Page 65 of Electricity
I wound up being glad Allie was there. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Danny, on the pitcher’s mound smug, Danny in Colton’s bedroom, Danny rising up behind us, bat in hand.
What’d started off as Allie holding me switched to me clinging to her—and I wished I was sick, because any time I tried to figure out how school was going to go all I saw was dark, like the funnel of an oncoming twister.
So it was only right when my alarm went off that morning, I felt as rusty as a tin man.
I debated showering even—did I want to look good today?
Like I was pleased with notoriety? Or did I want to look haggard, like I’d been through a lot?
I stared at myself in the mirror as I brushed my teeth, and finally realized it didn’t matter, people were going to believe what they wanted to, either way.
In some ways there was still no winning, even now.
I got into Lacey’s car and could instantly tell that she felt how I did. Neither of us knew what lay ahead, and what’d felt like a win last night was cold comfort this morning.
“You ready?” I asked.
“For what?” she asked back.
“I literally have no idea.”
“Me either. But it’s going to be all right.”
“Yeah, it is,” I lied.
We parked at the back of Redson’s lot and walked in side-by-side.
News of our arrival traveled fast. Conversations near us quieted as people who hadn’t seen us were elbowed into silence by those who had.
I hadn’t logged onto ZB last night, I didn’t want to know what people were saying, but maybe that’d been foolish, maybe it’d have been safer to know what we were walking into.
Together, we walked for our lockers, where the word SLUTS had been written on both of them, for all the world to see.
Did they miss the part where Danny was a serial rapist? We’d all said as much last night, and the police had appeared to agree. The problem was that we were just girls, and to a lot of people—even some other girls—girls didn’t count.
And I realized at that moment our true job in life was to make sure we mattered.
“Only three weeks left, right?” Lacey said, ignoring the word, opening her locker to switch out books like normal.
“Yep!” I said with forced cheer.
“Hey, don’t sound so happy about that,” Darius complained, walking up. “At least I can see you here—once school’s out, your mom’s gonna lock you in a cave.”
I beamed at him. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he said back, with a smile equal to my own. “I don’t suppose you want to make out fiercely in the hall until an authority figure stops us?”
I stepped back so he could see my locker and gestured at the graffiti. “I think I have to. I mean, it’s almost like a command.”
He laughed and came in and I stepped back and it didn’t matter that everyone in the hall was looking at us. His lips met mine and my head turned so that we fit better and the electricity between us this time was something we shared that didn’t need any powers.
“Get a room!” someone shouted from nearby. I turned to see Sarah. “Oh my God—Ryan and I were never that bad?—”
“Don’t count on it,” Lacey said darkly, then smirked knowingly at me.
“Whatever, ladies—I came to help,” she said, shoving us both aside so that she could swipe at the lipstick covering our lockers with a fistful of towels.
“I think they’re just gonna have to repaint,” I said, watching her smear red.
“Do—do you want any help?” an unfamiliar voice asked. I looked over and saw Amy—looking not at Darius, but at me, and then Lacey.
Other kids in the hall were watching her—and us—and while some of them were still waiting to mock us, and some of them only here for the show, a few others went out of their way to hold my gaze.
I’d seen them, they’d seen me, and we all knew .
“Yeah,” Lacey said, giving Amy a tentative smile. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Amy said, and Sarah made room at our lockers for her to scrub too.
Thank you for reading Electricity . I hope you enjoyed my foray into YA, and if you did, please continue for a preview of another YA thriller called Photobomb .