Page 49 of Degradation
He nods. ‘I said I’d get you one. The battery is at a hundred percent and your number is saved as a contact, so you can easily find it. I put in mine, Mav, and Blake’s details already. Lu’s too.’
‘Thanks,’ I say, oddly touched that he’s done all this, even put in my best friend’s contact info.
I didn’t think he even liked Lu.
He nods. ‘It’s yours. It’s not a loaner, or anything. Please keep it charged, and with you at all times, okay?’
‘Okay,’ I say a little dubiously as the screen illuminates in my hand. ‘I’ve never used one of these before though.’
He looks amused. ‘It’s pretty intuitive. Just play with it a little and it won’t take you long to figure it out. I believe in you.’
I look up at him sharply. ‘Do you mean that?’
‘What?’
‘That you…believein me?’
He nods, his lips forming a small, sad smile. ‘Of course I do, Marguerite. Always.’
We stare at each other, both of us at a loss for words for a few seconds, but then he looks away and clears his throat.
‘I spoke to Applegate, let him know that you can’t walk around. He emailed you some stuff to work on, so you can keep on top of things.’
‘Thanks,’ I murmur, giving myself a mental shake. ‘I certainly don’t want to put my classwork off. I only just caught up from before I changed majors.’
‘You’re caught up already?’ he sounds surprised.
I nod. ‘It was mostly reading,’ I mutter. ‘No big deal.’
He loiters a little while longer, commenting on random things and talking to me about nothing. Then he leaves abruptly, muttering a goodbye.
I stare after him in silence, wondering what’s going on with him because he’s definitely acting weird. And ifI’mnoticing, then he must be actingveryweird.
I stare at my laptop, not wanting to check my emails at all, afraid of what will be waiting for me.
I decide to send my first phone message instead.
It takes a minute to find it, but Shade was right. It’s intuitive and quite logical.
‘Dear Lu. I hope you are well. This is my number. From, Daisy.
A reply appears almost immediately.
‘Hey, girl! Saved! This is gonna make it so much easier to tty!’
I frown as it makes me a moment to work out what ‘tty’ is.
‘Dear Lu. Yes. It will. Can you come to the house later? From, Daisy.
‘Ur not much of a texter, huh. I’ll b there, Daisy-bear.
I grin, but my eyes fall on the laptop. I can’t put it off. I need to start on the work that Applegate has sent anyway.
With a sigh, I cross the room and sink into my chair. I open the lid and log in, finding two emails in my Inbox from Applegate and one from a ‘no reply’ email address I don’t recognize. The sender is different from the one I got before. I open it and gasp as I’m met with a short, silent video of myself from one of the house cameras. I’m in the games room and Rob is slapping me to the ground, over and over in a loop.
‘Wish it was me. Try harder or it will be.’
I close the email, gritting my teeth.
