I shifted from foot to foot. “I’m sorry. I should have just gone back to my own room. I did tell Mrs Cox it was innocent, and I was only there because I was scared.”
“She hates me, don’t worry.” Tristan seemed almost upbeat about this, so I didn’t bother to comment. “Mrs Melerion would happily accept it as a last strike and send me home.”
“That doesn’t sound like a bad thing.”
“I used to think it wouldn’t be.” His liquid dark gaze drifted over my face and my cheeks warmed. “I’m changing my mind though.” The gentle pink in my cheeks flared into a burning inferno.
With a faint smile, he quickly darted his hand from his pocket, trailing his fingertips across the pink sting on my cheekbone. “Also, we can speak to Phil. If anyone can help us she can.”
“How’s that?”
He winked which made my stomach flip like crazy. “If anyone can crack where to find information on a computer, it’s Phil.”
I never wanted him to open the door. I could have stood in the hallway suspended in time for all eternity, but he did, and I followed him into what appeared to be a circle of hell.
Phil and Charlie waved when they saw us, and we slipped around the back of the room while Mrs Cox started writing in white chalk along the board. Phil’s eyes were wide as saucers as she watched Tristan and I weave through the tables together. When we reached them, I slipped into the spare chair and Tristan turned to grab a rigid grey plastic one from the empty table alongside. Phil nodded at me like a Chinese cat, her glasses slipping. “What does this mean?” She whispered. “First you are caught in bed together, now you are on a date at social?”
I glared and shook my head. “Shush.”
Within a broad wink she leaned towards me. “Got it, secret squirrel, you can tell me later.”
“What are we doing?” I said louder, and Tristan settled next to me. My leg vibrated with energy as his knee brushed mine and he glanced up, curving a small smile. Phil watched between us with hawk eyes.
“You’ve missed the film, with whatever you’ve not been doing.” She wiggled her eyebrows which was incredibly uncool, and I made a mental note to give her hell for it later. Charlie sniggered and flicked a glance in the direction of Tristan. “Now we have to answer the pop quiz.”
Mrs Cox spun with alarming speed. “That’s right Miss Adams and Mr Prince. You have arrived just in time for the best bit.” She clapped her hands. “And even better for you, Mae. You haven’t seen the film, so you shall answer the test blind.”
This was the Scottish idea for a social? For a nation doused in rain you’d think they’d find better indoor pursuits. Tristan knocked my knee. “Lucky for us I’ve seen the film a few gazillion times.” His dark eyes shone in my direction as he leant closer to whisper low in my ear.
“Have you ever been watching though, Mr Prince?” Mrs Cox’s shrill voice made us both cringe. How did that woman hear everything?
Looking at her watch she stepped for the desk and picked up a stop watch. “And go.” She clacked her heels towards the window, humming a low tune to herself.
I pulled the piece of A4 white paper towards us and began to read.
“Phil, we need your research skills.” Tristan’s change of subject made me blink. Was he just going to come out and say it here? Like right here, surrounded by a room full of other kids? I glanced around. Most of the students seemed to be partially asleep and no one turned to look at us.
Phil and Charlie both leaned forward. “Share now,” Phil demanded.
Tristan didn’t seem at all perturbed by Phil’s quirkiness. “We need access to records from this area.”
Phil’s face scrunched with dismay. “Mae, is this about those stones again? I told you they don’t exist, my pare—”
“They exist.” Tristan shut her off.
“They do?” She pushed her glasses back, as if she were readjusting her bullshit detector.
“I’ve seen them, and so has Mae.”
“Okay, I’ll have to talk to Mum and Dad, see what they know. Maybe they didn’t tell me everything.”
“No, don’t tell your parents, Phil, not yet. We need to work out who the skeletons were and what they have to do with Mae and I.” His dark gaze paused on my face thoughtfully. “It’s too much coincidence we are both here together.”
Phil cocked her head to one side. “Normally most things seem sane in comparison to the stuff I spout. But you and these damn stones.” She wiggled her finger at me.
“It’s not just the stones,” I mumbled, and she shifted forward.
“What do you mean?”
Charlie coughed, and we all dropped our heads pretending to look at the quiz as Mrs Cox clacked past in her heels. “You will be here all night the way you girls are talking; isn’t that right, Mr Prince?”
Tristan stiffened but lifted his head and flashed her a blinding smile. I watched spellbound. I’d never seen him smile. We’d gone from frowning and strangling to kissing in record time—it hadn’t left many opportunities for gazing at his beautiful face.
But, hadn’t I seen it before?
Wasn’t it in every moment of the tangled dreams chasing me through night and day?
Once Mrs Cox had moved on, he reached and squeezed my hand in full view of Phil and Charlie. Both of their eyes stalked, and Charlie’s mouth popped open and closed like a fish out of water.
His touch shot a warm tingle from the palm of my hand to my chest.
Phil grinned. “Come on, tell me what you mean.”
My cheeks flared with a gentle burn. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve been having these dreams.”
Clapping a hand over her mouth, Phil guffawed an echoing snort of laughter. Mrs Cox spun on her heel and glared in our direction.
I shushed her with a
