Baited by Love novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Study Treaty

The next morning I sat in the library at seven with a notebook and a plan, and the plan was not to cry in public.

Every table was full except one.

At that table, behind a wall of chemistry textbooks, sat Lars Ashdown.

I stood beside the empty chair holding my bag in both hands.

"Is anyone sitting here?" I asked.

"No."

"Do you mind if I do?"

"Yes," said Lars.

He turned a page.

"But you're going to anyway, so I'd like terms."

I sat down.

He took an index card from his pocket, uncapped a pen, and wrote for a full minute without looking at me.

Then he turned the card around and pushed it across the table.

It said:

THE STUDY TREATY.

1. No food.

2. No water.

3. No cutting of sandwiches, diagonal or otherwise.

4. No doing of my homework.

5. Three sentences per hour.

I read it twice.

"These are just a list of things I do," I said.

"Yes."

"You wrote me a treaty about my entire personality."

"That's one sentence," said Lars. "You have two left."

I stared at him.

He turned another page, and I could have sworn the corner of his mouth moved.

"Why are you letting me sit here?" I asked. "That's two."

"You were making a noise in the hallway."

"I wasn't."

"It was a small noise. I could hear it from the stairs."

That was not an answer, but I was out of sentences, so I took out my notebook and wrote on a clean page, in large letters: I'M IN TROUBLE.

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