Chapter 28
I sit alone in the cafeteria, poking at the fish sticks on my plate. The police haven’t called me in yet. So far they’ve spoken to Kristoffer, Hanna, Isabelle, and Sebastian. I tense up every time Officer Berggren appears in the doorway, but he just keeps calling other people’s names.
Hanna pranced back into the classroom like a conquering queen, then started sobbing as soon as she sat down. I thought she was being melodramatic, but Mrs. Lindgren rushed over with tissues and everyone flocked to comfort her.
I just sat stubbornly staring at my desk.
They called Rasmus in just before we broke for lunch. I haven’t seen him since.
“Why don’t you just admit it?” says a voice far too close to my ear.
I jump and look up.
Isabelle is standing right in front of me. She’s carrying a plate, and for a moment I imagine she’s going to throw it in my face. Hanna stands behind her. The chatter in the cafeteria fades. Isabelle isn’t talking especially loud, but it doesn’t matter; everyone can tell something is going on.
“We know it was you. What did you do with him?” Isabelle is wearing bright-red lip gloss. It doesn’t suit her.
Where are all the teachers?
“I haven’t done anything,” I say, but my voice is so weak it barely carries.
Isabelle scoffs. “You really think anyone is going to believe that? The police know it was you. Don’t you get it? They’re going to arrest you, and I hope they put you in jail. Then I wouldn’t have to see you every day.”
Her eyes are weirdly shiny. She clings tightly to her plate of rice and fish sticks, soaked in a quivering, gelatinous sauce.
“I didn’t do anything,” I say, a little louder this time. “I don’t know what’s happened to Axel.”
“Stop lying!” Hanna snaps, and steps forward to stand next to Isabelle. Her face is bright red; her eyes are wide and swollen from crying.
“Everybody knows it was you,” shouts Isabelle. “You’re such a freak. Everybody knows that you did it! Everybody knows you killed him!”
Don’t say that, I think, panicking. Axel’s little brothers are sitting right there. Don’t say that he’s dead within earshot of them. Please.
“If the police hadn’t gotten there in time, you would have killed Rasmus too,” Isabelle blurts out. “Everyone knows you were trying to kill him when you were found.”
The entire cafeteria gasps. Except me, who can’t breathe.
I was trying to save Rasmus, I want to protest. I had to tackle him to break the spell.
“Why did you do it?” says Hanna with an ugly, twisted smile. “You were in love with him, weren’t you? Don’t you understand that he would never be with someone like you?”
I try to object but nothing comes out.
“I didn’t kill anyone,” I finally whisper. “Axel might not even be . . . He might just be missing—”
They interrupt me before I can say anything else.
“Do you think we’re stupid? That we don’t know what’s going on?” hisses Isabelle.
“Please stop,” I say, and get up to leave.
Everyone is staring at me with cold eyes. There’s no escape.
“Admit it,” Isabelle says again. “We know it was you. We told the police.”
“You don’t know anything.” I have a lump in my throat, but I refuse to let them see how terrified I am.
“No one believes you,” says Hanna. “You’ve always been such a weirdo.”
She has a speck of saliva in one corner of her mouth. It glints in the fluorescent overhead lighting.
“You know what?” Isabelle says, taking another step forward so that she’s standing only a few feet away. “You’re a freak of nature.”
She pushes her plate into my chest so hard that sauce spills on my shirt.
“Hey, cut it out!” someone says.
The voice sounds strange. I don’t recognize it at first.
It’s Rasmus. He’s standing in the doorway.
Hanna and Isabelle stare at him.
“She said she hasn’t done anything. Leave her alone.”
Hanna clenches her fists. “What are you doing?” she says to Rasmus.
“Tuva hasn’t done anything. I was there, remember? She hasn’t done anything. So stop it.”
“Have you completely lost your mind?” Isabelle asks. “She tried to kill you too.”
She looks even angrier than Hanna. Isabelle is still standing way too close, holding her plate between us. Then she turns to Rasmus.
“Are you defending her?”
“She asked you to stop. And now I’m saying the same thing. Could you both, for once in your lives, just shut up?”
Isabelle goes pale.
I quickly pick up my plate, desperate to get out of here. I rush out of the cafeteria, and Rasmus follows.
The bell rings just as we step outside onto the stairs.
I’m still trembling violently as I take a deep, shuddering breath of the crisp, clean fall air.
“They’re probably pretty mad at you now,” I say, and grab the handrail so he won’t notice how much I’m shaking.
Rasmus shrugs. “Then let them be mad.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
He doesn’t say anything, just squints in the sunlight. I look at him from the corner of my eye. Maybe it’s his calmness that gives me the courage, because I do something I’ve never done before.
I stand on my toes and give him a hug.
For the first time, I’m not worried that he’s ashamed to be seen with me.