The Perfect Murder She Planned

3: 3

I froze.

Before I could get a word out, Olivia went on. "This afternoon you swore up and down you'd never speak to him again. By tonight you'd already made up."

"Bella, you and Clive really are close. For his sake you'd throw your own life away."

However I turned it over, the words felt wrong.

I couldn't help asking, "What's that supposed to mean?"

At the same time I lowered my head and started texting Clive.

Olivia saw what I was doing and let out a small scoff.

Her voice was flat. "Nothing, really. I shouldn't have dragged you back just now. Go on, go find your precious Clive."

"If I had to guess, you suddenly wanted to run out because he told you to, right?"

I nodded.

Olivia's expression turned even more mocking.

"I knew it. You going crazy in the middle of the night was never going to be anything good."

Clive still hadn't answered my message, so I held my patience and asked, "What is actually going on?"

"Clive told me you were dead. He even showed me a video of you jumping off a building."

"And you say Clive wants to kill me. Which one of you is telling the truth?"

Olivia thrust out her arm, unimpressed.

"Touch it and you'll know."

"Who's dead? I'm right here, alive and well. Feel how warm I am!"

At that I reached out and touched her, then gave her arm a couple of squeezes.

The warmth of her skin came through, and something in me settled a little.

Olivia really was a living person.

Which meant the one lying was Clive.

"Why would he lie to me?"

Olivia drank a glass of water and sat down on the couch. "Do you really not remember any of it?"

"This afternoon on the hike, the two of you argued about college. A huge fight."

"You said some awful things. Clive got angry and almost pushed you off the mountain."

"If I hadn't stopped him, you might not even be standing here now."

The whole time she talked, I kept watching her body.

When I saw that the water really had gone down into her stomach and hadn't leaked out anywhere, the weight in my chest finally lifted.

But another question surfaced.

"What? Clive pushed me off the mountain?"

"Why don't I have the slightest memory of it?"

Olivia said nothing. She just pulled out her phone and showed me a video.

It was the three of us coming down the mountain.

In the video, Clive asked me, "Bella, do you really want the Ivy League?"

"Yes, I do." The words came right out of me.

His face darkened.

"Where did this sudden urge to apply to the Ivy League come from? Didn't we agree to go to the same school? Bella, drop out and take the year over."

I thought about Northwood University, the school Clive had applied to.

It was a well-known school too, but it was two whole tiers below the Ivy League.

This year's SATs were hard, and the average cutoff scores had come out a few points lower than usual.

My score was just within reach if I stretched for it.

So I'd been bold and put the Ivy League down as my first choice. If I didn't get in, my second choice would catch me.

And if I did get in, I couldn't lose.

Working all that out had taken only a few minutes. I'd rushed to redo my applications before the system closed, checked them again, and submitted.

After that came the nervous waiting.

I hadn't expected the results today, that I'd scraped in and gotten into the Ivy League.

I was in the wrong on this, but it still made me angry that Clive wanted me to retake the year, and it came through in my tone.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you ahead of time."

"The Ivy League really is my dream. I thought that even though you were upset we didn't get into the same school, you'd still be happy for me. I never imagined you'd want me to redo the whole year..."

Clive's face fell.

"You're going back on your word!"

"Bella, everything we've been to each other since we were kids, and it can't measure up to some Ivy League school?"

"I don't care. You're dropping out, end of story!"

A furious little laugh escaped me.

I turned my head away then and there, done wasting words on him.

I hadn't expected that to set him off.

He stared at my back, his eyes dark.

And then his hand shot out toward me.