“No,” I say. “I don’t think so.”
Unless I ate him...
I’m saved by Blaine bringing me the phone. My mom picks up. I think I woke her up. Then Morgan has me give her the phone. Carolina hands us sandwiches. “We can eat in the car,” she says. I realize suddenly that Meredith is holding my hand. She’s leaning her head against my shoulder. How did she get there? I’m afraid that Carolina will be angry, but she’s just smiling at me.
“I’m really glad you came, Stanley.”
I nod. I try to say, “So am I, Carolina,” but it comes out kind of muffled with my mouth full of food. She seems to get the picture, though, and keeps smiling.
I hear someone honk briefly outside. The door opens and shuts and then Blaine comes into the kitchen. He scratches absently at his beard. “That’s the last of them, except you, Stanley. Meredith is staying the night. Come on, we’ll drive you home.”
I turn to Carolina, my mouth dry and full of sandwich. “Can I have a glass of water?”
She smiles at me. “Sorry.”
A moment later we are all in the car: Carolina, Meredith and me in the back; Blaine and Morgan in the front seat. It’s a pretty uneventful trip, since we live just a ten-minute walk away. Carolina’s mother drives real slow, and we ooh and ahh at the Halloween decorations.
Meredith and Carolina amuse themselves making a Stanley sandwich, squeezing me between them.
Which is fine, except for having to control the urge to give them both some playful nips on the neck and shoulders.
Everything is going almost too well, and then I feel something. An itching on my arm. On my hand. Burning. I look out the window and catch sight of a red blur out in the dark. Karen, running in the dark. I blink my eyes, and she’s gone. I must have imagined it, right?
Then why do my hands still burn and tingle as we roll up into my parents’ driveway?
The car stops. Meredith opens the door and I have to squeeze past her as Carolina giggles. Then I’m out in the cold air again. I look around, but Karen is nowhere to be seen. I must have imagined it.
I need a shower. It’s time for a pill. But my mother is standing on the porch wearing some kind of strange purple coat. She waves at Carolina’s mom and Carolina’s mom waves back. I turn around to wave goodbye. Meredith blows me a kiss, she winks and waves, and then they drive away into the night.
My first party in high school. My first party since the accident.
My mother smiles at me cautiously.
“Is everything okay, Stanley?”
“I had a great time,” I say.
“You really had a good time?”
“No,” I say. “I really had a great time.”
My mother beams like we just picked winning lottery numbers. Doesn’t the woman understand she’s supposed to be angry with me for staying out late? “I’m so happy to hear that,” she says.
I nod. “But right now I just want to shower and go to sleep.”
She nods, still smiling way too much.
I stagger up to my room and take a pill, and then I’m in the bathroom, throwing my clothes in a pile. The hot water feels amazing on my skin, and I almost forget how tired I am.
I think about my new place on the track team, about running through the woods, about Meredith and Carolina. About Karen holding my hand. About Karen running after us as we drove. Which of those were real? Were they all just some weird fantasy I made up? Meredith is real; my mother saw the car drive up when she was waiting, and she even waved at Carolina’s mom. But Karen?
Who was it that told me everything has a price? Could I have made the track team again if I hadn’t taken those pills? Could I have gone back in and had fun at Carolina’s party if I hadn’t run through the forest and bitten through the neck of an innocent rabbit?
If I hadn’t tasted my first kill?
Chapter 19: JONATHAN TURNS JAPANESE
Hoping to find Enrique, I head for my locker, but he’s nowhere to be found. I try to calm myself by inhaling two Slim Jims. But ever since I ate the rabbit, they don’t have the same effect on me. Where is Enrique? I can’t see him anywhere, but my nose wrinkles, because there’s this musky smell there by the locker. I feel this weird urge to snarl, but I really need to get to English.