Devilish Detective ✅

The Voice of a Dying Mantis

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Voice Of A Dying Mantis

°°°

“Whatcha got there?”

I let out a squeal as I jump in fright. My action causes Tony to chuckle in amusement. Placing a palm over my chest, I calm the beating frenzy of my heart before I turn around to face him.

“You have to stop doing that!” I exclaim and he chuckles even harder.

“I’m not doing anything. You’re just the one who’s super jumpy. Why? You think the bogyman is out to get you?” He grins at me, revealing perfectly structured teeth, but I chose to disregard his comment.

“You look nice, by the way,” he adds and I shrug as I think back to Cherry’s words.

While he has a huge smile on his face and his dark eyes are super friendly, I cannot help but suspect him. I know that my emotions are completely biased, but Cherry is my best friend and the nicest person I have ever met. If she has reasons to distrust Antony Black, I do too.

“As do you, I guess,” I provide an answer while I throw the letter back into my locker and take another bite of my chocolate.

Indeed, he does. He looks good his in brown hoodie on sweatpants and his blond hair is neatly styled backwards. There’s just something about Tony’s casualness that seems appealing. It’s no surprise a lot of people like him.

Then again, they probably like him because he provides the most gossip to the school’s page.

“I missed the whole drama earlier. It’s pretty sad because I like drama. I heard Carrie was like, super fierce, but I came to hear your own side of the story.” He holds up his phone and with scrunched brows, I point at the device but he grins cheekily at me. “I’m recording for Northview High’s page, of course.”

Of course!

“Tony, we have classes in the next fifty to sixty seconds,” I remind him and he shrugs.

“We can make it if you speed it up.” When he sees I don’t budge, he lets out a sigh. “Come on! Pretty please! You know I live for the drama!” He puts down his phone and bats his lids at me while he juts out his lower lip so he looks even more adorable than he already is.

It takes all of my self-restraint to resist.

The whole gossip thing just never appealed to me. Why should I embarrass them even more? Granted, they were the first to make fun of me with the whole paint thing and got exactly what was coming to them, but the moment is past and I see no reason to bring it all up again.

“I don’t enjoy drama. Now, I have a more important question for you. Why does Cherry hate you?” I take the last bite of the chocolate and try to toss the wrapper into the waste bin opposite me, but I totally miss it, and it sticks to a locker instead.

My bad!

His cute expression drops and all hints of friendliness leaves his eyes. He slips his phone into his pockets, and I know that I am going to get little to nothing from him. Somehow, his reluctant makes me all the more suspicious of him.

“She thinks I stole Allen from her or something, which is totally strange because Allen asked me out and not the other way around. I have a video of the whole thing. You want to see?” His eyes brighten up once more at the thought of Allen asking him out, but the bell sounds and I smile sheepishly at him.

“I have advanced calculus class to get to, if you don’t mind. Though, I need to hear more of this story. Perhaps we should indeed hang out.” I slam shut my locker and his lips stretch into a wide grin.