Revelation (Private 8)

"I have to go."

I grabbed up my things, leaving the reserved card on my computer so I wouldn't have to stop to

return it to the front desk, and rushed awkwardly for the door. I tried to shove my arms into my

coat while semi-sprinting, my bag strap all twisted around my wrist. I attempted to untwist it as I

exited the building, but in the process my bag turned upside down, sending all my books and

notebooks tumbling down the library stairs.

"Perfect," I said under my breath, crouching to retrieve them. The sky overhead was a threatening

gray and wind whistled around the buildings. Any second the clouds were going to open up and

pour freezing rain on my head. I could feel it.

"Reed!" Marc was there in a flash. He stooped to help gather my things. "Are you okay? What's

wrong?"

As we stood up, our arms full of books, I forced myself to look at him. His brow was creased with

concern and his light brown eyes were open and honest. For a second I couldn't imagine that he

could have hurt Cheyenne. But after what she had done to him...

"You were Fourteen-in-Fourteen Flower Boy!" I blurted, rather more loudly than I intended.

All the color drained from Marc's face. He handed my notebooks to me.

109

"Well, I prefer to go by Marc," he said, taking a step back and shoving his hands under his sleeves.

My cheeks were flushed with heat. "Marc, this isn't funny. How could you have never mentioned

that you and Cheyenne had a thing? Were you hiding it for a reason?"

A group of freshman girls scurried up the stairs between us and I realized it was a good thing this

conversation was taking place in such a populated area of campus. If Marc was capable of

violence, he couldn't get away with hurting me right here, out in the open like this.

"Well, yeah. I had a couple reasons," Marc replied, his eyes wide. "One, it was the most

humiliating experience of my life, and two, I don't really relish the idea of getting pounded on by

Trey Prescott. Cheyenne was his girlfriend last year during the, uh, fourteen-in-fourteen incident.

Although I swear I had no idea they were together at the time."

"And that's it. That's the only reason this hasn't come up," I said flatly, thinking of all the times

we'd talked about Billings and Cheyenne's death.

Marc stared at me for a moment. "Wait... you think I killed her."