“Hundreds of mini non-disclosure agreements to bury the story.” I shook my head. “That shit doesn’t make any sense. Why does it matter so much to Connor that the story doesn’t get out?”
“Maybe he just doesn’t want his kid getting caught up,” Sicily said.
“No. I really don’t think Connor gives much of a shit about me. If he cared about the perception of his kids, he would have done the same thing to bury the story about Nathan and Miss Abrams last year, right? Why didn’t he do it then too?”
Sicily crossed his arms. “Yeah, shit. I guess that doesn’t make much sense. Got me, boss.”
My head hurt. It was like I had half of the pieces of a puzzle, and none of the pieces I had fit together. As the day progressed, I tried my hardest to make everything make sense in my mind, but no matter how I arranged the clues I had, nothing made a continuous story. The only real conclusion I could come to was that Nathan and Connor were more mixed up in what had happened with me and Miss Abrams than they were letting on, and they probably had something to do with the last time something like this happened to me too. It’d been such a long time since I thought about the first body that I saw splat to the ground, but now I was painfully grinding back over the details. There had to be something, a little piece of minutiae that I missed that would help me connect the dots, but all I could think about was Cherri and making sure she was okay. That was all my brain could focus on at the time. If there was a clue to gather, I missed it.
After the bell rang to end second period, all the seminars were suspended so that all the students could go to lunch. The meal was free for the day, and the school had called out for pizza and pasta instead of the traditional school lunch. Students were asked to sit as soon as they got in the lunchroom, and volunteers shuffled plates to them to avoid lines and additional stress. Sicily and I took our regular seats, and pizza was carted over to us a few seconds later.
“My god, I’ve been looking all over for you.” I looked up and saw Annika flying into the lunchroom. She threw herself down into a hug before grabbing my face. “Are you okay? You were supposed to call me last night.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I…” I sighed. “I called Cherri. I had to hear her voice.”
“Sure,” Annika replied.
“Wait,” Sicily said. “What? You can’t tell your current girl about your ex, man. That’s bad decorum.”
Annika waved her hand in his face. “Shut up, Tank. How’s she doing?” Annika asked. “I kind of screamed at her yesterday. I felt bad as soon as I got home.”
“You yelled at her? Why?” I asked.
Annika sighed. “I was so terrified about you going back, and I thought about Gray Jr. I think I just got triggered by the whole thing. I told her it was her fault, well, half her fault.” She reached over and smacked Sicily over the back of the head. “I blamed this moron for the other half.”
“It’s neither of their faults,” I said, annoyed. “I made the decision to go, and that woman wasn’t wrapped tight. No one had control over it.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” Annika said.
Sicily held up his hands. “Hey. Where’s my apology?”
She reached over and smacked him again. “You still deserve ridicule for being shifty.” Sicily frowned but didn’t argue, and Annika looked back at me. “Is it true that you’re no longer suspected of it?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Some students confirmed my story, so it’s fine.”
She let out a sigh of relief. “Good. I’m glad to hear that. So… You and Cherri?”
I shook my head. “I don’t really know yet.”
Annika rubbed my face. “I’m hoping for the best.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks.”
“Okay,” Sicily said. “Can one of you please tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“Mind your own business,” Annika hissed. “Do you guys think… Whoa.”
Annika’s eyes went wide and she motioned behind her. Sicily and I followed her gaze over to where Cherri was wandering into the cafeteria, looking like she was running totally on auto-pilot. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were wrinkled, and her makeup was smeared. It seemed like everyone in the cafeteria noticed her walk in, and they all stopped and stared at her as she came to a stop in the middle of the open area.
“Oh, she does not look good,” Sicily said.
“Deon,” Annika hummed, and it started me into action.
A volunteer was in the middle of working up the courage to approach her when I grabbed his shoulder, pulled him back, and walked up to her myself. “Cherri?” I reached out and put my hand on her arm, but the second I did, she jumped back from me so violently that she crashed into someone else and sent them clattering to the floor. “Whoa!”
She looked down at them, then looked up at me. “Deon?”
“Hey. What happened?”
She rushed into my arms and collapsed against me. “Can we leave?”
“Yeah, of course.”
I looked back over my shoulder at Sicily and Annika and then led Cherri out of the cafeteria and continued right out of the school. A few staff tried to call for us to stop, but others hushed them and let us go. I helped Cherri into my car and drove away from the school, taking her to the park Sicily had brought me to the week before. Cherri didn’t say or do anything on the ride over. In fact, if it hadn’t been for her here and there sniffles, I might have thought she stopped breathing. I parked the car in the lot near the park, climbed out, and walked over to Cherri’s door. I opened it carefully and knelt down next to
