The door swings open at the exact moment I’m dropping my phone on my nightstand. I whirl around to find Priya standing in the doorway. Her lips are parted, and her gaze zeroes in on the board currently on my bed.
“What are you doing?” She slams the door shut and stalks toward me.
“I have the same question.” I raise a brow.
My words don’t faze her. She pushes past me and grabs the bulletin board, flips it over, and hangs it on the hook before taking a step back. With a frown, she pushes it this way and that, trying to make the board hang straight, but it’s hopeless. She’s really out here trying to pretend I didn’t see what we both know I saw.
“What I’m doing is none of your business,” she finally says, her voice shaky. She doesn’t sound mad. No, more like nervous.
“Now that I’ve found it, it kind ofismy business.” Priya glares, and I throw my hands up in the air, frustrated. “Comeon, Priya! This looks pretty suspicious, don’t you think? All the times and code words you’ve got next to a list of names. The prices. Oh, and nice touch with the lines through Emily and Isla’s names. Like they’re both already dead.”
She shrugs one shoulder, averting her gaze. “They’re both basically gone.”
Her callousness leaves me reeling. “Are you such an unfeeling bitch that you don’t care about anyone? You hang out with Abigail way too much, because her attitude is rubbing off on you big time.”
I’m grasping at straws with my accusations. I have no idea if Priya’s moods have to do with Abigail or if she was always this bitchy. Maybe that’s what makes them such a good match. Though I always assumed it’s better for two people to be different enough to balance each other out.
Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
“Who the hell do you think you are? You don’t even know me.” Priya crosses her arms, shifting into pure defensive mode. “You don’t know my struggles or the pressure I’m dealing with. It’s so easy for you, coming to Wickham with your perfect grades and your New York pedigree.”
Ooh, what do you know? My stellar transcripts are brought up again. “How do you and Abigail know what my transcripts look like?”
Priya waves a dismissive hand. “It doesn’t matter. Just know I’m doing whatever it takes to maintain top status in our class. Whatever. It. Takes. I can’t let anyone take it from me. Ineedthat spot on the Legacy List, Belinda. It’ll change everything.”
“Whatever it takes, huh? What exactly does that mean?”
There’s more to this than endless studying. She’s doing something else—like popping pills, for one.
“And don’t tell me it’s simply keeping up your grades with studying, because you’re hiding something, Priya. The list on that board is proof.”
A ragged sigh leaves her, and she shakes her head. We stand there in a silent face-off for what feels like hours but is probably only a handful of seconds. I infuse my spine with steel and let her see the determination in my gaze. Today is a day for answers. I thought I was only going to get them from Julian, but I’m happy to add Priya Shah to my list. I won’t be moved.
And as Priya gusts out a huge sigh and drops her shoulders away from her ears, I think she knows it, too. “Fine,” she says. “But you have to keep this a secret.”
I make an X on my chest like Sophia did at the party Saturday night. “I will.”
I do everything in my power to keep the childhood vow we all know from running through my mind with the gesture:Cross my heart, hope to die. It would feel too much like tempting fate. And something tells me I’ve done enough of that today already.
I can see the cogs turning in her mind as she tries to come up with a proper explanation. After a minute, though, the tension tugging at her forehead and jaw dissolves, and I know she’s decided to tell me the truth.
“I sell old exams and use the money to buy Ritalin and Ativan. Whatever I can get.” She presses her lips together and stares at the floor. “It sounds terrible, but I need to do something to stay awake and study. With classes and all theclubs I’m in, plus … other things, I need as much time as I can get. And the meds help ease some of my anxiety. I barely sleep right now.”
Using pills to stay awake definitely isn’t helping her anxiety, and neither is the pressure she’s clearly putting on herself to stay at the top of the class, but I don’t bring that up.
“Who else knows that you do this? Besides the students who buy the exams from you. And Abigail, obviously.”
“It’s sort of anonymous, my exam business.” Priya lifts her head, her gaze locking with mine. “I have a burner phone, and they pay me in cash. I know their names, but they don’t know mine.”
“So no one knows it’s you.” Pretty genius, I must admit.
“Well, Abigail knows.” Priya lifts her chin, her expression turning defiant. “But she’s the only one. That’s why she’s so protective of me. She keeps people at a distance so they don’t figure out what I’m doing. I would be ruined if it ever came out. Absolutely ruined.”
Priya’s right. I could destroy her now that I know about her dirty dealings.
“I can keep a secret.” I hesitate. “I’ve already been keeping a secret for you anyway.”
“Like what?” Priya’s brows draw together.
