Elena's POV
The next day after Tobias left my dorm room with a torn shirt and zero remorse, I see him across the dining hall.
He is flirting with Maya, his steel gray eyes crinkling at the corners, one hand resting on her waist.
I stand there holding my lunch tray like a complete fool, my chest tightening. I am thinking one thing and one thing only.
I had sex with that man.
I had very, very good sex with that man and he is eating up Maya's lips like he did not have his hands all over me yesterday.
Turd.
I turn around before he sees me, find the furthest corner table in the dining hall and sit down and stare at my lunch and have a completely silent breakdown.
Does anyone know? Can anyone tell? Is there a sign on my forehead that says I made a fucked Tobias and I would probably fuck him again?
Ethan drops into the seat across from me out of nowhere, already unwrapping a sandwich.
"You look like you're about to commit a crime," he says, chuckling
"I'm fine." Letting a small smile escape.
"You're staring at your food like it owes you money."
I drag my eyes away from across the room. Ethan has been all over me recently. I have only known him a few weeks but there is something about Ethan Rivers that just makes sense. Like a person you have known your whole life. He makes me happy
"I'm just tired," I say. "The class project is giving me sleepless nights"
He nods like he does not believe me but will not push it. "Library tonight?" he asks.
"Yeah. Seven."
He taps the table twice, tucks a lollipop into my hand leaves.
Now I actually smile. Three days ago I mentioned that I liked lollipops. And here I have a lollipop Ethan gave me, the exact flavour I mention. I didn't catch him listening that day.
Across the room Tobias throws his head back laughing and I feel it in my stomach like a slap.
I had sex with that man.
God help me.
My face turns sour again
***
The burner phone sends the first task of the week on Tuesday morning before I even get out of bed.
I was already thinking that the sender was dead
TASK: Fail your midterm test on purpose. Do not answer more than four questions. Failure to comply: do I need to say?
I sit the exam. I stare at the paper. I answer four questions and leave everything else blank and walk out.
My GPA takes a hit. And then comes the financial warning letter
On Thursday, I throw the burner phone into a puddle.
I get back to my room and it is sitting on my pillow.
I pick it up and throw it against the wall so hard it shatters. I leave it on the floor and go to sleep.
I wake up and it is on my nightstand. Fully charged. New phone.
I burn it in the courtyard bin on Friday. I watch the plastic melt with my own eyes. I go back to bed satisfied.
Saturday morning it is in my jacket pocket.
I stop trying after that.
I think this is some form of voodoo
I report it to campus security on Monday. I sit across from an officer who looks like he would rather be asleep than to hear me talk. I want to show him everything. The messages. The tasks. The expulsions. The reinstatements. All of it.
He takes the phone. Check it. Turn the screen toward me.
The phone has mysteriously gone blank
"Miss Hayes," he says, fine lines of annoyance in his temple. "Is there a counsellor you can speak to?"
I take the phone back and I am about to leave without answering.
He calls me back.
"We need to do a drug test on you," he says, with no room for questioning. In fact, I have been apprehended.
We drive in the school's security van to the hospital.
I fail the drug test.
I am expelled. Again.
How perfect!
Expelled two times in one session
I go back to my life of eating instant noodles and finding a job.
One week later I am reinstated.
I am not surprised this time.
I walk back through those same gates and the campus does that thing it has started doing around me. Goes a little quiet. Parts slightly. Eyes following without quite meeting mine.
The girl who keeps coming back.
I find Ethan in the library that evening. He is already at our usual table, two coffees waiting, glasses pushed up his nose, pretending he is not watching the door. When I walk in the relief on his face is so open and genuine that something in my chest does a complicated thing.
"You're back," he says.
"I'm back."
"At this point, you are a legend…" he smiles
I have not told anyone about the phone. I wish I could tell Ethan, but I don't want him in my mess.
At some point he says quietly, still looking at his screen, "Whoever keeps expelling you and bringing you back needs you here for something. Have you thought about what that is?"
I look at him.
"No," I say. "I try not to think about it."
"Maybe start," he smiles.
The phone vibrates in my pocket
TASK: Go outside now!
"I need to leave, I will come back later," I tell Ethan, packing up to leave
Victoria finds me outside the library when I am leaving. She steps directly into my path with two girls behind her, obviously her minions.
"You genuinely do not know when to quit," she says.
I look at her. I am too tired for the full performance tonight.
"Every time they throw you out you come crawling back. Where is your dignity Elena? Where is your shame? You slut!"
A few days ago those words would have landed.I would have gone red and walked fast and cried in my room.
The phone vibrates
TASK: Stand up for yourself for once in your pathetic life.
For the first time ever, the me and the sender are thinking in the same direction
I look at Victoria Sterling with her expensive coat and her perfect blowout and I smile. I take a few steps toward her.
Victoria blinks. Then takes one small step back and covers it badly by flipping her hair.
I walk around her and keep moving.
"I know you slept with Tobias… wait till Maya finds out!" Victoria came at me.
I pause in my tracks. My heart skips a beat. I feel fear begin to paralyse my body. If she knows… that means… the whole school will know soon.
The phone vibrates.
TASK: Do not back down from Victoria Sterling. Punishment: lose one of your limbs- I get to decide.
Now I know the sender is not joking. I can't lose a limb for Victoria. I hold myself together, pulling my jacket tighter against the night air.
I whip around to face her. "Good. Tell the
whole school if you like. I am fucking Thomas next. I hear you are into him"