“She can’t stay here,” David said.
David heard Will back away. Will opened the hatch and dropped down inside.
He’d killed someone. David had to steady himself on the elevator cables. His hands felt numb, but his nerves buzzed.
How the hell did that happen? It was just a punch, and now Brad was gone. A whole history, a whole life. Done. He was probably being stuffed into a locker somewhere near the gym, with all of Varsity in the hallway, watching, and pacing, and hatching bloody plans to make things right.
David walked toward the light of the hatch. He lowered himself down inside.
When David landed in their crowded box, Will was wearing that good-natured smile again and lighting candles. Lucy looked all around at her new surroundings. The low voltage emergency lights cast a straw-colored glow onto the six-by-six-foot space. Shelves made from the tops of classroom desks lined the walls up by the ceiling. The lowest shelf contained all of David’s and Will’s food supplies and two sets of clothes for each. The upper shelf housed everything else: makeshift weapons, knickknacks that David and Will had salvaged from their lockers, library books, and everything else they owned.
David’s laundry supplies were gathered in a cinched sack that hung from the ceiling to save floor space. Their beds took up most of the floor, makeshift mattresses that were just piles of discarded clothes. There was about two square feet of clear floor space left. That’s where Lucy sat, her knees pulled in close to her body.
Will finished lighting the candles. They were precious supplies. Normally, David would get mad that Will was wasting them, but what did it matter now? Will pressed a button on the control panel, and the emergency lights turned off. The elevator car was dark and warm by candlelight. Will fished out a piece of dry bread from his loot sack, broke it in half, and handed half to Lucy. As she took it from him, their fingers touched. David noticed that Will let his fingers linger on hers longer than necessary.
“Lucy, you have nothing to worry about, okay?” Will said.
The tears collecting in Lucy’s eyes threatened to spill over, but she tapped them dry with a square of white cotton from her purse. She took a bite of bread and tried to settle herself.
“I like your place,” she said.
The sensation of his fist connecting with Brad’s jaw flickered through David’s knuckles again. For an instant, he reveled in it. No matter what he told himself, he had enjoyed knocking Brad to the ground. Before that Freak said Brad was dead, David had felt a rush of pride filling his chest.
“Thanks,” Will said. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“I know,” Lucy said.
Lucy looked over at David, shivering still. It seemed she wanted to say something to him, talk about what happened probably. David looked away-he couldn’t bear that. He needed to do something. He got up, grabbed a crumpled bottle of water off the shelf, along with a toothbrush and detergent.
He fished a T-shirt out of his sack and sat back down on his mattress. David set to work, scrubbing wet detergent into a soot stain.
“You look so different,” Lucy said, still eating.
“Oh, yeah? You look great. So great,” Will said.
“I’ve seen you at the market,” Lucy said. Then, as if she was apologizing, “I wanted to say hello.”
“Me too,” Will said.
David felt Lucy’s eyes on him. He didn’t look over.
“The last time I saw you, you were wearing those ripped-up pants,” she said.
“Yeah,” Will said. “Those were cool.”
Lucy laughed. “They weren’t cool, but I liked how excited you were about ’em.”
“What? Those pants were badass!”
She laughed again, but it was wilting and quiet. The elevator became silent but for the sound of her slow and shaky breaths. David scrubbed like mad.
“We’re going to get through this,” Will said. “It’s just another challenge. Just like Wild-Trek.”
David stopped scrubbing. It all clicked. That’s why Will insisted this girl come back to the elevator. This was the girl he met on his camping trip in Utah. He and Will had been joined at the hip for over a year in this place, and Will had never mentioned that Lucy went to McKinley. Why hadn’t Will told him?
“You’re right,” Lucy said. “Thanks, Will. You’re a good friend.”
“So… what happened?” Will asked.
“Hilary kicked me out of the Pretty Ones.” David looked up at her.
“Yeah, I heard she’s mean,” Will said, knowing it would piss David off.
“Mean?” Lucy said. “She’s psychotic.”
“Psychotic how?” David said. Lucy looked him in the eye.
“She tells every girl who they’re expected to date. The Pretty Ones depend on Varsity. We-they wouldn’t survive if Hilary didn’t keep Varsity happy.”
“She made you do that?” Will said.
“She tried. I found ways to avoid the arrangement, y’know?
I stayed busy. I worked the door at the girls’ showers and helped make beauty products. I actually developed a new shade of lipstick using a box of red pens I found.” Lucy brightened for a moment.
“I flirted when I knew Hilary or one of her suck-ups was watching. And then I’d-” Lucy suddenly laughed. Will sat up, moving closer. The laugh was such a surprise to David, after
what she’d just been through. The candlelight lapped across her face. She looked at David, and she smiled. It was a sexy smile. He found himself smiling back a little.
Will took Lucy’s hand in his, “What? What did you do?”
“It’s embarrassing,” she said, shaking her head. She covered her mouth and laughed even harder. She was swept up in it now.
“Come on! You’ve got to tell me now,” Will prodded.
“When the girls weren’t looking, but I knew Varsity was, I’d always try to throw in a belch or a snot rocket. The grosser it was, the better. Anything, just so they’d leave me alone.”
“Ha!” Will said, and hooted. “That is classic Lucy.” Lucy gave the faintest of smiles.
“About a month ago, I was changing in the girls’ locker room. I thought I was alone, but I wasn’t. A Varsity guy snuck in and was watching me. He was one of Brad’s friends.” David clenched his jaw. Lucy looked to the ground as soon as Brad’s name escaped her lips.
“Scumbags,” Will said.
“I screamed, and he ran off. But after that, he started asking around about me. I knew it was only a matter of time. Hilary approached me and said I had to be his girlfriend.”
“She said that?” David asked. Lucy nodded. She maintained eye contact with him as she spoke. Her version of Hilary was ugly, and he didn’t like it.
“When I told her that I wouldn’t, she got this look on her face. It was scary. I thought she was going to stab me. But she just walked away. At first I thought maybe everything was fine. But then I noticed none of the girls would talk to me.
Then no one would let me into the bathrooms. And eventually, they wouldn’t let me have food. Hilary made everyone freeze me out, even girls I thought were my friends.” Lucy ran out of breath. She’d been talking so fast, reliving each moment so vividly. She sobbed suddenly. Will dared to stroke her hair. Lucy collapsed on him, and he held her closer.
“Ssh,” he said. “It’s okay.”
“For a week I was invisible. I was dirty and hungry. She wanted me desperate, I know she did. And I was. She came to me again and asked me if I felt like dating that boy now. I probably would have said yes, I don’t know, just to eat. But she brought him with her, and he was so
… He looked at me like I was his property. I couldn’t do it. I said no again.”
“Damn right you did,” Will said.
“What did she do then?” David said. He’d placed the stained shirt aside.
“She dragged me in front of all the girls. She tore the Pretty Ones insignia off of my sweater and said I was banished. She said I was dead to them. I kept looking at my friends in the crowd, but none of them would look back at me. And then Hilary made an announcement to all the Varsity boys that I was no longer protected by the Pretty
