Page 5 of Until He Confesses

“Ooh, you’re a copycat I see,” he said.

She laughed.

“Too bad Dan’s not here anymore. He would have been glad to see that he cultivated a protege.”

“Cultivated a protege?” Anna asked dryly.

I smiled but my attention was truly on the boy that had his head lowered and was for all intents and purposes ignoring our existence.

I was instantly turned off by how pompous he seemed but was unable to completely fault him for it, after all, he had helped me when I needed it and without a single ounce of fanfare. Perhaps it was just the way that he was, to do and say the needed and be on his way.

Brett soon noticed my attention and then tapped on his shoulder.

“Here’s our lifeguard,” he said. “Lifeguard, meet Anna and Callie.”

He gave us both a glance, but I couldn’t help but imagine or perhaps hope that his gaze lingered just a fraction of a second longer on me.

“We already met,” Anna said.

As for me, I couldn’t put together a single coherent thought or think of a word to say so I kept my mouth shut.

“You’ve met?” Brett seemed surprised. “Inside?”

“Yeah, he helped us out.” Anna said.

“Anna,” I hit my shoulder with mine.

She frowned at me before I cleared my throat.

“Yeah,” I squeaked out.

Brett laughed and looked out across the pool.

“Too bad no one’s drowning. Lucas, is there a way I can get my money back from you?”

Lucas gave him a dark look. I was amused but when the flush heated my cheeks, I quickly looked away to save face.

Something suddenly shattered behind me.

Startled I turned to see that a commotion had begun. All of a sudden, swarms of students were hurrying out of the house and towards us.

“Side gate! Side gate!” they yelled.

“Uh oh! Time to go.” Brett jumped to his feet excitedly.

I grabbed Anna’s hand.

“What?” I was confused and scared. “What’s happening?”

“Their parents are probably back or something. Who knows. Be careful though so you don’t get caught in a stampede. Wait things out.”

Both boys rose to their feet, and we tried our best to go along with them.

“We haven’t found Sandra,” Anna complained. “How the hell are we going to get home?”

“Let’s make it out first and ask that question later,” I said.

“Isn’t this someone else’s house though?”