Page 65 of And They Were Roommates

I collapse on a seat across from them both. “I’m sick.”

Blaze sits on my side of the picnic table, placing a tiny hand on my forehead. “Do you have a high temperature?”

More like a volcano in my brain. “Yes.”

“Stomach pain?”

“Yes.”

“Loss of appetite?”

I haven’t considered eating since Jasper’s sparkling apple juice last night. “Yes.”

“I’ll be blowed,” Blaze mumbles, eyes spreading wide. “You have been poisoned.”

“What?” Xavier and I say.

Blaze covers his face with his palms—as if his seaweed hair wasn’t already doing enough of that—and whimpers like he’s on the verge of tears. “By the arachnids.”

“Oh,” Xavier and I say.

Robby pulls lined paper and a pencil out of his binder and writes something down. “If you’re overheating, then this may not be stress. When did your symptoms first show?”

“Last night,” I answer.

“What were you doing?”

I hesitate, since Robby is the last remaining member who doesn’t know the truth. “Writing love letters for STRIP.”

His eyes go big, but he’s quick to revert to a professional demeanor. “Where?”

“My room.”

“You were alone?”

“I was with Jasper.”

Blaze gasps beside me. “Jasper poisoned Charlie.”

“No,” Robby says without looking up. “Did you run into anyone else yesterday?”

I tilt my head. “I guess? We had classes. I ran into my friend at the sister academy from a distance. A group crossed over to plan for the mixer.”

Robby’s pencil abruptly stops moving. He neatly files the paper back into his binder. “This is an incurable sickness I’ve heard of many times in the STRIP Crypt.”

My hope soars. “What is it?”

“Lovesickness.”

The world slows to a stop.

I misheard him. “What did you say?”

“Praise the powers that be within the Ring of AncestralDarkness!” Blaze tugs on my blazer sleeve, shaking my whole body. “My comrade is no longer poisoned.”

Robby grins. “Who from the sister academy caught your eye?”

“I—None of them,” I squeak.

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