Page 126

Halfway through the first act, I got another text that wasn’t obscene.

Hey.

Hey.

Is it really you?

I texted back, instantaneously. My heart thudded in my chest again.

It’s me.

What happened?

Just as I was regretting all my life choices and the cop was ten feet away, he got a call on his shoulder-radio. He told me to stay there, and then drove off.

Did you stay?

Hell no. I went home as fast as I could and cleaned up.

Everything.

I wondered how he’d done that—if he’d flushed it all, or taken it outside to quickly burn while praying he was downwind from everyone. I could hardly ask him via text though, not when he had a target on his back.

Good.

How did you….

Watch the news?

No.

I tried to figure out what I could safely claim.

I created a distraction.

Three fast texts, in quick succession:

You

Are

Awesome.

I flushed with satisfaction. My sister laughed at some antic on the screen and I faked a laugh too for her sake, then tried to ignore the heated way my mother was watching me.

But…

he texted, with a long line of periods after it, and it felt like the world was falling away from me again, despite the fact that I was laying on the floor, and the next series of texts he sent didn’t make it any better.

That was close.

I mean they set a trap for me, Jessie. They endangered my livelihood. There’s no way I can do that anymore. Ever again. When Mason said what he said at prom, I didn’t think it’d come to this so quickly.

It was all I could do not to bitterly laugh. I texted:

Welcome to my world,

Heh.