The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky (ebook reader for manga TXT) 📕

arm and it was like I was back in my old house on Long Island, Matthew Marshall’s gloved hand pulling me down.

I froze.

“I’m sorry,” Bram said, standing in front of me. By then I’d managed to blink back any wetness in my eyes. I could see Bram clearly. He seemed serious.

“I didn’t mean anything by that,” he said.

“You meant to make me feel weak,” I said carefully.

Bram shook his head, opened his mouth to say something, but then seemed to think of something else. “Did you say it was two people who broke into your house?”

“Yes, what does it matter?”

“You didn’t mentioned that before.”

I didn’t know why I hadn’t mentioned it at the initiation. But I knew I didn’t want to give Bram anything more. Not another bit of info, not another minute of time.

Except I didn’t move, and neither did he.

“My intention was not to make you feel weak,” Bram said. “It was exactly the opposite.”

The part of my arm that Bram was holding on to—still holding on to—hummed, but no longer with the memory of Matthew Marshall’s grip. I was hyperaware of the feel of Bram’s fingers, the pressure of them. We hadn’t stood this close, or touched, since that night outside the abandoned-house party. Just like then, he was close enough for me to smell the pine and lime in his hair. Close enough that neither of us heard the doorbell ring, the maid open the door, or even the sound of someone heading our way.

Not until Lux spoke.

“What is this?” she said.

Bram dropped his hand and I almost whipped around to ask what she was doing there before I remembered myself. It made sense that she’d show up. Bram spent so much time with the Mary Shelley Club it was easy to forget that he probably spent the rest of his nights with his girlfriend.

“We’re working on a school project,” Bram explained.

“With her?” Lux asked. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

Bram glanced my way. “Didn’t seem worth mentioning.”

I looped my arm through my book bag’s other strap.

“See you in school,” I said to neither of them in particular. They didn’t seem to notice as I left.

 22

I WAS AT work, manning the ticket line. The last of the night’s movies had already started playing, but I had to wait for any final stragglers. Saundra sat perched on my stool. She’d bought a ticket for the movie even though I would’ve just let her in for free. But she didn’t seem the least bit interested in seeing it. I was both jealous of all the money she had to burn and also kind of touched that she’d burn it just to hang out with me.

“I can’t believe you work with Thayer Turner. Is he as annoying as he is in class?”

I glanced back to see Thayer behind the counter. “I barely know him.”

Saundra shrugged and launched into something about one of the girls in her Calculus class. But I was only half listening, still thinking of my study session with Bram the previous night. Thinking of what I’d told him about the break-in. Thinking of his vague warnings about Freddie. And what had it meant that he ran after me? Why did that moment feel just as charged as that time we’d kissed?

“Do you have a massive crush on someone?” Saundra asked.

“What? No.” The idea that thinking of Bram registered in any way as full-crush mode made my stomach turn.

“So just a minor crush, then?”

I picked up one of the ticket stubs from the discard box and tore it into smaller bits. “Where is this coming from?”

“You have this look on your face. And you’ve been acting a certain kind of way, that’s all.”

“What kind of way?”

Saundra slurped her jumbo Diet Coke. “Like you’re hiding something.”

This was the only downside to the club. While I liked the secret aspect to it, I hated having to lie to Saundra. It was only a matter of time before she figured out that something was up. Saundra, who had her finger on the pulse of all things Manchester Prep—who wasn’t happy unless she knew every secret of every person in the school—was on to me. And I wasn’t sure my poker face could combat her discerning gossip radar.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I continued to tear more stubs into careful, tiny pieces while avoiding her eyes.

“Why were you talking to Felicity Chu earlier?”

Damn it. Felicity had slipped up this morning by talking to me in the hallway. We were both taking books out of our lockers at the same time. She wanted to confirm our plans for tomorrow night, when we were going to work on her upcoming Fear Test. The whole exchange must’ve lasted less than thirty seconds. It was so short that I’d forgotten about it. But Saundra hadn’t.

“She told me I had something in my teeth.”

“Felicity Chu?” Saundra said. “Doing something nice?”

Damn it again. I might as well have said she had stopped to give me a birthday present. Saundra was only going to keep digging deeper and deeper until she hit bone. I was about to come up with another lie, but Saundra spoke up.

“You know what, she probably said that just to embarrass you. Felicity probably loves pointing out food in people’s teeth.”

I glommed onto the idea. “Yeah, she’s the worst. Anyways, what’s going on with you?”

“I wanna try this new Jack Dewey smoky-eye tutorial,” Saundra said. “Do you want to come over tomorrow? I’m gonna need help because I never get those right.”

As I looked at Saundra’s hopeful expression, I realized I wanted to. Not because I could help perfect a smoky eye (I couldn’t), but because I genuinely missed hanging with Saundra. So having to turn her down made me feel terrible. “I can’t tomorrow. Sorry.”

“You’ve got other plans?” Saundra sounded deflated.

“Yeah.” I hoped it was enough of an answer because I didn’t want to actually lie to her.

“They don’t involve your nonexistent crush, do they?”

I looked