Chapter 3: Kassie Jane Sees Too Much
The bell for fifth period had rung seven minutes ago, but none of them moved.
The classroom was a ghost town—just the three of them, the flickering fluorescent light above the whiteboard, and the distant echo of a lecture happening two doors down. Hervi sat at her desk near the window, her broadcasting notes still clutched in her fingers, the pages crumpled from how hard she'd been gripping them since lunch.
Kassie Jane occupied the seat directly to Trav's right. Her posture was too straight, her hands folded too neatly on the desktop, like she was posing for a yearbook photo she didn't want to be in. Every few seconds, her eyes darted toward Hervi, then away.
Trav sat between them like a fence post. Silent. Still. His gaze fixed on the empty teacher's desk at the front of the room.
The air tasted like chalk dust and something else—something electric and unspoken.
"So," Kassie said, her voice cutting through the quiet like a knife through warm butter. "Are we going to talk about it?"
Hervi's head snapped up. "Talk about what?"
"You know what."
"I genuinely don't."
Kassie turned in her chair, the metal legs screeching against the linoleum. Her shyness—the thing that usually made her stumble over her words in class presentations, the thing that kept her quiet during group projects—had evaporated. In its place was something sharper. Hungrier.
"I saw you," Kassie said. "After your performance. Coming out of the boys' CR."
Hervi's stomach dropped.
"With him." Kassie jerked her thumb toward Trav, who hadn't moved, hadn't blinked, hadn't given any indication he was even breathing.
The silence stretched like taffy. Hervi's mind raced through a dozen explanations, each one flimsier than the last. She'd been fixing her makeup. She'd gotten lost. She'd been looking for a water fountain.
None of them would work.
"So what?" Hervi said, her voice harder than she intended. "I was there. He was there. It's not a crime."
"It's not," Kassie agreed. She leaned forward, her elbows on her desk, her chin resting on her laced fingers. "But you were in there for eighteen minutes. I counted."
Eighteen minutes. Had it really been that long?
The memory hit Hervi like a wave—the cold tile against her back, Trav's hands on her hips, the way he'd looked at her with those quiet, unreadable eyes. The way she'd told him to keep it a secret. The way he'd nodded.
She'd thought that was the end of it. A transaction. A mistake she could bury.
But secrets, she was learning, had a way of growing teeth.
"What do you want?" Hervi asked. "Money? You going to blackmail me?"
Kassie laughed—a short, bright sound that didn't match the tension in the room. "God, no. I'm not a villain. I'm just..." She paused, searching for the word. "Curious."
"Curious about what?"
"About what makes a girl like you go into a boys' comfort room with a guy like him."
Hervi's jaw tightened. "A girl like me?"
"You know what I mean."
She didn't. Or maybe she did, and she just didn't want to admit it. Hervi had always been the loud one, the bold one, the one who volunteered for everything and never backed down from a challenge. The idea that she might have secrets—real ones, dark ones—was apparently too interesting for Kassie to ignore.
"It's none of your business," Hervi said.
"Maybe not." Kassie shrugged, but her eyes never left Hervi's face. "But I'm making it my business."
"Why?"
"Because I'm bored."
The honesty of it caught Hervi off guard. She opened her mouth to respond, but the words died in her throat when the classroom door creaked open.
Trav walked in.
He'd been outside the whole time—probably in the hallway, probably listening. Of course he had. That was his thing, wasn't it? Watching. Waiting. Letting other people talk themselves into corners while he stood there, silent as stone.
He crossed the room in four long strides and stopped at his desk. He didn't sit. He just stood there, looking down at Kassie with an expression that was impossible to read.
"You want to know what happened," he said.
It wasn't a question.
Kassie nodded, her bravado flickering for just a second. "Yeah. I do."
"Then stop asking her." Trav tilted his head toward Hervi. "She's not going to tell you."
"And you will?"
"Maybe."
The word hung in the air like smoke. Hervi's heart hammered against her ribs. What was he doing? What was he playing at?
Kassie stood up. Slowly. Deliberately. She was taller than Hervi by a few inches, but standing next to Trav, she looked small. Delicate. The kind of girl who got cast as the ingenue in every school play.
But there was nothing delicate about the way she looked at him now.
"Prove it," she said.
Trav raised an eyebrow. "Prove what?"
"That you can keep a secret." Kassie took a step closer. Then another. "That whatever happened between you two stays between you two."
"It already is."
"Is it?" Kassie's hand moved before Hervi could process what was happening. Her fingers found the waistband of Trav's jeans, hooked into the belt loops, and pulled him closer. "Because I've been watching you too. Both of you. And I think there's more to this story than either of you are saying."
Hervi's throat constricted. "Kassie—"
"I'm not going to tell anyone." Kassie's voice dropped, softer now, almost gentle. "I just want to be part of it."
The words didn't make sense. None of this made sense. Hervi had spent the last three hours convincing herself that the bathroom incident was a one-time thing, a lapse in judgment, something she could forget. And now Kassie—shy, quiet, yappy-when-you-get-to-know-her Kassie—was standing in front of Trav with her hands on his belt, looking at him like he was the answer to a question she hadn't known she was asking.
"Kassie," Hervi said again, sharper this time. "What are you doing?"
But Kassie didn't answer. She was already sinking to her knees.
The linoleum was cold—Hervi knew that from experience—but Kassie didn't flinch. She just looked up at Trav, her big eyes dark and unreadable, and pulled at his belt.
"Let me prove it," she said. "Let me show you I can keep a secret."
Trav didn't move. Didn't speak. His gaze flicked to Hervi, just for a second, and something passed between them—a question, maybe, or a warning.
Hervi should have stopped it. She should have grabbed Kassie by the arm and dragged her out of the room, told her to forget everything she'd seen, threatened her if necessary. That was what a normal person would do. That was what someone with self-preservation would do.
But Hervi wasn't normal. She was bold and impulsive and dangerously spontaneous, and some part of her—some dark, curious part—wanted to see what would happen next.
She stayed frozen in her seat, her broadcasting notes forgotten on the desk, and watched.
Kassie's fingers worked the belt loose with practiced ease. The buckle clinked, metal against metal, and then the zipper was down and she was reaching inside, her small hand disappearing into the dark fabric of Trav's jeans.
Trav inhaled—a slow, controlled breath—but otherwise didn't react. His hands stayed at his sides. His eyes stayed on Hervi.
"This is what you wanted, isn't it?" Kassie murmured, more to herself than to anyone else. "Someone who knows. Someone who won't judge."
She pulled him free.
Hervi had seen it before—eighteen minutes of it, to be exact—but seeing it again, in the harsh fluorescent light of the classroom, with Kassie's hand wrapped around the base, was something else entirely. It was bigger than she remembered. Thicker. The kind of thing that shouldn't fit anywhere but somehow did.
Kassie didn't seem intimidated. If anything, she looked fascinated. Her thumb traced a slow circle around the tip, spreading a bead of moisture that had already gathered there.
"I've never done this before," she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. "But I've thought about it. A lot."
Trav's jaw tightened. "You don't have to—"
"I want to."
And then she leaned forward and took him in her mouth.
Hervi's breath caught in her throat.
It was different, watching someone else do it. When she'd been the one on her knees, everything had been a blur of sensation and panic and the desperate need to keep her secret buried. But now, from the outside, she could see the details—the way Kassie's lips stretched around him, the way her cheeks hollowed with each pull, the way Trav's fingers curled into fists at his sides.
He was holding back. She could see it in the tension of his shoulders, the rigid line of his spine. He was letting Kassie set the pace, letting her explore, letting her think she was in control.
But Hervi knew better. She'd been there. She knew what it felt like to have Trav's full attention, to feel the weight of his gaze pressing down on her like a physical thing. He was patient—God, he was patient—but there was a current running beneath that stillness. Something deep and dangerous.
Kassie pulled back, gasping, a string of saliva connecting her lips to his cock. "Am I doing it right?"
Trav didn't answer. He just reached down and tangled his fingers in her hair—gently, almost tenderly—and guided her back.
Kassie moaned. Actually moaned. The sound was muffled but unmistakable, and it sent a jolt of something hot and uncomfortable straight through Hervi's chest.
She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be watching this. But she couldn't look away.
The rhythm changed. Kassie found her pace, her head bobbing in a steady motion, her hand working in tandem with her mouth. The wet sounds filled the empty classroom, obscene and undeniable.
Trav's breathing grew heavier. His hips twitched, just slightly, and Kassie took him deeper in response, her throat working to accommodate him.
"That's it," Trav murmured—the first words he'd spoken since this started. "Just like that."
Hervi's fingers dug into the edge of her desk. She remembered those words. She remembered the way they'd made her feel—seen, wanted, like she was doing something right in a world that constantly told her she was doing everything wrong.
Kassie was feeling it too. Hervi could see it in the flush spreading across her cheeks, the way her free hand had slipped beneath her skirt, the soft, desperate sounds escaping her throat.
She was getting off on this. On the power. On the secret.
And Trav—Trav was just standing there, taking it, his eyes half-closed and his mouth slightly open. He looked almost peaceful. Almost serene.
Like he'd done this a hundred times before.
Like he knew exactly how it would end.
Hervi's stomach twisted. Something was wrong. Something she couldn't quite name.
And then Kassie pulled back, gasping for air, her lips swollen and shiny. "I want—" She swallowed hard. "I want you to come. In my mouth. I want to swallow it."
Trav looked at her for a long moment. Then he looked at Hervi.
There it was again—that unreadable expression, that silent question.
Hervi nodded. She didn't know why. She didn't know what she was agreeing to.
But she nodded.
Trav's hand tightened in Kassie's hair. His hips moved—sharp, deliberate thrusts that made Kassie's eyes water and her throat work overtime. She didn't pull away. She took it. All of it.
The sounds were wet and messy and unmistakable. The desk creaked beneath Hervi's grip. The fluorescent light above them flickered once, twice.
And then Trav came.
His body went rigid. His head fell back. A low, guttural sound escaped his throat—the kind of sound that didn't belong in a classroom, the kind of sound that made Hervi's thighs clench together involuntarily.
Kassie swallowed. Once. Twice. Three times.
When she finally pulled back, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she was smiling. Actually smiling.
"See?" she said, her voice hoarse but triumphant. "I can keep a secret."
Trav zipped up his jeans without a word. He didn't look at Kassie. He didn't look at Hervi.
He just walked to the door, pulled it open, and stepped into the hallway.
The door clicked shut behind him.
Kassie stayed on her knees, her chest heaving, her smile slowly fading into something more uncertain. "Did I... was that okay?"
Hervi didn't answer. She was too busy replaying the last five minutes in her head, trying to figure out what had just happened.
Kassie had wanted in. She'd gotten in.
But the secret—the real secret—was still buried somewhere deep, and Hervi had the sinking feeling that it wouldn't stay buried for long.
She stood up, her legs shaky, and walked toward the door.
"Where are you going?" Kassie called after her.
"To find Trav."
"Why?"
Hervi paused with her hand on the doorknob. "Because I need to know what he's thinking."
She didn't wait for a response. She just pushed the door open and stepped into the hallway, leaving Kassie alone on the cold linoleum floor.
The corridor was empty. The lecture two doors down had ended, and students were starting to filter out, their voices a low hum in the distance.
But Trav was gone.
And Hervi had the distinct feeling that he'd taken something with him—something important, something she couldn't name.
Something that had been growing inside her since that first moment in the boys' comfort room.
She just didn't know what it was yet.