“Exactly.” Poe nods, who’s sitting right next to me like Jupiter. “Maybe he just got out and he hasn’t had a chance to check his phone.”
No, we all know that he got out first thing in the morning and it’s evening now. But I understand her need to make me feel better.
I understand all their need to make me feel better.
Not that they can, but still.
“Or his phone died,” Wyn offers from beside Callie. “That’s a possibility. He spent the entire night in a holding cell. He couldn’t exactly charge his phone.”
They all murmur their assent and I give them a small smile. “Thanks, guys. Maybe you’re all right. Maybe he hasn’t…” I clear my throat. “And you know, you guys can leave. I’m going to be —”
“No,” Jupiter says with determination. “We’re not going anywhere.”
“We’re going to stay here with you,” Poe adds. “For as long as you need, okay? We know how it feels. A thousand thoughts must be racing through your head right now. All of them bad. You don’t want to be alone with them.”
They’re right.
I don’t.
But I also feel bad for putting them out like this.
“When Reed,” Callie begins with sadness flickering in her blue eyes, “wouldn’t admit that he loved me, I’d be so miserable, you know? Like, here.” She presses a hand to her chest. “I used to feel like a piece of my heart was bitten off or something. Everything would look so colorless and bleak. So yeah, I know. We all do. Which means we’re staying for as long as you need us.”
“Yeah,” Jupiter agrees. “Not to mention, all the crap that you went through with the cops and the stupid, ignorant people.”
Wyn nods. “Same thing happened to Conrad. Because of my parents. My dad actually had him arrested.” She shakes her head. “I still can’t believe it. I still can’t believe that he was taken away like that. So we’re staying.”
Yeah, it happened while we were still at St. Mary’s.
While I wasn’t friends with Wyn or any of these girls except Jupiter back then, we did see a couple of guys arriving and taking Conrad, or rather Coach Thorne, away. Wyn’s dad used his influence to have him arrested for being involved with her.
So she does know.
And a tear streams down my cheek.
Both for myself and her, because now that I know how it feels, seeing the man you love being dragged away like that, handcuffed and bleeding… I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.
“Okay, thanks. I know that’s not… enough, but…”
“Shut up.” Jupiter gives me a side hug. “You don’t have to thank us. We’re best friends and that’s what best friends do.”
They all agree, and I tell them that I need to go to the bathroom to freshen up. But really, I’m going because I can’t get rid of the images from last night.
They come and go, see.
The flashes.
The fact it actually happened,every single thingthat happened, is still surreal to me. It still feels unreal. Bizarre. Nightmarish.
An outlandish joke.
First that it was Lucas — yet again — who found us like that.
Apparently, he’d come over to talk to me because I’d sent him those two stupid texts a couple of days ago. My parents told him that I was sick in bed, and since they’ve always trusted him and liked him, they let him go upstairs and knock at my bedroom door.
Which he did, but I hadn’t heard.
And so he opened it to check on me.