Page 312 of Bitter’s Sweet

We end up in the school break room with Mercy, Mourning, Vesper, Nevermore, Ghoul, Boogie, Junie, Petal, and an unreasonable amount of peach cobbler.

Sheriff is sitting on a chair.

Nobody admits who put him there.

I suspect Vesper.

Sweet sits beside me.

Not in my lap or tucked underneath my arm.

Beside me.

Her knee touches mine beneath the table, and that tiny contact means more than half the sex I have had in my life.

Boogie points his fork at us.

“So are we allowed to talk about what happened outside?”

“No,” Sweet says.

“Cool, because I have several observations.”

“No.”

“What about a chart?”

“Boogie.”

“Fine.”

Mourning looks at Sweet.

“You staying?”

Sweet smiles.

“At the school.”

Mourning slaps the table. “I knew it.”

Vesper points at her. “We knew it.”

Mercy snorts. “You tried to predict she'd marry a taxidermist.”

“Possibilities evolve.”

Uncle Cletus yells from the hallway, “What’s wrong with taxidermists?”

“Nothing!” Sweet calls.

I look at her.

She grins.

This place is a disease.

Apparently she caught it.