I couldn’t hold back a disbelieving laugh. “That is your biggest concern? Not the fact that you’ve been cyberbul ying the entire school for the last two years?”

Amelia shook her head. Her face was pale, her expression impenetrable. “Please . . .” she said. “Meet me after the class is over. I will explain everything to you, I swear it.”

I considered her for a moment. Taking in her trembling hands and shuffling feet, I felt like I already had all the information I needed. Still, it couldn’t hurt to hear her side of the story. “Fine.

I’ll meet you in the room we found you last time.”

She nodded before abruptly turning around and hurrying towards our classroom. I followed her at a more leisurely pace and sat down in my familiar seat between Evelyn and Jasper, who didn’t notice the anxious glance Amelia threw my way.

The next hours seemed to crawl by at a snail’s pace. I was buzzing with curiosity about what it was she had to say and couldn’t help but look her way all throughout class; whereas her hand was constantly raised on every other day, she was unusually quiet today, her face pale as she stared down at her notepad, mechanically scribbling things down every now and then.

When the bell rang, Amelia was the first one to get up and bolt out of the room. I stayed behind for a moment, slowly putting away my things before I swung my backpack over my shoulder and headed to the classroom where Evelyn and I had found her crying almost two weeks ago.

Amelia was already there, leaning against the windowsill like she had been last time. Only this time she wasn’t crying and she also wasn’t shaking like she had been this morning. Instead, there was a look of quiet determination on her face that I didn’t know what to make of.

“So.” I pulled the door shut behind me. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Nothing,” she quietly said.

“Nothing?” I echoed, lifting an eyebrow as I came to a halt in front of her, my hands in my pockets. “Come on, Amelia, at least try to convince me. Do you have any excuse? An alibi for what you’ve been up to whenever a new entry was posted?

Anything?”

Amelia pushed herself away from the window and walked towards me, meeting me in the center of the room. “I do have an alibi.”

Studying her, I felt like Sherlock when he first met Irene Adler; I could read absolutely nothing from the look on her face.

“Sure you do,” I snorted. “What is it?”

Amelia took a step closer. Inhaled a shaky breath. Said, “You.”

I saw her hands reaching out for me, her face leaning closer, but my brain refused to believe what was happening until her mouth was on mine.

Her kiss was closemouthed and firm, lips pressing against mine without moving, her hands hovering just above my shoulders without actually touching me. I could feel her sticky lip gloss against my mouth, hear her breathing shakily through her nose, smell her perfume, a sickeningly sweet, flowery scent that reminded me of the bouquets of white lilies people had at funerals.