Riley just stared at me some more. The gears in his head were clearly turning a mile a minute, but I couldn’t guess what they were producing. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision.

“They’ll never believe you,” he said. “They’ll think you’ve been ingesting drugs as well.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it again. He was right. If I was really the only person who’d noticed all of the strange things about Riley Bay, then trying to tell people would be pointless. They’d find it much easier to believe that I’d gone insane than that I’d actually witnessed any of it.

Riley finally released his viselike grip on my shoulders.

“Go home, little girl,” he said. “Enjoy your mundane little life while you still can.”

And with that, he was gone.

Chapter Seven: Conspiracy

The next day, Riley wasn’t in English class.

He wasn’t in French class either.

Tuesday passed.

During the few minutes we had for a mid-morning snack between French and Biology on Wednesday morning, still no sign of him. The logical part of my brain told me that I should be relieved.

So why didn’t I feel relieved?

“Andi?” said Bree. “Are you okay?”

I’d almost forgotten Bree was there. It was hard not to, with thoughts of Riley racing through my mind. “I’m fine,” I said mechanically. But I wasn’t.

Bree, as always, took that at face value and started going on about something else, munching Cheetos while talking about the new episode of this or how Natalie said that, but I found myself drifting away. Was I fine? No, I wasn’t. I couldn’t be. This feeling in my heart, radiating outward across me, choking me up, holding up Riley’s toned body and his cocky smile in my mind’s eye… Surely I was sick.

But why? After he’d been so weird and smug and then downright threatening, why couldn’t I just be relieved that he wasn’t at school anymore to give me that smoldering look of disdain he had reserved special for me? Why couldn’t I just stop thinking about him?

“Are you sure you’re okay?” said Bree. “You don’t look so good.”

How could I explain it to Bree? She wouldn’t understand. She couldn’t understand. I didn’t even know if I understood. And outside of things like schoolwork, spelling, history or general knowledge, there was very little Bree understood that I didn’t.

“Hey,” said Bree, gazing longingly at the granola bar I’d forgotten to even unwrap, “are you gonna eat that?”

We stepped into Biology. Vik was there, in an unusually aloof, dreamy state, but still no sign of Riley. And, to my ever-sinking heart, Mr. Cho wasn’t there either.

Looked like we were going to get to enjoy Ms. Epistola as our substitute again. Goody.