Page 45 of Entangled in the Woods
Leo and Jenny poked their heads out of their respective doors, guilty looks on their faces. Leo’s cheeks were sunken in and his under eyes dark. He looked like he had gone days without more than a few hours of sleep.
“What the hell, Leo?” I slammed my hands on the table harder than I meant to. “Why didn’t you say anything? Haven’t you been seeing it too?”
“I’m sorry, Elise. I couldn’t say anything to back you up,” he said. “Something weird is happening in the woods, and I can’t explain it. I have seen the rot, but if the samples came back from the lab as just dust, I don’t know what to think. I can’t make it make sense.” Leo looked just as confused as I had been reading the lab report.
The boiling in my chest continued. “Who told Robinson I wasn’t sleeping at the cabin?”
Jenny slowly raised her hand. “It was an accident. I didn’t intend it to mean anything…”
“What did you do, Jenny?” My voice turned growly as I stalked closer.
“Nothing! I mean, I might have mentioned something about you spending time a lot of time with locals in the call to my professor, but I didn’t say you were doing something you weren’t supposed to.” She was stumbling over her words, trying to explain herself as quickly as possible. “Just that you were probably getting a lot of good plant information from them.”
The sheets of data left my hand and hit the floor with a smack. “I have so much riding on this scholarship. I don’t have parents paying for my tuition.” I narrowed my eyes at Jenny. “Or a bunch of previous publications to pad my CV like you, Leo.” He looked down at his hands.
“This is it for me. This is all I have.”
I turned to Leo. “What were you going to tell me about the rot the other night?” If he knew something that would explain the rot and clear my name with the university, I needed to know about it.
Leo nodded his head in agreement. “I just…noticed…” he began. But by the way he couldn’t finish a though and his stare was getting more disoriented by the second, I could tell he was exhausted.
I felt the urge to know what he needed to tell me as soon as possible, but Leo needed to be rested so he could tell me precisely what he knew about the rot. There could be no more mistakes or misunderstandings.
“You should go to bed and sleep until tomorrow morning,” I said to Leo as less of a suggestion than as an order. “We can talktomorrow.” One day wouldn’t make or break my standing with the university.
One problem down, I looked at our other roommate. “And Jenny, stop gossiping about me. I thought we were friends.”
She looked down at her feet. “We are friends. I’m sorry, Elise. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Sitting down in my chair at the table, I slumped over, tired from my outburst. Being angry took so much energy. “I’m sorry, you guys. It’s just a lot to be accused of forging samples. I’m trying so hard, but I keep screwing up. This is so nerve-wracking.”
Both Jenny and Leo looked at me with understanding. They didn’t want to be in the position I was in.
“Let me make it up to you, Elise,” Jenny said. “Come to No Bars with me tonight. I’ll buy you a drink.”
Leo caught my eye as his hunched over form trudged back to his bedroom. I hoped he would get some sleep and look better in the morning.
“I promise I won’t tell anyone you’re going out,” she insisted. “Never again.”
“No way,” I said.
“Please! I feel so bad.”
“Nope.”
“Just one drink? I promise—just one. And then we can leave.”
Jenny was relentless. I couldn’t lie to myself; I could use a drink after the accusations Robinson had thrown at me, and I was getting a little bit of cabin fever. Maybe I could even talk through some stuff with Jenny without giving too much away. If we had one drink and then came back, what could it hurt?
“Fine,” I said.
Jenny clapped and bounced up and down at my response. I pushed back in my chair and announced I was going for a run. The rain had let up, and I needed some stress relief.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Thankful I had wornsome trail-running shoes, I jogged along the gravel path made slippery by the rain earlier. A quick run to clear my head before I got to brainstorming how I was going to solve the situation with the university. I needed this escape first. My breath had evened out, and my legs felt warm and ready for some mileage. Every time I ran, I sensed something in the woods watching me, and today was not an exception.
Steady footsteps fell in step with mine from behind, and I whipped my body around to confront my follower. My hands squeezed into tight fists, and I regretted not looking into getting some mace like Jenny had suggested. Ready to fight, my eyes landed on Everett in running shorts, a T-shirt, and a cheeky grin on his face.
