The Madness Underneath: Book 2 (THE SHADES OF LONDON) by Maureen Johnson Read Free Book Online Page A

process. And then to have the aforementioned girlfriend scream “Stay back!”…
    The moment, to put it as gently as possible, had passed.
    “I’m sorry,” Jerome said, and he sounded genuinely alarmed , like he’d hurt me. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
    “No!” I said, and I forced a smile. “No. No, no. It’s fine. It’s good! It’s fine.”
    Alistair folded his arms and watched me try to explain this one away. Jerk . Jerome was keeping toward the wall, in a stance I recognized from goalkeeping—knees slightly bent, arms at the sides and ready. I was the crazy ball that might come flying at his head.
    “I…didn’t sleep much last night,” I said. “Not at all, actually.” (A massive lie. I’d slept for thirteen hours straight .) “So, I’m like…you know how you get? When you don’t sleep? I really did not mean to do that. I just heard a noise and…I’m jumpy.”
    “I can see that,” he said.
    “And hungry! It’s almost time for dinner.”
    “I know how you are about dinner.”
    “Damn straight,” I replied. “But…we’re okay?”
    “Of course! I’m sorry if I—”
    “You didn’t.”
    “I don’t want you to think—”
    “I definitely do not think,” I said. And that was the truest thing I’d said in a long time .
    “Dinner then,” he said. “Everyone will be excited to see you.”
    He relaxed a bit and moved away from the wall. Jerome tookmy hand. I mean, it was a grip. A grip of relationship. A statement grip. A grip that said, “I got your back. And also we are, like, a thing.” The incident was over. We would laugh about it, if not now, then by later tonight.
    “You have the whole campus,” Alistair called as we left. “The whole city. Do you really have to keep coming here to do that? Really?”
    The sky was a particularly vibrant shade of purple, almost electric. The spire of the refectory stood out against it, and the stained-glass windows glowed. It had gotten pleasantly crisp out, and there were large quantities of fallen leaves all around. I could hear the clamor of dinner even from outside the building. When we pushed open the heavy wooden door, all the flyers and leaflets on the vestibule bulletin board fluttered. There was another set of doors, internal ones, with diamond-cut panes. Beyond those doors, all of Wexford…or at least…most of Wexford.
    This was it, really. My grand entrance back into Wexford, and it started with the opening of a door, the smell of medium-quality ground beef and floor cleaner. Aside from those things, it really was an impressive place, housed in an old church, made of stone. The setting gave our meals a feeling of importance that my high school cafeteria couldn’t match. Maybe we were eating powdered mashed potatoes and drinking warm juice, but here it seemed like a more important activity. The tables were laid out lengthways, with benches, so I got a side view of dozens of heads as we stepped inside and I made my way past my fellow students.
    And…no one really seemed to notice. I guess I’d been imagining a general turning, a hush in the room, the single clang of a fork being dropped onto the stone floor.
    Nope. Jerome and I just walked in and proceeded to the back of the room, where the trays were. The actual food line was in a small separate room. I got my first welcome from the dinner ladies, specifically Helen, who handled the hot mains.
    “Rory!” she said. “You’re back! How are you?”
    “Good,” I said. “Fine. I’m…fine.”
    “Oh, it’s good to see you, love.”
    She was joined in a little cheer by the other dinner ladies. When we emerged, heads turned in our direction. I didn’t exactly get a round of applause, but there was a mumbled interest.
    “Rory!”
    That was Gaenor, from my hall. She was half standing, waving me over. She and Eloise made a space for me that I didn’t quite fit into, but I pressed butt to bench as best I could and turned my tray. Jerome sat on the other side, a few seats