31. Quinn

31

QUINN

" Y ou need to come with me. Right now." The grip on my wrist tightened, the person forcibly dragging me away from the dance floor.

"What are you doing? Let go of me!"

"No. You need to see this." Freya's expression was grim. "Seriously, Quinn. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important."

"Fine," I bit out. It wasn't like I wanted to stand there and torture myself watching Roman dance with someone else, anyway. Even if it was with Penelope. Penelope? Not Aria? Everything had happened so fast I still wasn't sure what exactly had happened.

Freya's grip loosened on my wrist once she realised I was coming with her willingly. She led me out of the main hall, down the corridor, and up the stairs in the direction of our dorms.

"Freya? What are we doing?"

"I need to show you something."

I looked at her. Really looked at her. Normally so cool and put together, she was jittery and chewing on her nails, which was a definite sign that something was wrong. The Freya I knew wouldn't ever do anything to mess up her perfect manicure. Maybe it was stupid of me to go with her when I knew how much she disliked me, but it didn't feel like anything to do with the petty, one-sided rivalry that had been going on since Roman had started showing interest in me. It felt bigger, and that… That scared me.

We reached the room she shared with Penelope, and she paused, her eyes briefly closing as she took a deep breath and then pushed the door open.

"You didn't get to be a goddess," was the first thing she said, entering the room and heading over to her desk, where her laptop was open.

"I know, neither did you," I snapped reflexively, regretting it as soon as the words fell from my mouth. "Sorry. I didn't mean to— What does that have to do with anything?"

She huffed impatiently. "I'm getting to that. Look at this. I was…curious yesterday. I wanted to know how to ask my stylist to style my hair for the ball, and…well, I knew the third goddess place would be between you and me. Pen and Elena were a given, and so I thought the final spot would be between us."

"Except Aria won."

"She did." Freya nodded. "But here's the weird thing. I borrowed Pen's key card so I could sneak into the admin office after hours, because the admin computers are the only ones where you can see the voting results as they come in, right?"

"You stole her key card? What key card?"

"Please, like you can take the moral high ground." She rolled her eyes. "I heard about your plagiarism. Anyway, yes, the key card. The one the head boy and girl have? Or maybe just the head girl? I don't know. Pen's allowed access for the ball things. You know, sorting out the bookings and invoices or whatever. Soooo, I used it to get into the office. How was I supposed to know how to ask my stylist to do my hair if I didn't know if I'd be getting a crown?" Running her fingers through her glossy curls, she shook her head. "I looked at the votes. I calculated that ninety-six percent had been cast by that point, so there was no possible way the outcome would have changed between last night and tonight. The votes weren't close enough."

I sank down into her desk chair, staring at her. "So, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying it should've been you up there tonight. You…you were way ahead."

"Of Aria?"

"No." She swallowed hard and turned to meet my gaze. "Of Penelope."

"Penelope?" I whispered. "I don't understand."

"Look." Tapping on the trackpad, she woke up her screen. "Look at this. This is how the votes looked last night."

I stared at the image for a long time, my thoughts racing as I struggled to get my head around everything. "I was ahead of Penelope."

"By quite a long way. You were slightly ahead of Aria, even. There was no way Pen could have been one of the goddesses. Look at the numbers. Even if every single one of the remaining four percent of students voted for her, she wouldn't have been able to catch up."

"I don't understand," I said again. "Did someone tamper with the results? Did someone want me out of the way that badly? Wait." A thought came into my mind. "Did you do this?" As soon as I said it, I realised how ridiculous that was. Why would Freya switch me with Penelope rather than herself?

Her lip curled. "Like I'd do that. If anything, I'd put myself up there. Anyway, I wouldn't cheat. I'd rather people voted for me fairly. Clearly, the students here have no taste." She flicked her hair over her shoulder.

"So who did it?"

"I thought…maybe I'd made a mistake. Maybe the votes hadn't been counted properly or something. Maybe I hadn't read the information properly. In the end, I decided to wait and see what happened tonight, but I couldn't get it out of my mind. Pen was out first thing this morning, having her nails done, and my hair appointment wasn't until a bit later. I thought I'd look around a bit." Her gaze shifted to the large wardrobe at the end of Penelope's bed. "Remember when we came into the common room that day when you were playing Mario Kart and you were wearing Roman's hoodie?"

"Yeah…"

"Did he… Do you know if he gave a hoodie to any other girls? Did you give the one you were wearing back to him?"

I stared at her. "It went missing, actually. Missing from my room, where I'd left it."

She nodded as if I'd confirmed something for her. Crossing over to Penelope's wardrobe, she flung the door open. Sweeping aside a pile of neatly folded clothes, she reached inside and drew out a bundle of fabric. Shaking it out, she revealed a familiar navy hoodie with royal blue lettering. "That day, I remembered catching a glimpse of navy in Pen's wardrobe, all balled up in the corner. I didn't think much of it at the time because, you know, it's our school colours. But then I thought about it later, and it struck me as weird because you know how neat Penelope is. She'd never treat her clothing with this much disrespect. Yesterday morning, like I said, I looked around a bit, and…it was hidden behind her other clothes, but it was still there, as you can see."

My hands shook. "Why would she take it? I don't get it."

"Don't you?" Freya's brows rose. She threw the hoodie onto Penelope's bed. "It's obvious to me."

My mind flashed to the ball. To the way Penelope had gone straight for Roman instead of Tristan, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"She's interested in Roman?"

"Bloody hell, how can you be so fucking dense!" Freya threw up her hands. "It's not about Roman! It's you! She's always been jealous of you. When you came back, you took her place without even trying. You?—"

"Wait a minute. Jealous of me ? No. That doesn't… What do you know about Chaceley Rock? About Roman?"

Her brows rose even higher. "Chaceley Rock? The bank holiday weekend? What do you mean? What happened?" She paused, a smirk curving over her lips. "I don't know about you, but I had an unforgettable night there with two members of the rugby team."

"Never mind that. I— hold on ." Another thought hit me out of nowhere. "Freya. You said you heard about my plagiarism. As far as I know, the only person who knows outside of the select few I trust with my life is my history professor. Who told you?"

The smirk disappeared, her eyes widening as the realisation dawned on her face. "Penelope told me."

My mind raced.

Penelope had been my friend from the day we'd started this school.

Penelope had accepted me again when I'd returned, no questions asked, no making me feel guilty for ghosting her, unlike Roman. She hadn't even commented on my time away, other than to say she'd missed me. All she'd done was try to make me feel comfortable.

Penelope had warned me to stay away from Roman.

Penelope had told Freya something about me that not only wasn't true, but was something she shouldn't have been aware of in the first place.

Penelope had Roman's hoodie in her wardrobe.

Penelope had a key card that gave her access to the staff admin computers.

Penelope had been crowned as one of the goddesses instead of me.

"Fuck. I think…I need to…I need Roman."

I took a step, stumbled on the uneven floor, and glared down at my heels.

"You're not great in heels, are you?" Freya commented. "Maybe you should switch to flats."

"Maybe you should stop talking," I bit out and instantly regretted it. Freya owed me nothing, and yet she'd shared her suspicions with me. "Sorry. Really, I am. Look. I honestly appreciate you telling me all this. You don't owe me anything, so…thank you. If you see Penelope, can you keep it quiet? Just until I've had a chance to get to the bottom of this."

"Yeah, yeah. Do what you need to." She waved her hand in the air again. Standing, she headed over to her dresser and began reapplying her lipstick in a small hand mirror. "I've got more important things to do with my time, anyway. I have a date tonight with my two hot rugby players, and I don't want to be late."

"Rugby players?"

"Yes. Despite what Knox, Roman, and Tristan might think, they're not the only hot guys at Hatherley Hall, and the lacrosse team isn't the only elite team. They don't even have the biggest dicks, either." Pausing, she shrugged. "Okay, maybe they do—it's not like I whip out a ruler each time. Point is, I'm over all that. You're welcome to Roman. It's obvious to anyone with eyes that he's completely obsessed with you."

"It is?"

A laugh fell from her throat. "Did you actually think you were being discreet? Babe, you're eye fucking each other constantly . Let's not forget the moment where he started a fight with his own teammate in front of everyone. I was there that night, remember? He was supposed to be with me, and you stole his attention without even trying."

"I—"

"I'm over it. Whatever. Like I said, plenty more fish in the sea. Now, you go get your man, and I'll get my men. If I see Pen in the meantime, my lips are sealed."

"Okay. Yes. Okay. Thanks." I finally got my feet to work, and I made my way to the door as quickly as I could, cursing my heels all the way. "Thanks," I said again and left.

Detouring to my room, I ditched my heels, switching them out for my Converse, and then grabbed the running belt I rarely used, tucking my phone into it. It ruined the whole aesthetic of my dress—not that I cared. No, the only thing I cared about right now was finding Roman and getting to the bottom of whatever was going on.

As I raced through the school, I pulled my phone back out. Bypassing the messages from my parents, asking me if I'd been crowned as one of the goddesses, I tapped out a message to Roman, telling him I had my phone and needed to speak with him urgently. It was most likely that he was still at the ball, celebrating, so that was my first destination. I didn't allow myself to think about what I'd do or say if I ran into Penelope first. I couldn't.

I more or less skidded into the hall, drawing the attention of several students, but I ignored whatever comments they were making, pushing through the crowds, searching for a head of tousled black hair topped with a golden laurel wreath.

"Quinn!" Someone touched my arm. My heart pounding, I spun to see Tristan, his usual grin nowhere to be seen. "Have you seen Roman?"

"I'm looking for him. Why, what's happened?" Panic bled through in my tone, and I took several deep breaths, desperately trying to get air into my lungs.

Tristan glanced around us and lowered his voice. "Let's go somewhere quieter. Knox. Get Elena, quick."

"And me. You're not leaving me out of this." Aria appeared in front of us, her arms folded across her chest. "Don't even think about it."

Tristan rolled his eyes but tipped his head towards the door, and the three of us made our way out of the hall, closely followed by Knox and Elena. He led us in the opposite direction to where I'd come from, to the double doors that led outside. There were a few groups of students milling around on the gravel, but he kept walking, heading around the side of the building and coming to a stop in a shadowy corner.

Leaning back against the wall, he looked down at me, that uncharacteristically serious expression still on his face. "Talk. What's going on?"

"First of all, what happened to Roman?" My panic wasn't going to go away until I knew he was okay.

Tristan exchanged glances with Knox and then shrugged. "We don't know. We were taking selfies, and he pulled out his phone. There were, uh, a lot of notifications on it. When he saw, it was like—not to be a cliché—but it was like he'd seen a ghost. He ran out of the ball before we could ask him what the fuck was going on, and we haven't seen him since. We've both tried calling and texting him, but nothing. I didn't think it was that serious until you came running into the ball with the same expression on your face. What happened, Quinn?"

As quickly as I could, I gave them a rundown of everything Freya had told me. As I spoke, the tension grew until I could physically feel it, thick and suffocating in the night air.

"That fucking bitch," Aria growled. "I'm going to kill her. I'm actually going to commit murder."

"Calm down, little scorpion." Tristan gave her shoulder a condescending pat. She stamped her spike heel on his loafer, and he screeched, yanking his foot out of her reach. "Fuck you!"

"Gladly." She gave him the middle finger.

"Can you two give it a rest for five fucking minutes?" Knox ground out. "We need to get to the bottom of whatever's going on. I guarantee that whatever those notifications on Roman's phone were about, they were to do with what's happening with you. It's all been to do with you, hasn't it?" There was accusation in his tone, and I couldn't blame him.

"Yes. I think so. I think…if it has something to do with the plagiarism accusations, then maybe it is about me and not about him. But what about the boat and the lighthouse? Penelope wouldn't have anything to do with that, surely? That can't be connected."

"It can't be." Tristan shook his head. "I don't…I mean, fuck. We've all known her for years. I've been working with her all year, doing all the head boy and girl shit and all that. And our work on the ball committee… She doesn't seem like someone who would do all this, does she?"

Before tonight, before Freya had shown me the evidence, I would've thought the same. But now… Now, I didn't trust anyone. Anyone who wasn't a part of this small group of people in front of me. Even so, I couldn't even imagine how or why she'd have been involved in that incident.

"Maybe…" I thought as I was speaking. "Maybe you guys should look for Roman, and I'll look for Pen. I need to get to the bottom of this. We need answers."

"There's no way you're confronting her on your own," Elena said, and next to her, Aria gave me a hard look.

"Don't even think about it," Knox added. "And you—" His next comment was directed towards his girlfriend. "—aren't going anywhere near her, either. I won't let you put yourself in danger."

Elena laughed without humour. "Knox, do you remember what I told you about the place I used to live? And, oh, remember how my mum basically tried to have your dad killed? And my uncle is in prison? I'm quite capable of dealing with some rich bitch on a power trip or whatever she's doing."

"What?" I said faintly, staring at her with wide eyes. She blinked, seeming to remember the rest of us were there, and gave me a wry smile.

"Um. I guess there are a few things I forgot to mention. I'll tell you later, after we get through tonight."

Knox was staring at his girlfriend like he wanted to rip her clothes off there and then, and I'd had enough of us getting derailed from the only thing that mattered. Turning on my heel, I marched back towards the doors. "I'm going to find Penelope. Please, find Roman, and let him know what's going on, okay?" I threw over my shoulder. From behind me came the sound of various people swearing, followed by the scrape of shoes on gravel, and my mouth curved into a grim smile.

It was time to locate Penelope and find out the truth.

By any means necessary.

A hand wrapping around my wrist stopped me in my tracks.

"Quinn. Look."

The urgency in Tristan's voice had me spinning around.

He held up his phone.

"Roman sent me this. We need to make a plan. Now."