Zach’s hand tightened even more. “Screw you,” he snorted. “You think I give a shit what you’ve heard? You’re some slutty little girl who takes pleasure in seeing others miserable. Maybe it makes your pathetic little life more interesting or something. Just go to class and stop embarrassing yourself.” He didn’t move as she glared at him for a couple of seconds. Then all at once she huffed and span on her heel, marching up the hallway with her gaggle of followers trotting along behind her.

I stood there with my mouth wide, trying to take in what Sandy had said about Zach in his old school. Just what was it that he didn’t want common knowledge here? Zach turned, his eyes meeting mine for a second before he pulled back his shoulders and marched off through the crowd without another word.

Alex’s grip loosened on me so I turned and looked up into his angry face. I winced, rubbing at my shoulder as the crowd started to dissipate. He shook his head dejectedly. “Oh yeah, you did so well with the ‘I’m going to ignore her completely’ plan that we agreed on,” he stated, raising one eyebrow.

I swallowed loudly. “I thought so too,” I muttered.

He sighed dramatically. “Looks like my self-defence lessons were a waste of time too, huh? She kicked your ass big time.” He shook his head, picking up my schoolbag and holding it out to me. “You fight like a girl.”

I laughed despite myself. “I am a girl.”

Chapter 20

Everywhere I went, whispering erupted around me. People were speculating about my dog, who it was that had done it, was it Sandy, if it wasn’t Sandy then who was it… I heard Zach’s name mentioned in connection to it too after what Sandy had said about him in his last school. I even heard a couple of people suggest that I’d poisoned my own dog in order to gain sympathy and blame Sandy because I was jealous that my boyfriend was in love with her. One person even questioned if I even had a dog in the first place. They weren’t even bothering to be discreet in their gossiping. It was disgraceful.

At lunchtime, I was surrounded by friends who were all trying their best to cheer me up and keep my mind off of the fact that I was centre of attention for the whole school. I’d apologised to Charlotte and Beth for snapping at them earlier in the morning, and of course was forgiven straight away. Luke and Alex were sat with us too, both of them seeming quieter than usual. Although it was nice to be surrounded by people, they did nothing to block out the stares and gossiping of my fellow students. Everything was just too much for me to deal with. Too much noise, too little air, too many bodies around me. I felt a little trapped.

“I’m just going to the bathroom,” I muttered, standing up and quickly waving a dismissive hand at Charlotte as she went to stand too. “I’m fine on my own. I’ll just be a minute.” She nodded, sitting back down again and continuing with her sandwich. Before either of the boys could protest and insist that one of them should come with me, I scurried away from the table and out of the lunchroom. Once I was out of the hustle and bustle of it all I started to feel a little better, but I still craved fresh air and solitude.

Instead of going to the bathroom like I’d said, I headed down the corridor and out of the side door. The warm midday air hit me in the face and made me sigh in contentment as I let the door swing closed behind me. After a few seconds of just standing there I decided to go the full hog and go and sit in the sunshine of the school field. As I rounded the corner, however, I noticed that I wasn’t the only one that looked like they wanted fresh air and alone time. Zach was jogging slow, lazy laps around the field. I hadn’t seen him all morning. My guess was that he was hiding and keeping out of the way of the gossip after Sandy’s comments this morning.

I watched him running for a few minutes before thinking that he was probably hot. There was a vending machine back inside the door where I came out of, so I headed back inside, buying a bottle of water for him. Once I had it I walked out across the field. He noticed me almost immediately, slowing down his pace before changing direction and jogging towards me. The frown on his face told me that he didn’t really want to see me as he stopped in front of me.

“Hey,” I greeted, forcing cheerfulness to make up for the fact that he was scowling and kicking at the grass with his foot.

“Hey,” he grunted in response.

I held out the bottle. “Bought you this.”

His brows rose in apparent surprise as he hesitantly took the bottle out of my hand. “Yeah? Thanks.”

I smiled, nodding at the track. “Why are you out here on your own? You could have eaten with me, you know.”

He sighed deeply, shrugging. “Figured you might not want to speak to me much today. You’ve already got enough attention on you without fraternising with a scumbag.” His tone was sad as he spoke and I instantly hated Sandy just that little bit more.

I snorted at his explanation. “Don’t be silly. Besides, people are gossiping about me whether I fraternise with you or not, so it makes no difference if I talk to a scumbag,” I joked, nudging his arm with mine. He laughed quietly, his eyes coming up to meet mine as he chugged down some of the water.

“I’m sorry to hear about your dog. Is he okay?” he asked, cocking his head to the side as he looked at me quizzically.

I nodded, feeling a little pang in my heart at the mention of Chester. “He’s okay. He’s at the animal hospital right now,” I replied. “They said we can probably take him home tomorrow.”

“That’s good. Glad he’s okay, he’s cute,” he muttered. “So when did all this happen then?”

I sighed and sat down, crossing my legs and picking at the grass. “Last night. When you dropped me home from tutoring I found him in the garden. Someone had fed him some meat, and he was barely breathing.” My voice broke as the memories of it surfaced again.

Zach groaned and sat down next to me, placing his hand on my knee and squeezing supportively. “I’m sorry. I should have come in with you and made sure everything was alright before I left you. I shouldn’t have just dropped you outside your house when I knew you were gonna be going in to an empty house,” he said, shaking his head and frowning.

I forced a smile and used the sleeve of my sweater to dry the tear that leaked out. “It’s fine, you weren’t to know that someone had snuck into my house and poisoned my dog.” I tried to keep my tone light, but a sob made my voice hitch in the middle of my sentence.

“I guess. I still feel like crap about it though. I’m sorry,” he muttered. His gaze met mine. I could see little worry lines in between his eyebrows as he seemed to be silently scolding himself for not walking me in to my house last night.

His hand came up, touching my cheek, just at the side of my nose. I winced and cringed away from his hand as a small stinging pain followed his touch. “Looks like you got a couple of scratches when you were fighting,” he muttered, letting his hand drop back down to my knee again.

I nodded, shrugging dismissively, not wanting to talk about me getting into a fight in the middle of the hallway. “Yeah, Alex told me off because I fought like a girl and let her kick my ass,” I replied.

He chuckled. “You are a girl.”

A grin crept onto my face. “That’s exactly what I said.”

He nodded but didn’t answer. He just looked at me, searching my face for something, but I didn’t know what. His eyes were so intense as he looked at me that I had to look away from them because it felt like he was trying to read all of my secrets. We lapsed into silence. Zach’s thumb stroked the side of my knee in small circles as I played with a blade of grass. It was nice actually, calming even. After everything that had happened in the last couple of days, it was nice just to sit there quietly in the sun and not feel the need to make conversation.

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end. The ringing of my phone made us both jump and Zach to snatch his hand back into his lap as he turned his head and looked out over the field. I sighed and pulled out my phone, expecting it to be one of my friends or Alex, asking where I was.

Instead, the name DI Neeson flashed on my screen. I frowned at her name, wondering what this was going to be about. For some reason my mind flicked to Sandy. Did she somehow know that I’d been in a fight with her and now she was calling to scold me for it? I squirmed uncomfortably as I answered the call.

DI Neeson’s voice greeted me. “Good afternoon, Miss Preston. I just wanted to let you know that the locksmith completed the work on your house this morning.”

“Oh, oh right. That’s good,” I muttered, feeling my shoulders relax slightly.

“I have your new keys. What time will you be home? I can meet you there,” she offered helpfully.

“Um, I’m not sure. Alex and I are going to go and visit Chester straight after school. So maybe four thirty?” I replied, thinking everything through. That would give us almost an hour with Chester which should be plenty of time because apparently we weren’t allowed to take him home today anyway.

“Four thirty is good for me. I’ll see you at your house then.” The line went dead before I could even ask if they had found anything or had progressed with the investigation. Thankfully she hadn’t mentioned my altercation with the blonde witch.

Pushing my cell phone back into my pocket, I stood up. I needed to get back before everyone really did start calling me and asking where I was. “I should go back inside. I only said I was going to the bathroom.” Zach looked up at me and nodded. “I’m going to have to cancel tutoring for tonight. I’m going to see Chester straight after school.”

A grin crossed Zach’s face as he nodded. “Tutoring’s cancelled? Whatever will I do with myself?” he joked.

“Jump over stuff no doubt,” I replied, rolling my eyes playfully.

His deep laugh filled the air as he nodded in agreement. “Probably. Thanks for the water,” he said, holding up the now empty bottle.

“No problem. Are you coming in with me?” I asked, nodding back to the building. “Have you eaten?”