Someone grabbed my arm before I could walk into art class. Not Tank or one of his friends, up to their old tricks, but Delilah. Her grip was gentle, and she let go when I turned around. I stepped to the side of the door so I wouldn’t be in anyone’s way and took out my earphones.

“Are you doing okay?” she asked.

“I am well enough,” I said, my oracular voice strangely formal. I’d seen her in home ec, but we’d had a video today and there’d been no chance to talk. I had noticed her glancing my way, though.

“I saw you faint at Jade’s funeral,” she said.

“I know. Will told me. He said he’d tell you I was okay.” I paused. I could only hope that Alex hadn’t seen, too. He’d surely have something to say about me being carried out of the church by the boy he’d warned me to stay away from. But Will would have mentioned that to me, Alex’s watching. “I’m okay, really,” I added in the silence. “Too much heat and not enough food or something, I guess.”

“I just wanted to make sure,” she said. She still didn’t look like herself. Her hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail. Without her makeup, she seemed both younger and more world-weary. Lost.

“Thanks,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say.

“I guess … I guess I’ll see you later.” She left before I could say anything else.

I stayed by the door for a moment, not really wanting to go in. Art had always been my relatively safe class. I didn’t like this new situation. Shelley hadn’t said anything else to me on Friday either in home ec or art, after the scene in class on Thursday, but that was probably because Mrs. Rogers had actually been lecturing us on technique for once instead of letting us “explore” what we wanted. Alex had avoided me in that class as well, and I hadn’t seen him since spotting him at Jade’s funeral service.

Today I wanted to avoid him, but at the same time I kind of wanted to warn him. Should I? If the police actually paid any attention to the message I’d left, they were going to want to talk to Alex. I imagine they probably already had before, since he was dating Jade. But this was something more. Will seemed to think it gave Alex motive to have killed Jade. Like maybe he was driving or something and she was going to tell and he needed to shut her up.

I had trouble picturing it. I couldn’t imagine anyone I knew doing something so terrible, so cold-blooded. Even though I knew secrets about nearly everyone in school, none of them seemed like the kind of person who would actually kill someone. Draw a fake mustache on you with a Sharpie when you were sleeping, yeah. Stomp on your MP3 player? Sure. But murder?

Then I remembered the look in Alex’s eyes while he was standing in my living room, warning me to stay away from Will. How he’d looked facing down Tank. The way he’d told me to run away in the woods, the sounds of bellowing bull gators behind him.

Maybe he’d been driven to drink that night by guilt.

Granddad had a tendency toward that himself. Absolution in a bottle, he called it, but Gran didn’t let him get away with it much. Alex didn’t have anyone looking over his shoulder. The family tragedy hadn’t straightened out his father; it had made him worse. The last time I had seen Frank Walker, he’d been so drunk he couldn’t walk down Main Street in a straight line at noon.

It didn’t matter. I had to face Alex if he was there, but not without my music. I put my earphones back in and pushed through the classroom door, walking straight towards my desk in the back, not looking at anyone.

Mrs. Rogers wasn’t there, which should have set off warning bells in my head after last week. I had almost made it halfway to my desk when Shelley slid her book bag right in front of me. Clutching Will’s iPod to my chest, I fell onto my side, hitting my shoulder on a desk on the way down. I wound up blinking at the ceiling with Fall Out Boy still playing in my ears. Someone had managed to splash red paint up there at some point. I’d never noticed it before. It looked like a bloodstain looming over me.

A part of me wanted to just lie there on the cold linoleum floor, even though I could hear Shelley’s high-pitched laughter over the song’s refrain, Oh Oh Oh Oh Whoa Oh Oh Oh, but I rolled over and clambered up to my knees anyway. The sane part of me insisted I had to get up and keep going. I couldn’t stay on the floor forever, being laughed at. I rolled my shoulder back, testing it. It hurt like a son of a bitch. I’d probably be purple by dinnertime.

A rough hand grabbed my elbow and helped me up, nearly making me drop the iPod after all. Alex. A very pissed off Alex.

Of course. He didn’t have the gentle touch that Delilah had. The iPod eased into Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars,” and I could hear everyone clearly over the soothing sound of it. Some more Fall Out Boy would probably have been better. Noisier.

“What the hell is your problem?” he barked at Shelley.

My inner oracle didn’t care that the question wasn’t directed at me. “The truth is slippery.” But it didn’t matter. Everyone ignored me anyway. I pulled my arm, but Alex didn’t let go, his fingertips biting into my skin.

“Fuck off,” said Shelley. “You and her both. You’re both freaks. Everyone knows you killed Jade. Your preggie girlfriend here probably helped.”

“Shelley,” said another girl, looking alarmed, “calm down.”

Everyone was staring at Alex. His face was blank, like a mask. No one was laughing now. I pulled at my arm again, but he still wasn’t letting go. I didn’t want to be here in the middle of this. I had to get out.

“Why?” she taunted. “He’s not denying it. Look at him. He looks guilty to me.”

“You’ll regret that,” I said in answer to her question, softly this time.

Alex heard me. He took his steely gaze off of Shelley just long enough to glance down at me. Hopefully no one else had noticed what I said.

“I don’t owe you any explanations,” he growled back at Shelley. He took a step towards her, dragging me along. I almost tripped over her backpack again.

“What’s going on in here?” Everyone in the class turned to the door. Mrs. Rogers was standing there, her features twisted in disgust or alarm. I wasn’t sure which.

No one said a word, except me, since I couldn’t help it. “Trouble,” I answered quietly.

A girl towards the front let out a nervous giggle but cut it off short when Mrs. Rogers waved at someone in the hall. A uniformed policeman stepped into the room. Trouble indeed.

“Is there a problem here?” the cop asked. He was short and stocky, not very old, maybe in his late twenties, and solidly built. He shoved past Mrs. Rogers and stepped purposefully toward Alex and me. Everyone but Shelley seemed to melt away into the edges of the room. She stood up instead, tossing back her dark hair.

“Problems, problems,” I sing-songed under my breath. “Here, there, everywhere. Answers, answers, soon enough.” Only Alex heard me. He finally let go of my arm, and I stumbled back, catching myself on a desk again. I massaged my elbow. It hurt almost as much as my shoulder.

“No problem at all, officer,” Shelley said sweetly. “Aria here just tripped, and we were helping her up. She’s a little clumsy, if you know what I mean.” I was surprised she didn’t bat her eyelashes.

I didn’t say anything to confirm or deny. The police officer was still walking toward us. “Alex Walker?” he asked, one hand over his holster.

“Yes,” Alex and I both said at the same time. The cop stopped, confused. Alex gently pushed me back with one hand. The same girl who had giggled a moment ago let out another snort now.

“I am Alex Walker,” he said.

“I was waiting to meet you after class,” the cop said, “but looks like we might as well get on with it now.” He looked back and forth from me to Shelley. She smiled, all holier than thou. I didn’t say anything. The cop looked back at Alex. “We have some more questions for you. I’d like you to come down to the station with me.”

“I’ve already told you everything,” said Alex. He didn’t move. His back was ramrod straight.

“Some new information has come up. Look, I’d rather not do this here, and I doubt if you do either. So why don’t you come with me?”

“Go, don’t go,” I whispered. “This doesn’t matter in the long run.”

Alex turned to me, his eyes crinkled at the corners. Confused. I shrugged, barely, my shoulder screaming, and looked down at the floor. I held my breath. Please let him never figure out it had been me that had provided the new information to the police. Please.