DARIAN WAS INNOCENT.

The words kept repeating in my mind.

After Dev told me about the mysterious message, I listened to the voicemail myself to see if I could trace the voice. The caller had disguised their voice, which meant they were a step ahead of me. My search had hit a dead end.

Someone kept trying to tell me about Darian's innocence — but why was that so important to them?

What had Darian done?

I needed answers I didn't have.

But maybe Natasha's parents would.

The way Mrs. Ryan had acted when I found Darian's photo in Natasha's room, I doubted she would be open to talking about it. Which meant I had to track down Natasha's father.

Easier said than done.

Mrs. Ryans was scary, but her ex-husband made her look like a playful puppy. I needed a plan of action, some fool-proof way of getting him to expose the truth. But before that, I needed to do my job as Student Council president.

I tightened my grip around the student council funds packet in my hand, walking up to the principal's office.

I didn't expect to have company there, but as soon as I pushed open the door, I saw Griffin. He was sitting in one of the red chairs, his beat-up leather jacket thrown across his shoulders. I stepped toward him out of instinct, stopping when I remembered our last conversation.

To be honest, he was no longer mine; he had never been. That didn't make it hurt any less. The empty pit in my stomach only twisted more when his eyes landed on me. Only then did I notice the soft, purplish bruise surrounding his eye. I felt a stab of concern, and his gaze softened before he scowled, looking away.

Of course, he no longer wanted anything to do with me. I chewed at my bottom lip, pretending like it didn't sting.

I awkwardly walked past him to Principal Moore's door, letting it shut behind me as I handed Principal Moore the student council packet with the fundraising funds.

"Thanks, Haven. What a successful Spirit Week! Go Tigers!" He pumped his fist in the air and I tried to match his energetic smile with a feeble one of my own.

"No problem, Principal Moore." Before I could turn away, I caught sight of the brochure on the edge of his wooden table.

"Also, Haven?" I looked up to see Principal Moore looking at me with a sympathetic look. "There's one more thing I wanted to talk to you about."

"Yes?" I said expectantly.

"Mr. Langston is hosting a fundraiser at Wilcrest Hall and donating the money to Fairview in honor of Natasha. He's always been an established contributor to our school, and Natasha will forever be a beloved member of Fairwood."

My ears perked up at the sound of Natasha's father's name.

"I would love to send some volunteers. Especially considering the state of your previous relationship with Natasha... you two were friends, correct?"

I nodded wordlessly.

"I believe I may have been too harsh with canceling the ski trip for you girls."

That felt like forever ago now.

"But if you help with the setup after school today, consider the trip back on."

Principal Moore didn't know that was just a bonus. I felt my hands grow clammy with anticipation, realizing I could confront Mr. Langston. I could finally find out what Darian's story was, and why Natasha had never brought him up; what she was hiding.

"Of course." I nodded, a little too eagerly.

"Fantastic! I knew I could count on you. And no worries, you'll have company."

I raised my eyebrows.

Principal Moore opened the door and beckoned Griffin to walk over.

As Griffin came to stand near me, I moved away, smoothing my skirt.

"That was a very serious fight you had this morning," Principal Moore said. "Normally, something like that would call for detention."

I looked at Griffin with surprise. Why was he fighting with people?

"Can you just give me detention so we can both save time?" Griffin said, crossing his arms and looking unbothered.

Principal Moore sighed. "There was progress from you, Mr. Keely. I expected good behavior when you're only months before graduation. I could give you detention, but I know you don't care about a poor track record." Griffin smirked. "So instead, you're going to be accompanying Ms. Grey as a volunteer."

Griffin's smile disappeared.

"The two of you will report to Wilcrest Hall today," Principal Moore said as he sat down at his desk.

"Bullshit," Griffin said under his breath.

"Language, Griffin," Principal Moore said, making Griffin look even more pissed off. "You both can head to class now."

Griffin stormed away, not bothering to hold the door for me. When I stepped out, though, he was still there. The two of us were alone, and I awkwardly rubbed my arms, trying to warm them.

"This sucks," he said bitterly.

"Principal Moore said it's this or detention," I said, trying to make things better.

"And detention is such a big, bad, scary place."

"We need to go to Wilcrest Hall," I said, ignoring his sarcasm. "I found something out that might have to do with Natasha."

Griffin looked curious, but I could tell he was still upset with me because he didn't ask. He grunted, attempting to walk out. Before he could push the door open, I said, "Why did you get into a fight?"

He stopped. His jaw muscle twitched, and I could tell he was debating whether to tell me.

"If I tell you, are you going to go Officer Grey on me?" He looked at me with his deep blue eyes, even though they were almost grey now.

Even though I knew he was teasing me, I flushed. "I'm serious."

When he saw his jokes weren't getting him out of answering, he sighed. "I found some kid trying to plant drugs in my locker."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"Yup," he said, popping the p. "I caught him before he left. He put up a good fight, though — that's how I got this bad guy." He beckoned at his black eye. "Of course, I did more damage, but..."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Do you know him?"

"No clue who he was. I asked him what he was doing, and he told me he got a DM from that Killer Cupid account threatening him to do it."

My blood ran cold. "What? How do we know he wasn't lying?"

"I thought the same thing," Griffin said. "Until he showed me the message. So obviously, murder isn't the only thing on Killer Cupid's agenda. So is framing people." He smiled, but it wasn't a real one.

A chill ran down my spine. If Principal Moore had caught Griffin, he would have expelled him. If what Griffin was implying was true, Killer Cupid didn't just want death —

He wanted revenge.

Why?

I looked at his face, his usually chiseled cheekbones darker with a slight bruise. I lifted my hand to touch him, but he backed away.

"Don't." His voice was laced with anger, and it surprised me.

I dropped my hand. I had no right to feel hurt, but there I was, hurting. "This isn't like you," I said.

"Actually," He said coldly, "This is exactly like me."

I blinked at him and looked down at my shoes as if the white laces were suddenly the most exciting thing in the world. They weren't, but it was a better sight than letting him see me upset. I expected him to leave, but he sighed.

"Forget about it, Grey." Hearing my last name from him made me look at him with hopeful eyes. "I'll do the stupid volunteering thing, whatever."

"Okay," I said, wringing my hands as I thought about what to say next. As he started walking away, I felt my heart sinking. Say something, Haven.

"I want to try being friends." My voice didn't come out as strong as I wanted it to, but I pushed on, clearing my throat. "I mean, we are friends. Right?"

He almost looked amused at my nervousness, and I silently cursed at myself for sounding unsure.

He walked over to me and leaned closer, his eyes never leaving mine as he put one hand on the wall behind me. I tried moving, but then he brought his other arm around so that I was closed in. His face was only inches away, and I looked at my shoes again. I wanted to shiver under his gaze, his body radiating heat that I hadn't realized how much I had missed. But I didn't dare.

"Are we friends Haven? Because friends can look each other in the eye."

He moved away, giving me space to leave.

"We can pretend," I said lamely.

For a second, I thought he would be cordial. Instead, he laughed, without humor.

"Pretending's always been your thing."

And with that, he was gone.

--

I taped the final streamers to the ceiling before letting out a satisfied sigh. I cautiously looked down from the top rung of the ladder to the floor, wondering how I would get down. Probably something I should've thought of at the beginning of volunteering before I agreed to hang up streamers.

I saw Griffin just a few inches away, but his back was to me as he moved heavy boxes overflowing with materials.

This shouldn't be too bad.

I began to climb down when I felt my foot slide down a notch.

I let out a yelp, and Griffin turned to see me a second too late. Before he could catch me, I had knocked him over, falling onto him.

He groaned, and I realized I had knocked the wind out of him.

"I am so sorry," I breathed, my body still pressed against his chest. "Are you okay?"

"Geez," he wheezed. "If you wanted to be on top, you could've just said so."

I flushed, moving over. "You didn't break your back or anything, right? I'm pretty heavy. Honestly, I had a lot of donuts the other day-"

"Haven?"

"Yes?"

"Please. Stop. Talking."

"Got it," I said, squeezing my lips together, sneaking a look at his face to see if he was angry. He turned too, his face only inches away from mine. He didn't look mad. A little winded still, but not looking like he wanted to kill me.

"Ah, young romance," a voice said. I looked to see Julian, one of the older volunteers, smiling at our sprawled bodies.

"We're not —" I started to say as Griffin flatly said, "she's not my girlfriend."

Julian laughed. "Mr. Langston's finalizing the catering schedule."

"Mr. Langston?" I said, my interest piqued. "Can we speak to him?"

"He should be in his office," Julian said, pointing down the hallway before disappearing to check on the other volunteers.

Griffin looked at me, raising his eyebrows questioningly.

"Do you remember the day we found the picture of Darian?" I asked.

He nodded in recognition.

"She knows him better than we thought. After her parents divorced, her dad remarried. And they had a son."

"Darian," Griffin realized. "Holy shit." A crease formed between his eyebrows. "Why didn't she mention him?"

No one had — so what were they hiding?

"I don't know," I said, shoulders falling. "I had found out at the gala, but it's all I know." A part of me had been excited to find a new piece of information that I didn't realize that I still didn't know how the pieces came together.

"Well," Griffin said, glancing towards Mr. Langston's office. "People can't hide secrets for that long, right?" We walked towards his office, and I was grateful I had Griffin by my side, even if things were weird between us.

Griffin rapped his fist on the door twice. After a beat, Mr. Langston opened the door, glancing at the two of us with his lips folded into a curious frown.

"I'm Haven Grey," I said, extending a hand.

"Griffin Keely," Griffin said, leaning so his back was against the door frame.

"We're volunteers," I explained. "From Fairwood."

"Natasha's school." He recognized. "Were you her classmates?"

Ex-best friend and ex-boyfriend... but who cares about the specifics, right?

"We were friends of hers," I said. Mr. Langston's gaze was a mixture of wariness and suspicion.

"Well, I'm sure she would appreciate both of you being here," he said. "Thank you both for taking the time to come and help with this event." He began turning around, and I looked at Griffin desperately.

"We want to talk to you about Darian," Griffin said. I shot him a look. Way to be subtle. He gave me a look back as if he was saying, like you did any better.

Mr. Langston looked up at us sharply. "I'm sorry. I don't have time right now." He shuffled through the papers on his desk, but I could tell we had struck a nerve. His fingers were shaking as he moved through the messy pile.

"Please?" I said, moving closer to his desk.

"I said I was busy."

I was close to giving up when Griffin spoke. "We just need a few minutes." I looked up at him as he approached Mr. Langston. Their heights were much closer to each other. "Any information about this would help. We're overstepping boundaries, but this means a lot to us. We want to figure out what happened to Natasha, and as her father, we know you do, too."

At that moment, Griffin might not have been my biggest fan, but I looked at him like he was a superhero.

"Please," I added softly. "We would never have wanted her to be hurt."

Mr. Langston's jaw muscles constricted. "How the hell am I supposed to trust you?"

"Before Natasha left, she had called us. Both of us," I said. "Mr. Langston, I know things about her that no one else did. How she liked old hip-hop and classical jazz. How she hated chocolate chips on her pancakes. I know she loved storms, not to drive in, but to listen to and dance in." I stopped, chest heaving slightly. "And I know you broke her when you left."

Mr. Langston looked at me, eyes cloudy.

"I know Valentine's Day used to be her favorite holiday," I continued, "Until she realized all it meant is that people hurt you. People left you. Just like you did." I swallowed, remembering Natasha's broken smile when I had given her the gifts for Valentine's Day years ago.

She had kept it — not for her dad, but as proof, that love didn't always hurt.

"But someone didn't leave. Darian. She trusted him. He was her friend. She didn't tell me about him, but she kept his picture with her most prized possessions. That has to mean something." I looked at Mr. Langston with a steady gaze. "So I'm asking again, not because you have to trust us, but because we need to know. What happened to Darian?"

Mr. Langston's lips folded into a flat line, and I could see his hand was shaking. Finally, he raised his hooded eyes to meet ours.

"Darian. My precious boy," he said.

I widened my eyes, realizing he was going to tell us.

"He was a student at Wilcrest Academy. A kind boy with a bright future ahead of him — curious about life, loving to anyone who met him. A star hockey player. His favorite subject was biology — he would always tell us random facts during dinnertime."

My heart was beating so loudly I swore the others could hear it in the silence.

"He became caught up in the wrong group," Mr. Langston said. "His grades, optimism... we saw a shift in it all. At first, he was in trouble for little things — missed assignments and graffiti on the walls. But then it got worse. He would end up in fights, fail classes on purpose, and start drinking."

I felt terrible for him at that moment. It couldn't have been easy for him to see the change — it never was easy when it was someone you cared about.

"We tried to understand and help him, but he wouldn't listen. The final straw was when he was expelled for having drugs on campus, along with the others."

Expelled with the others? A strange feeling overcame me.

"He spiraled after that — began struggling with addiction, shutting himself off from the rest of us." His voice caught.

Don't say it. Please don't say it.

"It was an overdose," He said, his voice devoid of emotion, eyes distant. "We tried, we really tried. But he didn't make it."

"I'm so sorry," I breathed. I couldn't imagine what the family had gone through, and I felt my heart breaking. Underneath the table, Griffin reached over to place his hand on top of mine.

"We blamed ourselves every day. We don't know the other kids' names, but we blamed them too until we realized blaming others wouldn't bring Darian back." He cleared his throat.

"But Natasha, it hit her the hardest. Even though they weren't blood-related, they were so close. She completely transformed. She grew cynical, angry, and said that she wasn't stopping until we got justice."

I thought of Mrs. Ryan's words.

I knew one day Natasha's anger would cause her to suffer.

"We didn't keep pictures around the house. We thought if we just pretended, everything would be okay. But it's never that easy." Mr. Langston looked up with red-rimmed eyes.

I wanted to say something that would make it all better. But that's the thing; sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you can't.

"But she kept his photo," Mr. Langston said. "She kept it because that was her only tie to him." He shook his head, eyes wet. "She kept it because she didn't want to let go."

My stomach knotted. The truth about Darian was out, and it didn't bring the joy of a solved case or 'Aha' moment I had been hoping for all these weeks.

The anonymous person had been right — Darian was innocent, and now he was gone.

"Sir," Griffin spoke up, his voice rough but holding back emotion. "I'm sorry. We're going to help you get justice for your kids."

"I don't want any more good kids losing their way," he said gruffly. "Because no matter what others say, I know they were good kids." He cleared his throat, composing himself. "You two should get going."

This time, we obliged. Griffin and I started to turn away, but I turned back at the last second.

"Mr. Langston? Please don't blame yourself. You — I know you were an amazing father. You did everything you could."

He gave me the briefest of nods, but it was enough for me to know I said the right thing. I followed Griffin out, swallowing the lump in my throat. Everything Mr. Langston had just said was running through my mind, but one part stuck.

He had been expelled. I pulled out my phone, typed into the search results, waiting for the page to load. Sure enough, an image popped up. A girl with blonde hair, wearing a navy blue blazer with the Wilcrest logo, the same logo that embroidered Darian's school jacket.

"What happened?" Griffin said, seeing me stop walking.

Mr. Ryan didn't know any of Darian's friends, who caused his downward spiral, ending in him getting expelled and possibly ending in his death. But I did. The girl that had hidden her expulsion from everyone else. The girl that would've left her dark past behind, except she wouldn't have ever known that Natasha knew Darian.

She wouldn't have ever known that Natasha would find out why she had been expelled, the secret she had kept from all of us.

Griffin looked at the picture and then back to me with wide eyes. "Luce?"

A/N

Hi guys! This was a long chapter but w/ backstory on Natasha.

I hope you guys are loving the story so far <3

Next chapter is the ski trip so get ready for drama, cuteness, and whoa moments- because you know, what's a story without those elements ;)

I'm so excited for you guys to read the chapters from now on because like Griffin said- secrets can't stay in for so long. And as they unravel, we're going to find out- nothing is as it seems. Stay tuned xo