She probably thought she had and maybe she had, but that couldn’t have been love.
If it was, she would have told the truth.
“Tell the truth, Mayberry,” I said, picking up my phone and starting the recording. “Tell the world his truth.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Sloane
Dorian hadn’t been there when I woke up. In fact, he hadn’t turned up to school either.
Neither had the other guys.
They’d been out all day, and I knew because I confirmed that with Bru. He gave me a hard time for even asking. He was aware I’d at least had company over and, apparently, had pounded on my door to cut out the racket.
We hadn’t heard him.
Obviously, we hadn’t. That night had been crazy.
Today was crazier.
The boys were missing, but Principal Mayberry had been missing as well. She hadn’t shown up today. Our assistant principa
l, Mr. Keene, had done morning announcements, and it’d been Principal Mayberry’s secretary to let me in for my student assistant period.
That was when I knew something was off.
If the guys were missing and she was missing, something was off, and I’d texted Dorian all day to figure it out.
He hadn’t texted back.
I’d gotten nothing but radio silence all day, making me worry even more. Dorian had said they’d had no opportunities to approach the headmaster.
Maybe that had changed.
The next day at school, the guys’ spots in the lot were also vacant, but I didn’t put much stake in that.
But then a voice sounded over the intercom.
“Classes for today have been canceled for the entire student body,” the voice said, unfamiliar to me. The person was female, but that was all I could gauge as I’d never heard them before. It obviously wasn’t Mr. Keene’s voice. “All faculty please report to the student lounge for further instruction,” the voice concluded.
And that was it. Both Bru and I looked up at the speakers in the hallway. We’d come together today. My Chevelle had been acting up.
The whispers started not long after that.
The hallway flooded with activity, people talking to each other and pulling out their phones. They were all watching something on them. Whatever it was neither Bru nor I seemed to be in on it. We eyed each other, and I nearly asked someone what was up when I spotted Bow down the hall. She too had her cell phone in hand, her palm to her mouth. I exchanged a glance with Bruno, who shrugged.
Together, we headed over to Bow.
“Hey,” I said, gaining her attention. She said nothing, just put her phone in front of Bru and me.
“Someone just posted this to the school’s social media,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s Principal Mayberry.”
“What is it?” Bruno brought the phone closer. The video was posted by an anonymous account onto one of the school’s social media pages. Bow had only watched a couple of seconds, but the image on the front said a lot. It was Principal Mayberry.
She had tears falling down from her eyes.
She was saying something but those whispers in the hall had transformed to high voices. I turned the volume up. Bru, Bow, and I watched together.