Page 53

Declan
I’m notsure why I offered to apologize to Henley. All I know for sure is that I didn’t like the way Tess was looking at me last night. Like I disappointed her.
In that moment, I was willing to do and say anything to make it stop. Not that surprising. I’m not above making promises I have no intention of keeping if it means getting what I want. That should’ve ended the second she pushed me away. As soon as she told me to leave. I should’ve dropped it and every thought of her, swimming around in my head.
I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
Instead I walked home and slipped in through the back door. Ever since Henley broke up with him, Con’s been one of two places. Hanging out with Tess or holed up in his room. He’s pretty much shut down.
Stopped talking to Mom.
Avoids Dad.
He won’t even look at me.
I stop at the top of the stair. His door is shut but the light is on. I can see the glow of it leaking under the crack of his door. A week ago, I would’ve walked into his room without knocking. Flopped down on his bed because I know how much having his space invaded bothers him. I’d run my mouth. Said a bunch of stupid shit that I didn’t even mean, just to get him riled.
Four days.
That’ how long it took Tess to fuck me up.
Turn me into someone I don’t even recognize.
I leave Conner alone and go to bed.
Ryan madethe off-handed comment last night that his sister has been pretending to go to school because she didn’t want to tell her mom that she got suspended for fighting. He acts like he has no idea where’d she go but it seemed pretty obvious to me. I mean, I barely know the girl and I know where she’d go to hide.
I used the side entrance. Kept my Sox cap on, tugged low over my face. Took the stairs. Didn’t touch the railing. Use my hip and shoulder to operate the push bar on the door. It started out as a game—how little of myself can I leave behind—and turned into a habit.
The habit has turned into a profitable work skill.
I didn’t even look for her on the first floor. Henley is hiding. She’ll be somewhere quiet. Secluded. Somewhere she can camp out for twelve hours without drawing any attention.
I find her tucked into a third-floor reading nook, curled up in a chair. Nose stuck in a book. More piled up in a neat stack on the floor. When I sit down in the chair next to her, she doesn’t look up. Even though I’m roughly the size of a Volkswagen, I can go unnoticed if I want to but Henley knows I’m here.
Ten minutes go by and it’s like I’m invisible. Finally, I can’t stand it anymore. “I’m not going to leave, Hen,” I tell her, making a show of stretching my legs out in front of me. “Not until you let me say what I came here to say.”
She flips the page on her book and keeps reading.
“I lied.”
She flips the page on her book and keeps reading.
“To you. About Con and Jessica.”
She flips the page on her book and keeps reading.
“I told you he wanted to hook-up with her at Caleb Emerson’s party, last Friday night.”
She flips the page on her book and keeps reading.
“The truth is, he can’t stand her.”
She sticks her finger in her book to mark her place and looks up at me.
“I’m sorry.”