I set my phone on the table and squeezed my eyes shut.
“Dylan?” Skyler said.
I nodded.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. I just have this horrible feeling right here.” I pressed my fingers against my diaphragm. “What if someone slipped something into her drink? Or what if she drives like that? Or…” I shook out my hands.
“Norah.” Skyler’s voice was calm and I stilled and looked at him. “Do you think either of those things is true or are you worrying because you’re not there?”
“Both.”
“Okay, then who else can you call?”
My brain was so busy worrying that it couldn’t think.
Skyler picked up my phone, held it out for me to unlock, then pushed some buttons. Soon it was ringing over speaker.
“Hello?” It was Dylan again.
“Hey, Dylan,” Skyler said. “Put Willow on.”
“Who is this?”
“Her father.” He shrugged at me when I gave him wide eyes.
“Okay, yes, um, hold on,” Dylan stammered.
There were some muffled words and sounds on the other end and finally Willow’s voice came on the line. “Dad?”
“Hey, Willow, it’s me,” I said, because I knew she wouldn’t believe Skyler was her dad.
“Norah! You scared me. It’s just Norah!” she announced to the party. “She’s not here because she has to visit this tiny college in Seattle where she has to beg to be let in!”
“Hello, hey, Willow.”
“Have you had your big boss battle yet?” She laughed hard. “Remember when you told me your interview was like battling the big boss in a video game?”Is she making fun of me?
“Yes, I remember.”
“Did you defeat the boss?” she yelled into the phone.
“I haven’t had the interview yet,” I said. “But listen…”
“Good, because your answers are sooooo boring. Think of better answers, Norah, or you’ll never beat the level.”
I swallowed a breath of air in surprise, but remindedmyself she was not acting like herself right now. “Willow, is Leenathere?”
“Who was that guy on your phone?”
“Skyler.”
“Skyler? Hi, Demon Skyler, Norah’s soul mate!”
I should’ve taken the phone off speaker right then but I didn’t and in the background we both heard Dylan say, “The Nut Hut? Norah still talks to that loser?”
“Tell Dylan to shut up,” I said, then shook my head at Skyler to reassure him that I’d never called him any of those things. I hadn’t even realized that Dylan knew Skyler. I hadn’t met him until high school.