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Buddy raised his head and looked just as startled as Emely and I did at Larissa's camera.

Only Bayla seemed used to Larissa taking photos of us, which she was doing more and more often lately.

Bad Girl

Wild Child

“Larissa!” Emely exclaimed. “You're going to delete these pictures, right?”

She sounded different than usual, not angry, but... exhausted?

“Don't worry, no one will ever see them,” Larissa laughed, pulled Bayla off the armchair, and shoved her onto the couch next to me before pushing Emely back down with us and placing the camera on the dresser. She adjusted something, then finally came over to us and picked up Buddy, who was now wagging his tail and began sniffing her chin before she sat down next to me and pulled me into her arms.

“And now show the camera the smile we'd like to send those Quatura bitches to hell with!”

I had to smirk, as did Bayla, and even Emely smiled with flushed cheeks.

There was a flash. Three times. Then Larissa jumped up, grabbed her camera from the dresser, and crossed the ground floor toward the dining table, studying the photos.

“You're crazy,” Emely sighed and got up to sit down again on the other couch with her law books.

“Must run in the family,” Bayla laughed softly, and made herself comfortable at the other end of the couch I was sitting on, where Buddy immediately let her pull him into her arms.

“Indeed,” Emely remarked unenthusiastically, without looking up from her book.

Something was different about her, but I couldn't tell what it was.

“Bayla,” Larissa called from the table. “That book you always carry around with you...” She waved a black notebook in the air. One of those we had gotten from Professor Copeland. “What exactly are you writing in there?”

Bayla’s cheeks reddened, and she took a moment, probably to remember.

“Questions I get in this damn town and would like to ask my mother as soon as she gets out of that witch's prison,” she confirmed my theory.

“Since when do you have such neat handwriting?” Larissa laughed. “And since when...”

Larissa fell silent. Her smile faded.

She Knows (feat. Amber Coffman & Cults)

J. Cole, Cults, Amber Coffman

“That's not my notebook...” Bayla said, confused.

My head shot back around to Larissa, alarmed.

Larissa stared down at the pages in front of her and read.

“Oh shit...” she whispered. Then she looked up. Straight at me.

My heart stopped.

“Larissa...”

I got up from the couch, all eyes on me except Larissa's, which were back on my notebook. The notebook in which I had written down questions about Quentin.

“No, you didn't...” she whispered, her eyes widening.

“Larissa,” I tried again. Panic grew inside me. “I can explain.”