Like what?He texts.Looking for places that don’t exist?
Oh it exists. I just need to find the key.
The double doors of the emergency room open and my aunt walks out, pushing Belle in a wheelchair. I shove my phone back in my pocket and stand up.
“What did they say?”
“Not broken,” Aunt Kate says. “But it’s a pretty bad sprain. She has to wear this walking boot for a few weeks and stay off it for a while.”
“Well that’s mostly good news,” I say, looking at my cousin. Someone gave her a blue fleece hospital blanket, and she’s got it wrapped around her chest like a shawl. She looks up at me and nods. “Can we please get home now.”
“Of course,” Aunt Kate says. “I’m not go into sneak you back into campus right now. You two can stay in Belle’s room at my house and I’ll take you back in the morning.”
“I’m not going back to school unless it’s dark outside,” Belle says.
Aunt Kate gives me a look likewhat are you gonna doand then rolls her eyes. “Whatever you say, sweetheart.”
We pile into her car and drive back to her apartment. Belle passes out on the short drive, thanks to the high dose of pain meds she got in the hospital. I help my aunt carry her inside and put her in bed, then I make a place to sleep on the couch. It’s so late, I can barely keep my eyes open, and when I lay down in my aunt’s living room, I put my phone on the coffee table, but notice there’s a new text from Declan. He sent it just a few minutes after the last text I sent him.
I open it.
You mean this key?The text says. There’s a photo below. I click it.
It’s a silver skeleton key with the same symbol on the handle that’s on the lock at the hidden door.
All these weeks I spent looking for it and it was right there the whole time.
Declan has the key.
Chapter Seventeen
I can hardly sleepfor the rest of the night, and it’s not because I’m on a couch in a strange place. It’s because Declan has the key. He has the key! It takes everything I have not to squeal out in excitement and wake up my aunt and cousin.
I have school the next morning, and after eating Aunt Kate’s delicious French toast for breakfast, she drives me back to Shelfbrooke. Belle stays home with her because she doesn’t want to come back to the dorms until it’s dark outside and we can sneak her back inside.
There is so much going on right now with my cousin and the amazing fact that she’s left her dorm for the first time in three years, but I feel selfish because all I can think about is that key. I need the key. I can’t wait to get it.
And of course, because life isn’t fair, I’m suck at school all day with no ability to talk to Declan. He makes eye contact with me in English class, and again in the hallways and during chemistry, but I try not to do anything other than a simple smile. You never know if one of the Big Five are watching, waiting to tattle on us to Chad Stokes.
At lunch, I eat alone in my dorm, and I imagine a world where things were different. Where Chad Stokes didn’t exist, and Declan lived in Malibu. Where we could flirt and date and be together without fear of repercussions. A world where Belle didn’t have anxiety and she could hang out with us outside, in the sunshine, with no worries at all.
I pick up my phone to look at the picture of the key again, and that’s when I realize I forgot to text him back. Duh, Sophia! I didn’t text last night because it was late and I didn’t want to accidentally wake him up.
I quickly type out a reply.
You have the key! Can I please please please borrow it?
His reply is instant.
Declan: It’s just a decoration.
Me: No, I promise it isn’t.
Declan: What makes you think you know more about my family’s history than I do?
Me: Meet me at the staff dorms tomorrow morning and I’ll show you.
It takes him a while to reply, like maybe he’s thinking about it. My heart skips a beat and my hands get shaky as I sit here staring at my phone, waiting for him to reply. We can’t meet up after school because I promised to go to my aunt’s house to see Belle and smuggle her back into the dorms tonight after dark. But tomorrow is Saturday, and the campus is just as empty bright and early on Saturdays as it is at night.
