddy had spotted me, and she flung her arms out for a hug, hitting a few people along the way with the bags at her wrists. I let her envelope me in cashmere, any happy feelings I might have had from being reunited with her tainted with a mix of emotion. Terror. Anxiety. Heart break.

"I hope you don't mind, I brought someone..." she said, her eyes darting to the tall boy beside her.

William looked as breathtaking as ever. His hair was a little shorter, styled neatly. He was wearing a knitted jumper which fitted his broad torso well. I wondered if he was playing lacrosse again, but then I dropped that thought from my mind.

I couldn't find it in me to look him in the eye. I knew from that moment I wouldn't be able to keep pretending everything was fine.

"I thought we were meeting with Piers," he said neutrally, his words lingering among the hushed noise of the cafe.

Maddy sighed, her shoulders slumping. "You two obviously left things badly. I'm doing you a favor."

The last time someone had said they were doing me a favor, my whole world had collapsed. And right now it felt like it could easily happen again.

When neither of us spoke, Maddy rolled her eyes and squeezed into the booth next to me, leaving William to reluctantly sit down opposite. My heart hammered in my chest. He averted his eyes to the window I'd just been staring out of.

"So how's Silver Oak?" Maddy asked, her bright eyes fixed on mine, oblivious to the tension around her.

"Um, good," I said, my fingers back to fidgeting with the napkin. Then I realized I couldn't even really talk to her, not with William there. I doubted she'd have told him about her pregnancy with Francis.

"Arlington's as terrible as ever," she said, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she reached for the menus in the middle of the table. "Sophie and Lola are still bitches. But they kind of pretended nothing happened with the photos, so things must have been pretty dramatic after all of that for them to get over it. And hey, Francis dropped out of school."

I frowned, I'd gone to a lot of effort not to look up any information on Arlington's favorite celebrity students since I'd left. "Dropped out?"

"Yep, pretty shocking considering he's supposed to inherit millions. Millionaire drop out," Maddy mused, her eyes scanning over the cafe's menu. "Oh hey, they have sweet potato fries."

My body was still tense as I reached forward to grab my own menu from the stand in the middle. At exactly the same time William went to take one too.

"Oh no, you take it," he said quickly as our hands bumped, sending a wave of electricity through my skin and disturbing the feelings that had been suppressed for so long.

I gulped back the lump in my throat and took the menu quickly, instantly acting as if I were intrigued with whatever they had to offer. Why did she have to bring him?

My eyes couldn't translate the text in front of me, and when Maddy asked me what I wanted to order I read out the first thing I processed.

"Great," she said, taking the menu from my grasp, and before I could object she was slipping in front of me. "I'll go order for all of us, shall I?"