Chapter 9: 12:40

At midnight someone threw a pebble at our window.

Dani was asleep with her mouth open, so I took my coat and went down alone.

Ellis was sitting on the dorm steps under the yellow light with his elbows on his knees.

He stood when he saw me, and then he sat down again.

"You have one minute," I said.

"I need ten."

"Then I hope it's a good ten."

He took out his phone.

His hands weren't steady, so he set it on the step between us and slid it toward me.

"Read it," he said. "All of it. Please."

It was a message thread.

The contact name at the top said, "S."

The first message was from last September.

"Hi! This is Keeley. Ellis, right? I heard you were failing Stats too. I'm a disaster at it. Want to study together?"

His answer was, "I'm not really studying. I'm kind of copying."

Her answer was a laughing face.

"Same! Who do you copy? Marlo Armitage? I've seen her notebook, it's SO pretty. Do you think she'd let me see?"

I scrolled.

The messages kept coming, one by one, down the screen.

Almost every day there was a photograph of a page in my handwriting.

Every photo was sent at 12:40 or a few minutes after.

Under each one, Keeley had written the same thing in a different way.

"You're the best."

"I owe you one."

"Come to my party, I'll make you a drink."

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