Socratic Method

Chapter Twelve

With a sigh, Dot got up for classes. She was taking the second part to Ubel's class and wasn't happy about it in the slightest. But she had to get a degree or never get a job. Not her choice.

Asha had curled up to her after she blacked out, her butt resting uncomfortably close to her head. Moving the cat to its bed in the corner of her bedroom. Dot got ready. As she picked up her phone, which was laying on the nightstand next to her bed, she checked her messages.

At around five am, Amir had texted her.

'Are you free for lunch today? Have a very nice place that you may be interested in going to.' it read, with a winking face emoji tacked onto the end.

Dot wasn't expecting this.

Yesterday she had bugged Raz about it. But that was only because she needed to know how close they were to catching her. She and the voice had never expected a response from Amir, at least not one so tame.

Biting her bottom lip in worry, Dot consulted the voice. 'Do it.' it said, 'It'll be a good chance to talk to him. He'll be less likely to suspect you if he's closer to you. But you may accidentally confirm his thoughts. But, then again, if you turn him down it may be suspicious....' It brushed off all the warnings Raz had tried to drill into it last night. Probably not the wisest move but the one that aligned best with what it wanted to do.

'Do it. Final answer.'

Still being hesitant, Dot texted back.

'Sure! I would love to! I'm free between classes from eleven to two. Where did you have in mind?'

Before she could even turn off her phone, a text bubble appeared. The flickering dots moving for a few seconds until a block of text appeared. It was a 'thank you' by saying he was paying. The address and time she was to show up, and a recommendation of what to wear. Why did he want her to dress so nicely? Searching the address, she found it was a five-star restaurant near the heart of Time Square.

She had no idea what to do.

Dot had only been on one date in her entire life. It was with Jake before her senior prom. She barely knew the guy, only that he was one of Bo's distant friends from the football team and that he had a thing for her. Aside from that and his name, he was a complete stranger. It was awkward and filled with tons of much too long silences. She found it to be one of the most mortifying experiences of her life.

Dot had never been an extrovert. She barely knew how to interact with new people. The last time she'd forced herself to talk to someone new, excluding Amir, was when she met her professors.

'Ooh. Gods.' cringed the voice. 'You need to get out more.'

Dot felt like punching the embodiment.

As Dot continued to get ready, she realized she owned nothing nice enough to go to a place so high-class. For the Gods' sake, even the website said the place was black tie. So what would she wear? She guessed she could always ask Layla to borrow something. That woman always had the habit of buying things that weren't her size.

Deciding to shoot off a text to her blonde friend, she typed out a quick text. 'Hey, I have a lunch with someone between classes and the place is super high end. Do you have a dress I could borrow for the day.'

As she got off the bed she hadn't realized she had sat down on, she felt a hard pulsing sting in both her elbow and knee. She could have sworn she healed them last night. As she lifted up her leg for closer inspection, much to her pain receptors' displeasure, she noticed heavy bruising on the underside of her joints. How the hell did she get hurt there?