Page 50

‘There you are!’

A blue Range Rover was parked outside the Masons’ house, too close to Jet’s truck, blocking it in.

Sophia slammed the door, marching toward Jet and Billy, meeting them halfway across the drive.

‘I was looking for you!’ Her cheeks were flushed, eyes swimming.

‘Lucky me,’ Jet muttered, not stopping. ‘Listen, Sophia, I’d love to stick around and chat, but I need to find my mom and –’

‘– You told Luke!’ she growled, spit foaming at the corner of her mouth. ‘I asked you not to tell him, and you did! About the pills. Why would you do that, Jet?!’

Jet’s head throbbed, the broken sides crashing together, a spark of rage where they met. Sophia doubled and doubled again, the world splitting apart, time too, all the way back seventeen years. Hot day, cold trophy in her hand.

‘You’re right, it’s my fault,’ Jet spat back. ‘That you were poisoning your father-in-law so he’d stop going into the office and wouldn’t discover all the fraud your husband was committing.’

Sophia’s eyes snapped wide, nostrils too, looking between Jet and Billy.

‘Yeah,’ Jet said, ‘we know about that too.’

‘And about Henry Lim’s accident, the hospital bills,’ Billy added.

‘Everything, Sophia.’

Sophia didn’t blink, like she’d forgotten how.

‘Luke did it for us, for all of us! The company was going under, and he’s the one who turned it around. He saved it!’

‘By scamming people. Not paying taxes.’ Jet stepped closer, matched Sophia’s eyes. ‘Someone burned the fucking building down, probably because of something Luke did. So I’m not sure he really saved the company. It’s gone!’

‘Luke’s a good person.’

‘I don’t think he is, Sophia!’ Jet roared, letting the rage in, letting it win. ‘Now can you –’

‘– Oh, because you are?!’ Sophia scoffed, pointing a finger too close to Jet’s chest. ‘Are you a good person, Jet?’

‘Sophia, move your fucking car!’

‘I told you what I’d do,’ Sophia lowered her voice, a dangerous whisper. ‘If you told Luke. I told you what I’d do.’

Jet took a breath, met her eyes. ‘Don’t,’ she said, lower, more dangerous.

Sophia turned to Billy, opened her mouth, stalactites of spit stringing between her teeth.

‘Sophia, don’t!’ Jet pushed her back, one-handed, driving her elbow into Sophia’s ribs.

She shoved Jet away, too hard, her back slamming against the Range Rover.

Sophia’s eyes found Billy, locked on.

‘Do you know?’ she asked him.

‘Billy, don’t listen!’ Jet shouted. ‘Come on, we need to go!’

Billy looked at Jet instead, eyes reacting to the terror in hers, darkening.

‘Please don’t listen,’ Jet begged him, the tears prickling her eyes, forced up by the guilt churning in her stomach. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Do you know the real reason your mom abandoned you?’ Sophia said, almost with a smile.

‘Sophia, please stop!’ Jet begged her now, caught between the two of them, trapped.

‘What do you mean?’ Billy said, voice wavering and small.

Jet blinked, memorized the way Billy’s eyes brightened just for her, saved it, because they wouldn’t anymore, not after this.

‘It was Jet’s fault,’ Sophia said, enjoying this. ‘ She’s the reason your mom left.’

‘Sophia, stop!’ Jet shouted, even though it was far too late; she could tell by Billy’s face, that storm in his eyes, that coldness. ‘Billy.’ She reached out for his hand.

He didn’t take it. His shoulders tensed.

‘What did you do?’ he whispered, speaking to Jet, looking at Sophia.

‘I didn’t mean to,’ Jet said. ‘I didn’t know she’d –’

‘– Jet went to her after school, our junior year. Asked Mrs Finney to cheat for her, to raise her grade on an extra-credit assignment. Guilted her into doing it, manipulated her and –’

‘– That’s not …’ Jet cut her off, lost her way, looked at Billy to find it again.

‘I just, I needed a 3.5 GPA, otherwise I wasn’t going to get into Dartmouth.

And I had to go to Dartmouth, because that’s where Emily …

I just needed this one assignment in precalculus to be graded higher, that’s all. ’

‘We planned it out.’ Sophia stepped forward. ‘Me and Jet, what she was going to say to bully your mom into cheating for her. Jet thought using her dead sister was the best way to –’

‘– Shut up, Sophia.’ Jet wiped her face, standing in front of him, making Billy look at her instead.

He should hear it from her, not Sophia, who was using her words as a weapon, trying to hurt them both, and doing it with a smile.

‘I did. I did talk about Emily, told your mom why I had to get into Dartmouth. And then, I repeated that thing I’d overheard my mom say.

That she’d asked your dad to check in on Emily and Luke that day.

I said I wondered how different life would be, if he had, if Emily was still here.

I know it was wrong, it was horrible. I thought that if your mom felt guilty, about Emily, then maybe she’d help me.

’ Jet sniffed. ‘I didn’t realize she’d get so upset.

She burst into tears. I went too far, I didn’t realize … I’m so sorry, Billy. I’m so sorry.’

She reached for him again.

Billy stiffened, stepped back. He shook his head, his watery eyes now wet, blinking tears that raced to his chin.

‘It was the same day,’ Sophia said, taking aim again, ‘that she packed her bags and left you. Jet did that. She’s the one who drove your mom out of town.

Maybe she wasn’t the whole reason, but she was the final straw.

’ Sophia laughed, hollow and cruel. ‘You’ve been in love with her since you were a kid, and you never knew she’s the one who ruined your life! ’

Jet blinked, that one getting her straight through the chest, another black hole.

‘I’m so sorry, Billy. I’m so sorry.’

Billy’s breath shuddered, stepping back from her again, toward the street, tears splitting across his lips as they parted.

‘Did she do it?’ he asked, not looking at Jet, looking at the sky instead. No stars, just clouds. ‘Did she change your grade?’

Jet’s chin buckled, her bottom lip shaking. ‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Billy, I’m –’

‘– I can’t believe it.’ Billy ran a hand over his face, catching the rest of his tears.

He wasn’t shouting, not even now. A hurt too deep for that.

‘I spent the last ten years of my life wondering why she left us. If I was really that unlovable that my own mother couldn’t even …

’ He choked it back, wiped again. ‘And you just … you knew, Jet, and you didn’t …

And it’s you. You! ’ he finally shouted, voice breaking in half, Jet’s heart with it.

‘Billy, I –’

‘– I’m sorry, I can’t.’

He turned, boots scraping against the stone, out of the drive, into the street.

He walked away.

Didn’t look back.

‘Billy!’ Jet called after him, the wind in the trees mocking her, stealing her voice.

‘You shouldn’t have told Luke,’ Sophia said darkly. ‘No consequences, huh, Jet?’

Jet shoved Sophia, grabbed a handful of her coat.

Wanted to scream in her face, wanted to hit her, wanted to take all her hurt out on her, and Billy’s too. But she said something she hoped would cut deeper, carve a hole through Sophia’s chest, like she’d done to her.

‘I hope you’re always this unhappy,’ she whispered, staring through Sophia’s dark eyes, not blinking, so she knew that she meant it too.

Jet let her go and walked away, onto the street. She wouldn’t waste any more seconds on Sophia; those seconds, those minutes, those hours were for someone else.

‘Billy!’ Jet shouted, following him down the street.

He was far up ahead, moving too fast, already on the main road.

‘Billy, wait!’

He couldn’t hear her, or he didn’t want to, moving even faster, losing his edges as Jet’s eyes swam, sliced the world into two uneven halves.

Jet wouldn’t let it all fall apart. She leaned against a tree, waited for the worst to pass, breathing through it. She lost Billy, couldn’t see him anymore, but she was not going to lose him.

She ran, down Church Street, a drumbeat in her head. It couldn’t be her heart, because that was gone, wherever that black hole had taken it. The same place as Billy’s.

Jet followed him. He must have come this way, past The Green, going home.

Not just Billy’s apartment.

Home.

There was an earthquake under the pavement that only Jet could feel, unbalancing her legs, dead arm swaying, weighing her down.

She blinked her way through it. Had to catch up to Billy.

Find Billy. The only thing that mattered, and this earthquake might slow her down, but it was not going to stop her.

But something else did.

A police squad car pulled up on the driveway in front of her, blocking the sidewalk. A squawk, a short burst of sound as it came to a stop, swimming in and out of Jet’s vision.

One door opened, then the other.

The police chief and Billy’s dad stepped out.

‘Jet,’ Jack Finney said, shutting his car door. ‘We need to speak to you.’

‘Not now,’ Jet sniffed. She kept moving, doubling around the car, onto the grass. ‘I have something more important.’

‘I’m afraid you have no choice,’ the chief barked, hurrying to catch up to her. He grabbed her arm, the one she couldn’t feel, pulled her back. ‘Margaret Mason, I’m arresting you on suspicion of second-degree arson. You –’

‘– What?!’ Jet hollowed out, only panic left behind, ugly and hot. ‘No, no. You’ve got it wrong. You can’t arrest me, I’m running out of time!’ She tried to pull away.

‘You have the right to remain silent –’ the chief continued.

No, Jet had to stop this.

‘– You can’t! Do you have a wa-wa-w–’ FUCK, what was that word, that legal term? She should know this, she had to know this, to put a stop to this. ‘Did the court issue a wa-wa-war– I need to see it. The wa-warr–’

The chief wasn’t listening, his fingers gripped around a set of handcuffs, raising them toward Jet’s wrist.

Jet couldn’t think of the word, and she had nothing else, she couldn’t let them take her. It was instinct, a fire that had already started behind her eyes, claiming the rest of her, a new strength.

She shoved the chief back, left hand slamming against his shoulder.

He tripped on the curb, lost his footing, and Jet didn’t wait to see what else.

She made a break for it, down the street to the right.

‘She’s running!’ Lou yelled behind her. ‘Go, Sergeant, go!’

Two doors slammed again, the growl of an engine.

Then a siren, screaming after her.

Jet flew.

Her breath shuddering in and out.

No thoughts; Jet let instinct, or the black hole, take those too. Just run. Run faster.

Shoes hammering the ground, veering this way and that as the world tilted, tried to throw Jet off.

The police car was right behind, chasing her down, hot breath against the backs of her legs.

She turned left, into the parking lot behind the public library, slamming into the hood of a silver truck just pulling out.

The driver beeped.

Jet blinked. She braced and pushed off the truck, stumbling away, disappearing behind it.

Checked back.

The cop car was pulling around the angry truck, following her down the lot, gaining speed.

The siren shrieking, ready to swallow Jet whole.

She pushed harder, sprinting, the end of the parking lot right ahead.

Pinned down between a brick wall and the siren.

Jet sped up, pressed her left hand against the lip of the wall, and vaulted over it. Not clean, caught her foot and rolled in the gravel on the other side, but she was over.

The siren cut out.

Two doors slammed.

‘Jet, please stop running!’ Jack shouted.

She already was, checking back to see the two cops climbing over the same wall, chasing her on foot now.

They could not catch up to her.

She didn’t have time for this. She had less than forty-eight hours to live, and she would not give those up for anyone.

She ran.

Through some trees.

Through a tight alley between two buildings, across the street.

Climbed up onto a parked car to jump over a fence into someone’s backyard.

The alarm went off, drawing the cops to her.

Fuck.

She got over, landed on her feet this time. Kept going.

They could not catch her.

Out the house’s open garage door, a man yelling ‘Hey!’ after her.

Around the corner, through another parking lot.

Another alley, behind the pharmacy. So close to Central Street. So close to home, to Billy.

The alley grew tighter and tighter, catching her, bricks chewing her up.

Couldn’t see much anymore, the world spinning, her legs weakening.

Ribs closing in around her heart, piercing it with their sharp ends.

Jet stopped behind a dumpster to catch her breath, and her heart and her eyes, catch them before she lost them entirely.

Just two seconds, then she’d run again.

Jack Finney appeared at the other side of the alley, a silhouette with a strange-shaped head against the sun and the passing cars.

Jet turned, ready to run back the way she’d come, but the chief was behind her, boxing her in.

‘Stop running, Jet!’ Jack called.

‘No.’ The word barely came out, no breath to spare.

‘Get her!’ screamed the chief.

There was a fire escape up the side of the building.

Jet tore over to it, racing both of them.

Grabbed the ladder with her left hand, up with one foot.

If she could climb up, she could break a window, get inside, and –

A fist grabbed her jacket, some of her hair.

Pulled.

Jet crashed back down to the ground, but she didn’t fall. She was pushed up against the wall, her mouth and cheek grating on the brick, a hand on the back of her head, where it was broken.

The chief pressed himself against her, wheezing down her neck as he forced her arms together.

The angry hiss of the handcuffs, tightening around her wrists, catching her, too late.

‘No. Please.’

Her last hope gone, taking with it all the time she had left in this world.

Lost.

Out the hole where her heart used to live.

‘Margaret Mason,’ he said, breathless. ‘I’m arresting you on suspicion of second-degree arson. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.’