Page 54 of Left on Read

I want to tell her she has nothing to worry about. Hayes and I are more than civil. I could shout out what Hayes and I are, but that would be completely inappropriate.

“I’m expecting no takers for the vice president ballot. In the past, we’ve given this position to the candidate for president with the second-most votes. But if anyone would like to run—”

Hayes’s right hand shoots up so fast, I almost flinch. His left hand stays in my pocket, where I’m almost hidden behind his back.

Mrs. Jacobs has stopped speaking entirely, looking at Hayes as if she’s never seen him before.

“You want to run forvice president,Hayes?” she asks, pointing a pencil in our general direction. Her eyes narrow like she doesn’t believe this. Like she thinks this is some elaborate prank. On either side of us, I feel Esha and Luke look at each other, then at us.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Mrs. Jacobs shakes her head, either in an expression of confusion or an effort to gather herself. “Any other takers?”

The room falls silent. I think I stop breathing for a second, because I was so sure this wasn’t going to work. I was convinced Hayes’s master plan to save us from each other was just too easy. Too good to be true.

But I think it’s working?

“Alright, well, without any contenders, consider the role of vice president yours, Mr. Collins. Congratulations.”

Luke starts a riotous clap, and suddenly everyone in the room is applauding. My hand ventures into the pocket of my sweatshirt, and I squeeze his fingers. More people should randomly clap for him, I think.

“Settle down, settle down.” Mrs. Jacobs doesn’t even raise her voice; she just gives everyone a quelling look. “We still have to decide our president.”

Now it’s my turn to raise my hand.

Mrs. Jacobs nods, scribbles in her notebook. “Okay, Nova.Anyone else?” she asks as a formality. It was always going to be me and him. Her eyes drift around the still-silent room.

Then, something shifts. The barometric pressure, maybe. I feel it like an impending storm. Across the room, Bryce looks at me. He looks at Hayes. There’s something menacing in that look, and I squeeze Hayes’s hand again, this time in alarm.

He’s not going to—

“Me.” Bryce leans back in his chair and chucks his chin. I thought smugness was a bad look on Hayes. On Bryce, it’s disgusting. Fucking Bryce. The audacity to think you can do what he did to Piper and just move on with your life. To think that you can just keep winning at the expense of everyone else.

But heison the honor roll. And heisquote-unquote “popular.”

He’s a legitimate threat.

There’s a collective gasp in the room, or maybe that’s just Esha in my ear. Around me, everything seems to tense up. Luke radiates an indignant kind of anger, and Hayes’s spine is ramrod straight. He drops my hand and moves to stand completely in front of me. This got so aggressive so fast, in a way I could’ve never expected.

“Got it,” Mrs. Jacobs says, not addressing the sudden uncomfortable atmosphere in the room. She keeps talking, finishing up her announcements and outlining the plan for the election. I’m only half-listening. I’m sure she warns us all to be civil one more time. I was so sure we would be, but now I don’t know.

I think of Piper for a second. She’s the only one of us not here right now. Her grades tanked so badly after the Bryce situationthat she got kicked out of Beta Club. She’s going to have to see the posters of his horrible, smug face all over the place. She’s going to have to hear about him winning again, with all of his popularity and all of her old friends. She’s going to feel exactly what I felt last year.

Hayes’s planwastoo easy. Itwastoo good to be true.

Just as I have that thought, Hayes turns around to face me. Esha and Luke step forward too, and now we’re in a weird little huddle while everyone else is shuffling out of the room.

“You’re going to win,” Hayes says. He means it, I can tell. He’s fucking pissed, actually. Those sharp angles of his face can be kind of intimidating.

“If I don’t, I don’t.” I shrug, but I feel the horrible urge to cry. I really have to run against a pile of human garbage? Well. That’s democracy, I guess.

“No,” Hayes says. He grips my shoulders just hard enough to make me look at him. “You aregoingto win, Nova. You’re going to get your revenge, just not on me.”

“Yeah,” Esha steps forward into my field of view, which had narrowed to just Hayes. “You have plans and ideas and us. You have to win.”

I nod, trying to make myself believe that. I do have plans and ideas and them, but Bryce has this charisma he uses to devastate people, and I think he’s going to use it all to destroy me.

“Are you okay, Luke?” Esha asks. I widen my view again, and he does seem to have gone kind of unhinged. His face is bloodred,and his hands are balled up into fists. I thought people at this school were above guys fighting over a girl, but if this were an early American novel, they’d be grabbing their pistols and walking ten steps.