Just in case you forgot, the Code Black along with Zach's denial of being with Cammie happened before the could-be safe scene. This will be important background info in this chapter. Happy reading!
Now that I wasn't around Zach and accusing girls, my thoughts became clearer. This is the second time I had shown up out of place and not given an explanation for my whereabouts. Nobody would believe my side of the story claiming that I didn't have anything to do with the code black; no one has a reason to believe me now. It hadn't hit me till now that I completely forgot about that night and how guilty I appeared to be to the whole student body.
When we get to our room I admittedly thought about running but didn't because One) Bex still had an iron vice grip on me. Two) I thought it was best to suffer and tell someone what happened because it really wouldn't look good for me to show up at incriminating times again right after the Code Black which everyone still thinks I did. And Three) I honestly needed help sifting through all the mess that Zach Goode brought into everything.
I flop on my bed frustrated with everything that has happened in the past couple of days. The girls loom over me in an intimidating manor (well except for Liz, she knows not to even try anymore).
Macey was apparently sharing some of my thoughts at the moment, "You know you make it really hard to look innocent when you keep showing up in places you shouldn't be and looking all suspicious," She sighs. "I hate to give in, but I don't blame everyone for thinking you caused the Code Black."
"But everyone saw I was with Zach this time- like I said I was last time!" I cry out. "Don't you think that increases my credibility when I said Zach was with me originally at the ball?"
"Cammie," Liz looks hesitant. "it's a matter of he said she said. It really holds no weight at all at this point."
"She's right, Cam," Bex grimaced then countered. "However, now that Zach has been seen with you late at night- and in bloody close proximity may I add- people might reconsider Zach's words when he said he had no reason to be with you that night."
"I know everybody here has an incredibly high IQ, but they aren't going to stop and think about how Zach's alibi isn't adding up, like we are now," Macey exclaims. "What they will be talking about is why you and Zach were together tonight- which is what we should be talking about now, too. So spill!"
"I know it's not your reputation on the line, but I'd rather work on clearing my name, or at least bringing Zach down with me!" While I was down in the sublevel, I had completely forgot how mad I was at Zach for that particular betrayal. How can one sabotage someone else then completely pull a 180 and think everything was forgiven.
"You're making this hard, Cammie. You know what happens when you make things harder than they have to be." Bex warns and I shiver in return. She reaches for something, but I don't want to find out what.
"Okay! Okay!" I hold my hands out to block her from inflicting any pain unto me.
"Well after dinner, I realized I left something in Mr. Solomon's class," I start thinking I can just give them the run down. I'm stopped when Liz tries to get up, subsequently falling down with a soft "Oopsy Daisy".
"Hold on," She breathes and gets up again, much more carefully than the last time I noticed. "I have to get my notepad."
In the meantime, Bex askes, "What did you leave?"
"Not really important in the grand scheme of things, guys," I wave off.
"Cammie, you will tell us all the details so I can make an accurate report!" Liz scolds. It's not only me that is taken aback by the forcefulness in her tone.
"Didn't know you had it in you, Liz!" Macey smiled proudly, like somehow she is rubbing off on her.
"We're straying!" Bex snaps her fingers to draw the attention back to me: the person who prides herself off the ability to exactly but.
"Well, it was a hairband- My favorite one you know? I was messing with it in class and I guess I left it there. I figured I had just enough time to run and grab it and make it in time for opening credits, so I headed over to Solomon's class."
I try to look Liz in the eyes, but she has her head in her notes, "Thorough enough?"
Liz nods without picking up her head.
"So, I got to his class and he was standing outside his door. He said he was about to come find me. He said something about a special assignment I had to do," I pause because I already feel the questions brewing.
"Did you go inside his classroom?" Bex asked.
"No, he immediately took me down to Sublevel One," At least they're lobbing softballs at me.
"So, you failed to get your favorite hair tie?" Macey infers.
I pout and slouch on my bedding; I hadn't even thought about that. This night just gets better and better.
"Yes. After we get down to Sublevel One, he shows me a safe-"
"The ones like the vaults in the bank or the ones in the hotels?" Bex leans forward more curious than before. I don't blame her one bit for that.
I give her a knowing look, "The Safetronic 4700."
"No way!" Liz gasped.
"Gallagher never fails to amaze me…" Macey whistles.
"I so wish I was you right now," Bex half glares at me with envy.
"No, no you don't. Here's why: Mr. Solomon shoved me into it and demanded I get myself out."
"So, you were in solidary confinement for," Macey looks puzzled for half a second and counts on her fingers. "37 minutes?"
"Worse, Zach was in there," Oh how I wish it had been just me. "He told me Solomon had planned on bringing him company."
Macey and Bex eye eachother.
"Sit tight and no questions until I'm through now- it's a long one."
I make each hold up three fingers in scout's honor. Once I'm satisfied that their lack of questions will cut down my recall time down by at least 17%, I continue. They all take a seat, legs crossed in front of me on the carpet.
Once I finish, I can't help tallying up the number of wide eyes (13) and eyebrow raises (19) and mouth gaps (5) I racked up.
"verbatim?" Bex asks like she can't believe what she just heard.
"Verbatim," I nod in affirmation. I couldn't have told a better lie if someone had paid me to. "You know I have a perfect recollection."
I had purposely left out the portion of the seven minutes and thirty-six seconds where Zach had told me about his broken family. If he trusts me enough to hear his story, I'll protect it. Even though Zach has falsely exposed me before, I felt responsible for keeping his secrets where they should be: underground and in the best vault money could buy. I didn't feel bad about lying to them this time because we all know that sometimes you just don't get to know the confidential information.
"You're lying." Bex doesn't accuse me, she just stats it like a fact.
"What?" How could she possibly know?
"Don't get me wrong, Cammie," She nods her head approvingly. "I wouldn't have known if I hadn't swindled one of Mr. Fibb's lie-detector rings from Mr. Solomon's room."
Why didn't I think of that? That ring would have been priceless an hour ago.
"Why would you lie to us, Cammie? Do I have to erase all my notes now?" That was by far the worse thing you could do to Liz: Give her false data.
"Do you not trust us, Cammie?" Macey draws her eyebrows in and leans away from me, obviously hurt.
"No, it's not that at all! I love you guys and I'll always tell you everything that I have a right to tell you. And no Liz I didn't tell you anything that didn't happen tonight," The last thing I want to do right now is lose my closest friends to a miscommunication.
"It's not so much what I told you, it's what I didn't tell you," I fidget and think about how I'm going to form my next sentence without giving everything away.
"Zach told me some stuff- like about his family. It just seemed to important to go throwing around- I at least want to keep that part between Zach and I, okay?" I plead.
"Oh Cammie, I'm sorry we didn't trust you. It was really sweet of you to think about what was fair to Zach," Bex profusely apologized.
Macey gets up from her spot on the ground and sits beside me on my bed to put a hand on my knee.
"We totally get it. So, everything else is 100% correct?" Liz says one last time.
"Yes, everything."
"Well now comes the fun part: analyzing," Macey smiles. "Thankfully this is an easy one."
Bex sighs, "She's right, you two are so cute together."
Liz already had her Boy to English translator on her lap typing in whatever I just said.
"That's good that you guys know what's going on because I'm at a loss," I huff. "Why did Mr. Solomon lock me in a safe with Zach and take away what I needed to get out?"
They all lean their heads in, clearly not expecting that that question. Macey grabs a file out of her knee-high socks.
"Well, you can never truly be certain with Solomon, but I'm going to have to say he was setting you two up."
"Macey! Mr. Solomon would never do that- it's none of his business." I protest.
"You said it yourself, Zach and him are close. Think about it," Macey shrugs.
"We shouldn't be attempting to decipher the motives of a person like Solomon," Bex mumbles bitterly. She doesn't like giving up, but she knows when she has to.
"That can't be the only thing you're confused about. Studies show people who talk about their problems have a higher likelihood of solving them. Let's start small," Liz urges me on.
"How about why Zach asked me out when he practically said the other day that he wouldn't be caught dead with me? He has got to have an ulterior motive."
"Zach never said that," Liz scrunches up her face. "He said, and I quote, "Why would I be with her?" big difference."
Not really, I thought and roll my eyes.
"Cam, it's so obvious! He likes you!" Macey squeals. Yes. Actual squealage. "He's just a closed off person so he has to appear uninterested in public to protect himself, he's just masking his true feelings. That's my professional opinion."
Zach masking his feelings? That does sound like him.
"Don't forget this whole thing is probably new to him, too," Bex pointed. "Don't blame him for not knowing how to act around girls since he's goes to an all-boys school."
"You're catching on," Macey complements looking her way. Then she adds, "But really he only doesn't know how to act around one certain girl." The smirk she wears looks to close to Zach's for my liking.
"So, I typed in what it means for a boy to share personal family issues with a girl," Liz reads off the translator. "And it's says that he feels close enough to you to reveal himself, it also says there is a 73% chance that he feels connected to you in some way." Liz's voice got higher and higher with her excitement while she read the analysis.
"We really do have more in common than I thought," I reflect on the same loss we both share.
"Still, you guys are grasping at straws. Nothing here is adding up, what if he's conducting a honeypot?" I gasp.
"I don't think he's conducting the same honeypot you're thinking of," Bex shakes her head while Macey and Liz consider her like they're all in on the same secret.
I know what she means, but I don't agree. I don't argue though, if I tried it would three against one, and those weren't odds I'm willing to take.
"What I'm getting at is that Zach just wants me to participate in a bonding, date-like scenario with him," I muse. "Did I get that right?"
Macey jumps off my bed and cheers, "I'm such a good teacher!"
"Liz, can you give us the translator's conclusion?" Bex nods her head at the device.
She clears her throat, "Scientifically, a boy who teases a girl then discusses deep topics followed by the question of asking the girl to come back together to join the boy at a later date suggests that the boy is striving for a stronger bond than the one found in a platonic relationship."
Liz paused, and she looks up to all of us, her eyes wide as saucers, "He SO likes you! I just proved it!"
Bex smiles evilly, "That's one problem down, now let's see you try to act normal around him know that you know his "ulterior" motive." She added air quotes at the end.
"I'll sleep on it," my head falls back on the pillow that I swear felt a thousand times comfier than any other night.
We were all too worn out after tonight's lesson in boys to continue. That thought of eight hours of boy-free sleep comforting me as I try to pass out on my bed.
However, life won't let me off the hook that easy. Out of the corner of my eye I see Macey heading into the bathroom to no doubt start her thirty-minute, pore-pamper routine. Reminding me that I'll have to get up soon to practice good hygiene too.
Liz starts placing her equipment neatly on her desk while Bex heads over to the closet, pulling out a pair of flannel pajamas that I want to be in right now.
"Did I tell you about my flawless Romanowski move I used on Courtney, Liz? You will not believe it- Cammie you saw it right?" She has a giddy look and her eye, that only comes from beating someone in P&E.
I don't think about tomorrow or what I'll witty response I'll have to say to Zach the next time we meet. In the suite, with my bestfriends around me, life goes back to normal- the bad-ass, spy-in-training normal that I fell in love with ever since setting foot onto Gallagher.
Their friendship is honestly everything. What would Cammie do without them? I dedicated this chapter to developing the girls' relationship and I really like how it turned out. I'll update soon. Hope you guys have a Great Day/night!
