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So I’d stay awake.

Just in case.

It wasn’t like I’d be able to sleep anyway, with all the adrenaline rushing through my veins.

6

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?– Oasis

‘Well, you look like shit.’

‘Thanks, Brooke.’ I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. I’d seen the red lights blink 5:00 a.m., but nothing after that. I must have fallen asleep after all. It was a little past eight now, and I’d sort of heard Brooke get up and brush her teeth before she came back into the room and opened the curtains.

‘No, seriously. Do you want to go back to sleep?’

I shook my head and rubbed my fingertips into my eyelids, trying to dislodge the dry, gritty feeling. ‘I’ll be fine.’

She went over to the little fridge and got the leftovers out. ‘Pizza for breakfast?’

That made me smile. ‘Sure.’

‘I thought that might cheer you up.’

Brooke sat down on the end of my bed and opened the box between us. I was suddenly starving. She clicked on the TV, giving us some background noise, and I decided thennot to tell her about Chris and the blonde lady. Brooke had made me work so damn hard last night to get Chris off our backs, and even after all that, he’d shown up in the middle of the night.

Brooke didn’t need to know.

I wanted to move on, to keep moving, and I would just put last night behind me and forget about it, like all the other stuff that I was trying really hard to forget.

‘Do you want to go into the city today?’ Brooke asked.

I swallowed my bite of pizza. ‘Do you?’

She rolled her eyes at me. ‘I’m asking you.’

‘I don’t mind. Sure.’

‘You say that a lot.’

‘What?’

‘I don’t mind.Andsure. Andokay.’

‘That’s because I don’t mind.’ I was happy to let Brooke take the lead.

She licked a spot of sauce off her thumb. ‘Okay. I want to go into the city today. All the driving is giving me a headache and I want to have a day of walking around and not concentrating.’

‘That sounds really good. Listen, I was thinking last night –’ I’d done a lot of thinking last night – ‘do you think we stand out because we don’t have phones? Like, everyone our age has a phone.’

‘Huh.’ Brooke tossed her pizza crust back in the box and reached for another slice. ‘I hadn’t thought about it.’

‘No, me neither, but last night Chris was checking his phone all the time. If we’re going into the city, we couldmaybe look for one of those second-hand electronics stores, see if we can pick up a couple.’

Brooke nodded. ‘That would make it easier to plan a route.’

‘Exactly,’ I said, relieved.

I had ulterior motives. I’d never cared about having the latest shiny new phone, but everything that had happened last night had highlighted how vulnerable we were. Even though the last thing I wanted to do was call the cops, if we ever got into a bad situation and needed help, we would be stuck. Or if we broke down. Or got lost. Or whatever.