Things We Didn't Say_ A Novel - Kristina Riggle [59]
I shove this across the table to her, nudging her elbow with it. She sniffs and wipes her face, and reads. At first she scowls, but then her face relaxes. She slumps back in her chair, but the waterworks have stopped.
I pull the notebook back and add this:
You know we weren’t going to get very far. We had no money, no car. If we hitched, we’d either get a creepy freak, or a good citizen who’d know we were running away and probably turn us in. It was never going to work.
I underline never for effect.
And I’m cold. Aren’t you cold?
I add a little cartoon of our shivering selves.
She reads this and smiles a little.
Then her smile fades. “My dad’s gonna kill me.”
“R-really?”
She sighs hard now, and suddenly looks older than she’s seemed this whole time. “Not literally. Guess I might as well tell you I don’t really have bars on my window.”
Yeah. No shit.
We fall into silence. She flips through Glamour. I try to work up enthusiasm for Newsweek, but I can’t focus. My mother’s hysteria on the phone keeps playing in my head, like a mosquito buzz that won’t go away. What’s waiting for me back home. But why did I expect anything different?
The fact is, I didn’t think very far ahead. My future after the bus ride was a big blank, but that blank seemed refreshing and clean. An inviting sheet of paper ready for sketching, without all the messy scribbles of my stupid school I hate and home with its tension so bad I’m surprised we’re not all twitching. When that big bus rumbled out of Grand Rapids, I felt dizzy with freedom and pushed all thoughts of home out of my head. Even my sisters. Probably because I knew if I pictured Jewel’s face, I’d never be able to leave.
The door swings open, and we both jump. A uniformed lady cop comes in carrying sandwiches and drinks. “Well, if it isn’t Romeo and Juliet. Well, star-crossed kids, you’re probably hungry.”
She plunks the sandwiches down with a couple of Cokes.
“Thank you,” I mutter, glad to get that out without stammering.
She regards us with one hand on her hip. “You know, I’ve got kids. Littler than you, but I’ve got kids. Most of us do,” she says, gesturing out the door to the rest of the police station. “What you two did to your parents, you don’t have the faintest idea what that’s like, the hell they were going through. You took years off their lives with this stunt.”
I can feel a blush creep up the back of my neck. I’m sure thinking of my sisters, now. And my dad, and Mom, because I gave her a reason to freak out, this time. I wonder if Casey was worried. Probably.
“Well, eat already. I don’t want your folks thinking we starved you. I’ll check on you later. Juliet, your dad should be here soon.”
Tiffany isn’t eating. She’s just picking at the bread.
I know the feeling. But I eat it anyway, because the officer was nice enough to bring it to us. I don’t want to seem ungrateful.
Chapter 24
Michael
When my dad pulls into the driveway, Casey’s in the shower. I go upstairs to knock on the bathroom door.
“Yeah?” she says.
“Hey, babe,” I say loudly over the sound of the water. “My dad’s here, we’re heading out.”
She pokes her wet head around the curtain. Tendrils of hair are stuck to her forehead. Makes me want to grab her face and kiss her.
“I’ll see if Mallory will go home. Give you some space.”
“See if she will? How about sending her. Dylan’s fine, and this isn’t her house anymore.”
My head starts to throb, and I pinch the bridge of my nose.
When I look at Casey again, her face has sagged with resignation. “Sorry. It’s fine.” She pulls the shower curtain back in place with less force than before. “I’ll be fine,” she says over the spray.
I have more to say, but it’s hard to talk over the water.
We’ll talk when I get back, about many things that we’ve put off for too long.
I bribe Jewel with a trip to get doughnuts Sunday morning if she does her homework like a good girl, and make the same offer to Angel, only with