He blinks and stares. He thinks of Evie’s face tipped toward his car window, blue eyes, dark mouth, and he thinks, No, not you…
It is hair. Long and dark and sticky, like bloody black rope.
The breath he’s just sucked rushes from him. He folds over into the snow and sobs, the tail of hair clutched tightly in his fist.
16
E
Alex was all loose energy, elbows bobbing as he talked, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his denim vest. Sunny looked away with a bored expression on her face. Evie smiled when she reached their perch on the hill.
“Last day, bitches!” Alex chirped when he saw Evie.
“Don’t call us bitches, you tool,” Sunny snapped at him.
He started. “I didn’t mean, like, bitches.”
“Then why’d you say it? What the fuck do you think it means?”
Evie groaned silently, her smile fading. These two bickering was exactly the opposite of how she wanted the last day of school to start.
“Sup, Ev,” Alex mumbled, taken down a few notches.
“Hey,” she said back. “Hey, Sunny.”
Of course, Ré wasn’t with them. He’d been gone when she got up, the strange night washed away without a trace. Not that she was surprised. She glanced back toward the parking lot, but he wasn’t there either. She’d already checked.
Sunny said nothing, but flicked her eyes to the parking lot too. She crossed her arms over a loose black tank top printed with a pale rib cage that could’ve been a photo of her own bony body. She looked beautifully scary, as always, and skinny as a clothes hanger. She could probably wear a bunch of plastic bags and still look ridiculously cool.
Evie felt short and sloppy by comparison, in cutoffs and a loose plaid shirt, dark hair hanging lifeless and uncombed at her shoulders. She’d been avoiding the mirror that hung from her bathroom door, not wanting to see her shape in it, the skin between her hip bones gone tight over the thing inside her.
“So guess what?” Alex said. “My dad is letting me have a grad party.”
“Really?” said Evie. “That’s cool.”
“Totally.” Alex’s feathery hair swung with his nodding head. “It’s too perfect. It’ll be just like a bush party, only you won’t have to piss in the woods!” He nudged Sunny, smiling hopefully. It was a strong selling point—poison oak and peeing on your own shoes were two big reasons bush parties always kind of sucked. “And the best part is, no chance the cops will bust it up.”
“Really? Why not?” Evie asked.
Sunny smirked at her, making her feel stupid, and Alex just laughed, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s kind of a no-cop zone, that’s all,” he said, not actually explaining.
“Sounds like fun,” Evie replied lamely.
She’d never been to Alex’s house. Never even seen it. She’d only sat in a car outside Sunny’s—a big Victorian on the nice side of the river—a handful of times. And she’d been inside Ré’s just that once, before the lake. Evie felt again like she barely knew her own so-called friends. Shaun had asked for all her attention, and she had just given and given.
At the bottom of the hill the first bell rang, but still no Buick.
“Last day of school for-evah!” Alex announced. He stood and stretched out his long arm theatrically. “After you, ladies.”
Evie couldn’t help but smile at his chivalry, even if Sunny was unimpressed.
Sometime during third period, Evie noticed the Buick in the parking lot, but still no Ré in the halls. It was a pretty huge school—the only public high school for miles—but still, if you wanted to find someone, it was usually pretty easy.
Then again, if you didn’t want to be found, that was easy too.
Evie stood before her empty locker, half feeling like she wanted to just step inside and close the door. Maybe spend the summer there. But then there were hands on her shoulders, shaking her lightly, and a long arm draped around her.
Alex beamed. “E-vie! Sup. We did it! It’s fucking over, dude.”
She smiled at him—he looked so happy she could practically feel his mood pushing her own out of the way. He really was a lot like Shaun.
“You coming to the Olympia?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Is that where everyone’s going?” Ré, she wanted to say.
“Yeah, of course,” he said. And then, “I don’t know. It’s over, man! Who cares?”
Alex seemed to have forgotten that they still had exams to write, but she wasn’t going to point it out. Instead, she let him drag her out to the parking lot, her bag heavy over her shoulder.
They burst out into the bright sun, and chaos exploded. The parking lot was jammed with kids and cars, engines running, music blasting, bumpers edging through the crowd. People were shouting and laughing, horns honking, sunlight smashing into everything, making her squint. Alex threw himself into the fray like it was his natural habitat, and Evie picked her way along behind him, letting him break the waves.
Ré, at last.
Leaning against the front panel of the Buick, arms crossed over his black T-shirt—the same one he’d had on last night? she wondered. His dark figure seemed to swallow all the brightness from the parking lot. The air around him was still. He didn’t smile when he saw them. And if Evie had hoped for any acknowledgment, any look that said remember, she was disappointed.
The boys greeted each other with a quick clasp of hands.
“Yo, you coming to my party next week?” Alex asked.
Réal looked surprised, but he nodded.
Alex punched him on the shoulder. “Good,” he said, then started headbanging to a silent beat, his hair flying. “School’s out for-evah!” he sang.
Sunny arrived, and Alex attacked her like a puppy trying to play with a cat—grabbing, shouting, shaking, grinning. She let him do it, though she looked about as pleased as any cat would.
Ré turned and got in the car, and they all fell into formation—boys up front, the girls in the back. Alex stretched his long legs
