Room Service by Maren Stoffels

Author:Maren Stoffels [Stoffels, Maren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2021-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

All my anger flows into this one moment. Claus doesn’t even get a chance to say anything because I grab his jacket and pull him out into the hallway.

He falls onto his knees and starts shouting, but his words don’t get through to me. Even what Linnea says completely passes me by.

How did he dare go see her when I was there with her?

How did he dare destroy Kate again? He has no idea what kind of hell we’ve been through this past year.

I raise my fist and look into his eyes.

“Admit it,” I say with a voice that sounds like it doesn’t belong to me. “Admit that she didn’t want you anymore!”

“Fender!” Linnea is hanging on my arm. “Fender, it’s not him.”

“Admit it, you filthy, disgusting—”

“Fender, listen. This isn’t Claus!”

Slowly, Linnea’s words get through to me. It’s like I was looking through the wrong lenses, as the man suddenly comes into focus. He’s way too old to be Claus. He has to be in his thirties. Besides, he’s not wearing glasses, and his hair is brown, not black.

Shocked, I let go of him.

“Are you out of your mind?” The man scrambles to his feet and shoves me hard into the doorpost. “What’s the deal?”

“Sorry.” Linnea quickly steps forward. “It was a misunderstanding.”

“Say what?” The man furiously straightens his jacket. One of the buttons is missing. I can see it on the floor by my feet.

“First I find broken glass all over my room. Then I see that someone’s been at my minibar. And now this!”

“Broken glass?” echoes Linnea, looking past the man and into the room.

“Yes, glass.” The man’s eyes are ablaze. “And what are you looking at?”

“Is this…your room?”

“Yes, of course this is my room! Are you two leaving now? I’m calling Security.”

Linnea grabs me by the arm and pulls me down the hallway. We keep running until we get back to the stairs—and then she stops.

“Why didn’t you listen?” she fires at me.

Nervously, I crack my fingers. I just attacked someone for the third time today. And it was the wrong person. I’m a ticking time bomb, and I keep going off.

“What am I supposed to do if you send me to the wrong room?” I say.

“That was the right room! I was just in there with Claus.”

I shake my head. “Then how come that man…”

“Didn’t you hear what he said? About finding a broken glass? And about someone using his minibar?”

“So?”

“Claus offered me a drink and tried to insist that I drink it before I left. When I didn’t, he must have gotten so mad that he smashed it.”

“Why would he get that mad at you for turning down a drink?”

As I say the words, it dawns on me. A wave of nausea washes over me, and I desperately try to swallow it away.

Would he really go so far as to put something in Linnea’s drink?

What if Linnea had actually drunk it? None of us knew she was in his room.

Where is he now? That wasn’t his room, so he could be anywhere.

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