Chapter 5

"I'm fine..."

Amber forced a weak smile, but cold sweat was already beads on her forehead.

"Maybe... maybe it's just the iced soda I drank earlier. My stomach is just acting up. I'll be fine after using the restroom."

Clutching her stomach, she hurried out of the dining room.

"Hurry back!" Tyler called out anxiously.

Once she left, he turned his glare back to me, his frustration peaking.

"Chloe, are you happy now? You literally stressed Amber out so much she has a stomachache!"

"If she messes up her exam this afternoon, I swear I will make you pay!"

I was so amused I almost laughed out loud.

Stressed into a stomachache? Or did she just eat rotten meat?

"What are you looking at? Apologize!"

With Amber gone, Hunter got even more aggressive, reaching out to shove my shoulder.

I took a step back.

"If I were you, I wouldn't touch me," I said calmly. "And I'd stop eating that garbage on the table. In fact, you should all go to the ER to get your stomachs pumped right now. Maybe then you'll make it to your exams tomorrow."

Hunter froze, and then burst into hysterical laughter as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Did you guys hear her? She wants us to get our stomachs pumped! Chloe, did studying dry your brain out? Do you think you're some kind of psychic doctor?"

"She literally wants us to fail! She's so toxic!"

"Exactly! She didn't eat, so now she's cursing us!"

They mocked me as they picked up the remaining meat and stuffed it into their mouths.

"So delicious! Too bad some people don't have the taste buds for it!"

"Right? How could something this good be bad? What a joke."

Tyler looked at me with pure disgust in his eyes.

"Chloe, I never realized how vile you could be. Just because I defended Amber, you're resorting to this pathetic way to curse us?"

He shoved me into the corner, his arms pinning me against the wall.

"I'm saying this for the last time. Get on your knees and apologize to Amber. Otherwise, this isn't over." He whispered threateningly.

I looked up at his face, so close to mine. This was the boy I had loved for three years, the one who had brought me nothing but agony across two lifetimes.

I spoke, my voice chillingly calm.

"Tyler, aren't you even a little curious? Why didn't I take a single bite, yet I knew something was wrong with it?"

He blinked, taken aback.

"Because my family does this for a living," I said, holding his gaze. "I know meat better than any of you. That is not turkey. It's spoiled duck meat masked with industrial chemical dye. If you eat it, you'll end up with severe food poisoning. At best, you'll be vomiting blood. At worst..."

"Shut up! Amber literally said she bought it from a popular street vendor!"

"So?" I countered. "Just because she said it, it's true? You'd rather believe a pathological liar than me?"

"Shut your mouth! Don't you dare talk about Amber like that!"

"Then why isn't your precious Amber back yet?" I asked.

I glanced at my watch.

There was only one hour left before the afternoon SAT session.

The incubation period for that bacteria was about thirty minutes to an hour. It was about time.

Tyler froze.

Suddenly, the door to the dining room was kicked open.

A guy ran in, clutching his mouth. Before he could even reach the trash can, he threw up violently all over the floor.

Immediately after, classmate after classmate turned ghostly pale, clutching their stomachs.

Like rockets launching, they scrambled and fought to get out the door to the bathrooms.

"My stomach... oh god, it feels like I'm being stabbed!"

"Me too... I can't... I think I'm gonna throw up!"