Page 45 of Soul So Dark

“I made enough money off of him to buy that PlayStation,” she smiles, nodding to the shelf.

I’m still in shock, my mind completely blown. “Wait,” I furrow my brow, “so, if you’re sending him fake nudes…does he send you dick pics back?”

Dallas doesn’t answer, just keeps staring at me, smiling while she rakes her teeth over her bottom lip,

“Then he’d better not piss me off anymore, huh?” she says, popping one eyebrow and turning back to the TV.

“Oh…my god,” all I can do is shake my head in disbelief, “you win.”

The same wide grin stretches across her face as I saw outside her classroom that first day I walked her back from the cafeteria, like I made her day.

“Fucking hellion…” I mutter, turning back to the movie.

“You won’t tell anyone?” she asks, still not totally convinced she can trust me.

“Hell no, I’m invested now. I have to see if you get an Xbox out of him next. Plus,” I raise my hand, clenched in a fist except for my pinky sticking out, “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

Dallas Winston might’ve been a tough greaser with nerves of steel, but right now he’s got nothing on Dallas Lutz, hiding behind her sparkly black phone with purple skulls and radiant smile that hides some kind of darkness she keeps from everyone else.

She slowly reaches up and links her pinky in mine, giving it a shake.

“I guess you’re not such a douche after all,” she says as she lets my finger go.

“Did you think I was a douche?”

Dallas shrugs, her eyes wandering across the room as she avoids my question.

“Don’t be shy,” I press, “you just confessed that you’re bleeding Rory dry with porn he can get for free.”

She whips back around, the corner of her mouth curling deviously. “I’ve thought you were a douche since I was in sixth grade.”

“Why?”

“Because you stopped being fun.”

She’s not wrong, once we got to high school, it was soccer from June to November, conditioning until the following summer, and then it started all over again. In between, we partied and raced cars and did whatever we wanted to do because we won a couple of state championships.

“What about the rest of them?” I ask, “Did they used to be fun, too?”

“Colson’s still fun, but only when no one else is around. Mason turned from a spoiled brat into an even bigger spoiled brat—just taller, and Aiden is…” she trails off.

“Aiden?” I finish her sentence, knowing exactly what words she’s trying to find, but can’t.

“Yeah,” she laughs, “what did you—” she starts, but cuts herself off.

“What did I what?”

“Nothing,” Dallas shakes her head, “I’m just glad you’re here now. Actually,” she pauses, lowering her voice to almost a whisper, “you’re the only one who’s really been…here.”

“What do you mean?”

Her blue eyes turn stormy. “The morning that Colson found Evie, my mom and Scott ran out the door and left me here all day. Alone. There was no one here.” Then she sets her jaw with a deep breath. “I found out what happened from the Internet.By myself.”

I don’t say anything at first, because it never occurred to me that Dallas could be anywhere but school that day. Or maybe Scott and Christy picked her up when they found out what happened. I never would have thought she would be sitting in her house, completely alone, with only the knowledge that her sister was dead and her brother was the one who found her decomposing body in the woods.

“And when they alldidcome home,” she continues, “Colson dragged me around my room in his sleep. And now, at school, people talk about my life like it’s an episode ofCSIand my friends don’t know how to act around me. And I’mso…” she clenches her teeth, trailing off.

“Angry?” I whisper.