"If I could act on my revenge, oh would I? Some kill, some steal, some break your heart."

-Revenge, XXXTENTACION

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"It can't have been a Socio. It's not possible," Jasper says abruptly.

Naomi shrugs and stares straight ahead again. "Believe what you want to believe. Quite frankly, I don't care."

My mind is racing, my thoughts crashing into one another at unimaginable speed. A Socio killed Jacob. One of his friends. Does this mean the deaths aren't linked?

"What does this mean?" I mutter.

"Beats me," Naomi says, as Jasper helps me up from the chair, keeping me in his arms. It seems to be hitting him harder though, because his expression is so unreadable that I don't think he can conjure an emotion that can compensate for everything that he is feeling right now. "But now it's time for my part of the deal."

"What do you want from Rosa's office?" I grunt, not letting go of Jasper's hand. The sooner I can get what she wants from Rosa's office, the sooner I can try to work out what happened the night Jacob was killed.

She smirks. "A student file."

I frown but don't question it. "Who's file?"

Naomi puckers her lips innocently and says in a casual tone like she's discussing her favourite thing to put on toast, "Yours."

My body stiffens. "Why do you want my file?"

"We want to know who the hell you are," she says smoothly. "Your file is the key."

Jasper eases me behind him while he glares at her. "You're a bitch, you know that, right?" he snaps to Naomi.

"Oh, darling, I know." She turns to me. "Can you do it? You know what will happen if you can't."

Alec won't be leader anymore. I'm not backing down that easily.

"Piece of cake," I say confidently. I don't think it matters if the people at this school know what I did. They can hate me. They can fear me.

It is what it is.

***

"You sure you're up for this?" Bailey asks rather mockingly.

I'm standing with a group of other students in the library. It's maybe six o'clock, and the library is pretty much deserted, apart from us. Everyone else is at dinner. Which means Rosa won't be around to spot me.

The group consists of me, Bailey, Alec, two girls and three boys who are Bailey's friends, and Jasper. Alec has spent the last ten minutes trying to convince me and Bailey to reconsider, but neither of us are giving in. Jasper hasn't spoken to me since everyone arrived in the library a few minutes prior to now.

"Bailey," I say dryly, "I've taken a lot of hits today. So it would mean the world if I spend these next few minutes without hearing your voice."

She scowls and walks away to speak to someone else.

Jasper approaches me and takes hold of my hand. "You sure you want these people to have your file?"

"No. The last thing I want is for them to see how much of a freak I really am. To see what I did. But I'm doing it for Alec," I explain. I chuckle humourlessly and look away. "God, the things we do for the people we care about."

Jasper takes hold of my chin and brings my attention back to him. He's smiling warmly, and it makes the nerves settle. "You can still back out, you know."

"That's not an option," I reply calmly.

"I know. But..." he fumbles for the right words, dropping his hand from my chin, "please don't get excluded. I don't know what I would do if that happened." His eyes fall onto my hair and his hands follow, his fingers smoothing down the mess caused by my restless hands.

"Even if I get expelled, I'll wait for you to get out of this place," I say. If Jasper is nearly eighteen then he'll be out soon.

"You don't need to give me any more reasons to want you," he murmurs, glancing at my lips.

I smile genuinely, just as Bailey says loudly while looking at her wristwatch, "Okay, Rosa should be leaving her office for dinner in the teacher's quarter's around about...now."

I glance at Jasper one last time, and then share a knowing look with Alec, who is standing tensely across the room, before heading out the door and into the corridor.

My fingers make their way to my necklace, and I realise it's my go-to reaction when I'm anxious.

The only sound is the distant chatter in the dining hall, but other than that it is silent, the corridors completely empty. I follow the route to Rosa's office, engraved into my mind from the time I was sent there to receive detention. I poke my head around the wall that turns in to the corridor her office is on, checking the coast is clear.

When I'm sure no one is around, I tiptoe to the door. And I'm suddenly struck with the thought- what if the door is locked?

But when I twist the brass handle, the door swings open to reveal her office, completely empty of people. Rosa is very trusting considering it's a school full of kids who shouldn't be trusted.

Sighing in relief, I slip inside quickly and shut the door behind me, before treading towards the filing cabinets against the left wall. I walk with caution, like one loud step and every member of staff at school would burst through the door and jab fingers in my face with accusation.

Get a grip, a voice says mockingly, you're stealing a file. You're not going to get burned at the stake.

I shake my head, the voice just making me nervous, and open the first cabinet. It takes too long to sort through the files, and since they're stored alphabetically, my file will be somewhere in the middle.

You wanna be any less vague? a voice asks, it's tone light and friendly. The one from the other night which gave me advice. A good one.

"I can try," I mumble absently, finally making it to the M's.

I quickly flick through the files, receiving more than one paper cut. After what seems like a million years, I find the file named 'Mitchell, Olivia' and pick it out of the cabinet.

I cling to it, staring down at my name like it is foreign to me, not really my name. Like this file doesn't belong to me.

Then I think. Am I really okay with people like Bailey knowing these things about me? Can I really just sit and let that happen?

If I don't return with the file, Alec won't be leader anymore. If I do return with the file, everyone will know how disturbed I really am, and Alec will probably take a lot of hits for it. Either way, Alec is going to suffer.

Unless...

I open it up and scan through the information. My name, date and place of birth, blah blah blah. I flick through until it comes to a page of writing from my therapist, explaining what I did and what happened to the girl I murdered.

A pain stabs in my chest, so I pull the loose piece of paper out of the file, fold it up and bury it in my back pocket. I then close the file and make my way to the door, eager to get out of here.

I mean, what Bailey doesn't know won't kill her, right?

I'm about to leave when I hear footsteps outside the door. I jump back and scramble back further into the room again. The handle twists as I hastily hide beneath Rosa's mahogany desk.

The door creaks open. I bite down onto the back of my hand to stop my breathing from being so loud, but I worry that whoever just entered the room will be able to hear my racing heart, beating through my chest.

I can hear heels clicking on the oak floor, so it must be Rosa.

And she's approaching the desk.