I sat down at my desk and went over my practice exam trying to figure out why Professor Jackson would have accused Liz and me of cheating. We'd never cheated, not this time and never before this. I got up and went to Liz's bag and dug through it to find her test. I laid the tests side by side and began going over each question and answer.
It took me an hour to get through the entire exam, but by the time I was finished, I could see why we'd been accused of cheating -- it appeared that Liz had copied my exam in its entirety. I was shocked. I'd never known Liz to do anything dishonest, and I couldn't imagine why she would have done this. She had a photographic memory and had never needed to do much more than read the materials. I thought about waking her up, but as I studied her, for the first time, I could see that my friend had a problem.
"Liz, wake up," I said as I gently shook her. "Wake up, Liz. We need to talk."
"Huh? What?" Liz mumbled as she surfaced from beneath the blanket I'd covered her with. "What's up, Alex? Is it time to go?"
"Liz, sit up and talk to me," I said as I pulled her arm. "We have to talk."
"Um, okay," she said sleepily, rubbing her eyes. "About what?"
"This," I said, holding up our exam papers. "What happened? Why does your exam look exactly like mine?"
"Maybe because we're study buddies?" she said, sitting up and looking very awake. "Where did you get that?"
"Your bag," I said as I tossed the two exams on her lap and stared at her. "Explain why your exam looks exactly like mine."
"Dunno." She shrugged. "Luck or coincidence?"
"Liz, I'm not kidding around here," I said in a hurt tone. "This might cost us our degrees. What happened?"
"I'm telling you, Alex, it's a coincidence!" she shouted as she threw the papers at me. "God, you don't even believe me! I didn't do anything wrong!"
"I just have a hard time believing that this is a coincidence," I said as she pushed herself up off of the couch and started pacing the room. "Tell me what's going on, Liz! Why did you cheat?"
"Why did I cheat? Why did I cheat?" she shouted. "For the last fucking time, Alex, I didn't cheat!"
"Fine," I said in very businesslike tone. "Then what's going on with you, Liz? Why are you wavering between lucid and out of it? Why are you so thin and pale? What is going on?"
"What the fuck?" Liz said as she stopped pacing and stared at me. "Not you, too. Jesus. I told you I don't have a drug problem, Alex. I'm not using drugs. I've been sick lately. I don't know what's wrong, I just haven't felt well."
"Then let's make an appointment to have you get checked out, Liz," I pleaded. "If you're not using drugs or drinking, we need to find out what's wrong."
"No, I'm fine!" she shouted. "I'm just tired and stressed and the last thing I need is you, of all people, getting on my case about what it is I need to do! If you don't believe me, then I guess I should just say fuck it!"
"I do believe you, Liz," I said, trying to calm her down, but she was having none of it. "I just want to understand what's going on! Aside from the fact that I'm worried about you, this is starting to affect me, too!"
"Oh, yes, and we certainly wouldn't want to affect the perfect princess and her straight A grades, now would we?" Liz shot back in a mocking tone as she pulled on her shoes and grabbed her coat.
"Liz, stop!" I pleaded. "Let's get some help and find out what's wrong!"
"Screw you, Pierce," she said as she grabbed her backpack from the coffee table and headed out the door. She yanked the door open and then turned toward me, "I thought you were my friend."
"I am," I said as the tears welled up, but she'd already slammed the door behind her, and my words hung in the empty space left between us.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cam
I needed to see Alex, that much I knew for certain. I wanted to explain my mysterious departure and I wanted to find a way to get her to stay in my life. I knew after hearing her clipped message that she was pissed at me for disappearing, and I didn't blame her. I listened to her voicemail message and knew things were not looking good for me.
"Cam, it's Alex. I'm returning your call. If you want to talk to me, then find me at the hospital tonight. I'll be there from ten until ten tomorrow morning. I'm sure there will be some window of time in which we can discuss what happened last night. If I don't see you, then I guess we'll figure out another time. Take care."
I dropped my uniforms off at the cleaners and went home. Alex's message had made it very clear that I had a lot of explaini
ng to do, and I didn't blame her a bit for being mad. Alex wouldn't be at work for a few more hours, so I changed into my sweats and sneakers and took Tesla for a long run.
As I ran, I thought about what I was going to tell Alex. I knew there was a good chance that she was going to dump me as soon as I told her who I was and how I made my money, but I also knew that there was no way I was going to be able to keep a secret from her once I told Leo that we would accept Metzler's conditions for the contract.