Joel was at the hardware store wasn’t he K??

Thanks, April. Kimbra typed fast.

He just wanted to know when the guys would be back.

And then, to keep the conversation from lingering somewhere she couldn’t afford it to, Kimbra wrote:

Has anyone heard from Jamal Reynolds?

She exited the chat, opened the thread she shared with her boyfriend. Call me, she wrote to KT Staler. Now.

But he didn’t call. He didn’t pick up her calls. All the way to school, as the Bisonette’s group chat sizzled and snapped, Kimbra’s astute mind studied and prodded and resigned itself to a simple fact: her boyfriend might be hiding even more from her than she suspected.

KT Staler, bless his heart, really was not as clever as he thought he was, but Kimbra had always loved that about him. Unlike Bethany Tanner, Kimbra Lott knew her boyfriend lied to her on a daily basis. KT’s deception, in some odd way, was almost part of his charm. It was charming because Kimbra had a pretty clear idea of the sort of work he did on those weekend trips he took to the coast with Dylan Whitley. KT always thought he was fooling her. It had been adorable until today.

She skimmed through all the messages from the Bitchettes, began to type, and then there was her man, slipping through the door of the geography room with a heavy bag on his shoulder and black circles around his eyes. KT walked with a slouch to the back of the room, refusing to look up when she called his name.

the cops are here, wrote Alisha.

the fuck?!

omg omg omg

Kimbra went very cold. Before she could stand up and drag her boyfriend outside and twist his arm until he came very damn clean about what the fuck he had actually been up to this weekend, the bell rang. Mrs. Sparrows rose from her seat and even the wildest of students came to attention. None of them wanted to risk the wrath of Mrs. Sparrows on a Monday morning.

Which made Lady Cop all the more impressive. Stepping through the class’s door without a knock a few minutes later, taking in all of their frightened faces, Lady Cop said, “I need to speak with Kyler Thomas, please.”

Kimbra heard Bethany suck in a little gasp three rows away, felt her captain (Oh captain, my stupid captain) turn to stare at the side of Kimbra’s face.

“Class just began,” Mrs. Sparrows said, but KT had already pushed back his chair.

“It’s KT,” he said, and trudged to the door.

“Officer,” said Jasmine Lopez. “Is Dylan alright?”

Lady Cop didn’t blink. She didn’t say a word. She led KT out into the hall and left Kimbra staring at the door, her heart in her throat, her clever mind briefly gone truant.

CLARK

KT followed Clark down the hall without a word. She led him to the vacant classroom where Mayfield was waiting. He thanked the boy for coming, said, “I hear your sister’s doing well.”