B00B9FX0F2 EBOK Page 14

  What would she do if he told her the truth — that there was something going on but he couldn’t talk about it because everyone thought she was dead? That a psycho lacrosse player had scared her or hurt her enough to allow them to think that? His mom would take away his laptop for life, that much he knew; what was up for grabs was whether it would happen before or after she locked him in a mental institution.

  “I’m fine, Mom. And there’s nothing going on with Lacey — I’m just a little stressed about the chemistry project. I want to do well on it.”

  She frowned. “Your grades are important to me, but sometimes I wish you’d worry less about school. You’re a smart kid, the project will be fine. You should loosen up sometimes. Grades aren’t everything.”

  “I’ll remind you of that the next time you see my report card.”

  “I mean it, Jason. As your mother, I can say with authority that your happiness is more important to me than straight As. You have the best heart of anyone I know; you should let people see it occasionally.” Involuntarily, he thought of Jenna. So there is a heart beating in there somewhere. He fought back a grin, and then felt a pang of guilt. Lacey was the one who was supposed to make him smile like that.

  “Thanks, Mom,” he mumbled. “Seriously. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m going to go to bed now, okay? I love you.”

  “Sleep well.” She hugged him tightly. They headed upstairs together. “Oh, and have a good weekend.” When he looked at her blankly, she laughed. “You totally forgot, didn’t you? Mark and I are going to his sister’s lake house for the weekend. I was sure you and Rakesh were planning some sort of party. You really are a good kid. I’ll leave cash for pizza and emergencies by the phone in the kitchen. Don’t make me regret anything I said to you tonight.”

  He smiled weakly and shrugged. Under other circumstances he probably would have hosted a rager. As it was, he was just happy he wouldn’t have to explain his comings and goings. Something told him he’d be back in Brighton before the weekend was over.

  As soon as she had shut the door to her room, he logged on to his computer. After he’d gotten off the phone with Rakesh, he’d spent the entire car ride home composing the message in his head; it tumbled off his fingertips and onto the screen.

  L,

  It feels weird writing this. I get the strangest sense you already know everything I’m going to say. But maybe I’m imagining things. Feels like I’m doing a lot of that lately. Anyway, here goes …

  I did what you asked. I went back to your grave (literally can’t even believe I’m typing this stuff). If you don’t know this part, me and Jenna followed Troy (Dick Tracy style), and when it got dark out, he drove to the cemetery. If you told me this morning I was going to see the cocaptain of the Brighton lacrosse team crying like a baby, I’d have said you were a liar, but if you told me six months ago I’d be e-mailing with someone everyone thought was dead, I wouldn’t have believed that, either, so maybe I just need to work on my powers of imagination.

  Anyway, it was pretty intense, and it freaked Jenna out enough that she wanted to get out of there. So I took her home, but after I got your message, I went back. Which is what you wanted, right? I hope so, cause it wasn’t exactly fun being in a graveyard in the middle of the night. But I did find your necklace. Troy buried it there when he was bawling his eyes out and telling you he was so sorry.

  I’m starting to piece together what happened to you, but I know there are things you’re not telling me. Is it because you were dating Troy? I’m not gonna pretend I love the idea of that, but you still don’t have to hide it from me. I care about you. And if he hurt you, if he’s the reason you had to disappear, I’ll … I don’t want to finish that sentence, but Lacey, you should know I would do ANYTHING to protect you.

  Anyway, I guess that’s it for now. I hope this isn’t weird to say, but I miss when things between us were easy. Sometimes I think if you would just see me, face-to-face, we could figure this out. But I understand it’s complicated. Just remember, I am here for you.

  — J

  After he hit send, the exhaustion hit him like a ton of bricks. He crawled into bed, and was surprised to find that he was almost happy. Yes, there was a lot about Lacey that he didn’t understand. But even though his mind was swimming in uncertainty, there was something satisfying about it. Jason had spent more nights than he could count lying in bed, combing over every horribly boring detail of his day, and as bizarre as everything was, he was grateful to finally have real things to think about. Besides, he was on the verge of learning what had happened to Lacey. When he found the obituary and his perfect girlfriend turned into a ghost before his eyes, he’d felt like he’d been stripped of something, but that thing she’d given him originally — the sense of mattering — was gradually coming back to him. Despite everything, he was enveloped by a deep sense of peace and fell asleep with the rock-solid knowledge that everything was going to be okay. In retrospect, he realized, that should have been his first sign that something was wrong.

  Bleary-eyed, Jason checked Facebook on his phone as he idled outside Rakesh’s house. He’d overslept, and his brain still felt thick with slumber. He tried to ward off his disappointment that Lacey hadn’t answered his message. He told himself even runaway missing girls had to sleep sometime.

  Rakesh was already grumbling when he climbed into the passenger seat. “Where’s my breakfast?”

  “Shut up, Rakesh.”

  “I want an Egg McMuffin! I thought I told you to bring me breakfast.” When Jason had called him from the car the night before, Rakesh had demanded he be brought a breakfast sandwich as payback for, as he put it, “missing the good stuff.” As with most of his friend’s requests, Jason ignored it.

  “Can you at least wait until I get a cup of coffee in me before you start complaining?” Jason backed out of the driveway. Rakesh kept his mouth shut. Until they were halfway to Roosevelt High, that is.

  “Yo, where are we going?” he asked.

  “Um, school?” Jason answered, confused. It was Friday. They were already running late for homeroom.

  “No, no, no. We’re not going to class right now.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “We have to go get that necklace.”

  “You’re the one who told me to leave it there last night!”

  “Yes. It was midnight. You can’t take something from a cemetery at midnight.” Rakesh spoke slowly, as if Jason was stupid. It didn’t help that Jason stared at him blankly. “But now the sun is shining. Nothing bad can happen. We have to go back and get it. It could be evidence.”

  “Evidence of what?” Even though daylight was a lot less frightening than the darkness, Jason still wasn’t keen on making a third trip to the cemetery.

  “Who knows, but don’t you think Lacey wants you to get it?”

  Invoking her name had the intended effect. Jason sped past the Roosevelt parking lot and steered the car toward Brighton.

  It had turned into a beautiful morning by the time they arrived at the cemetery. Rakesh may have entirely made up the rules about when you were and were not allowed to remove items buried at grave sites, but it was definitely less spooky during the day. All the same, it still weirded Jason out to think about the rows and rows of bodies buried around them.

  “So you rolled up here alone last night?” Rakesh asked when they got out of the car. The respect in his voice was a peace offering, and Jason accepted it with a nod. He didn’t want to be fed up anymore, and Rakesh was at least trying to help. Jason pointed out the tall trees where he and Jenna had hidden. In daylight, he could see the tips of their branches were dotted with the first tiny pale green sprouts of spring leaves. It was strange and also comforting to think about something blooming here among the dead.

  When they arrived at Lacey’s small plot, it was like Rakesh could read Jason’s mind. “I wonder what’s buried here.”

  “Dunno,” Jason said. “Maybe an empty coffin. Maybe someone else.�
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  Rakesh shivered dramatically. “So creepy.” He nudged a clump of loose grass with his toe and asked, “What now?”

  “We dig, I guess,” Jason answered, though he was unsure. It was true that the space seemed less haunted by the light of day, but the sun posed other problems: Like a passerby seeing two teenagers digging something up in a graveyard and jumping to conclusions. Jason didn’t even want to imagine how a security guard would react when he explained it was okay because there was no one buried there.

  He hadn’t done as well as he thought covering his tracks from the night before. Half the grass was uprooted and the dark base of the headstone was covered in dirt. He dropped to his knees. Rakesh knelt next to him. Troy’s and Jason’s previous forays made the soil easy to sift through, and it didn’t take long for Jason and Rakesh to assemble a small pile next to a neat hole. And then the hole grew wider. And deeper. A rock formed in Jason’s stomach. The necklace wasn’t there. He sat back on his heels and after a moment Rakesh did, too, knowing better than to say anything.

  “I swear, it was here last night. I left it here last night.”

  They both peered down into the pit that had formed, and Jason felt around the edges in case he had missed something, but he was just going through the motions. Someone had taken the necklace. He was certain of it.

  Just then, Jason felt a throbbing ache in his side, his glasses went flying, and all of a sudden he was on his back with the wind knocked out of him. He patted at the ground, fumbling in vain for balance.

  “What the …” he heard Rakesh from next to him, but his blurry vision was filled with Luke Gray’s face, staring down at him in fury.

  Jason watched as Luke issued a swift kick to Rakesh’s gut, and Rakesh curled up on the ground, his face contorted in pain. Neither could speak or move as Luke bent over them and wrapped a hand around Jason’s throat, pinning him down.

  “Who are you?” He pushed down on Jason’s neck. Hard. “Why are you digging up my sister’s grave?” he bellowed. Jason’s eyes rolled back in his head as he struggled to breathe.

  “Can’t we all just get along?” Rakesh wheezed, and Luke momentarily released his hold on Jason’s windpipe to kick Rakesh in the stomach again, this time rendering him silent, save for a groan.

  “I’m talking to your friend,” Luke said, resuming his choke hold on Jason. Up close his skin was smooth and his features were almost childlike, but years of beating other guys with a lacrosse stick had conditioned him to twist his boyish face into menacing expressions of cruelty. He rested a knee on Jason’s chest, and Jason hoped desperately the passerby he’d dreaded being caught by would come to his rescue. “I asked you, what are you doing here?”

  Jason was still trying to draw breath into his lungs when he was blinded by Luke’s fist smashing into his eye socket. He’d never been punched in the face before. It hurt. A lot. It felt like fireworks were exploding in his skull. He tried to muster the strength for a response before Luke could hit him again.

  “What do you want from my sister?” Luke shoved him deeper into the dirt.

  If he didn’t break free, Luke was going to pummel him until he was dead, he was sure of it. He pulled his wrist back to swing again. “Answer me!”

  “Friend,” Jason gasped. “I’m a friend.”

  “Why are you digging up the past? Why can’t you let her stay buried?” There was something wild in his voice, like he would do anything. Look deeper. Had Jason had it all wrong? Was Luke the killer?

  “It’s not what you think,” Jason managed hoarsely.

  The next thing he knew, the pressure was gone from his chest, and Rakesh, doubled over from the effort of pulling Luke away, stood above him. Luke sprinted away. “This isn’t over,” he shouted over his shoulder. “If I see you again, you’re a dead man.”

  Jason wobbled unsteadily to his feet. He blinked back the flashing lights, and a wave of nausea crashed over him. He stumbled a few paces away and spat, blood-tinted saliva dripping onto the well-manicured grass. The pink color was making him woozy, and he dropped to the ground, lying on his back as the sky spun above him. When he tilted his head, he saw Rakesh lying a few feet away. For a moment, there was no other sound than their chests rising and falling.

  Jason spoke first. “What just happened?” Talking hurt worse than he’d predicted.

  “You just got your butt kicked by a psycho lacrosse player in a cemetery. Well, we both did, but yours got kicked worse. You’re welcome for saving your life, by the way.”

  “Thanks,” Jason said. He thought his head might split open.

  After a minute, Rakesh helped him to his feet.

  “Come on, we have to get out of here in case he calls the cops or something.”

  Jason nodded, hoping the feeling that he was going to vomit would pass when he started moving. He spotted his glasses; by some miracle, they were neither broken nor bent.

  They both limped back to the Subaru, brushing the dirt and grass from their clothes and straightening their hair. When they got to the road, an elderly woman with a bouquet looked at them askance, and Jason wondered just how disheveled Luke had left them. His plaid shirt was caked in dust, and clumps of moist dirt clung to his jeans. Above the neck, Rakesh could have flaunted his perfect bone structure and wavy hair in a shampoo commercial, but his white T-shirt was streaked and torn. When they arrived at the car, Jason saw the purplish hues of a bruise beginning to bloom around his eye in his reflection in the car window.

  Rakesh caught him checking himself out. “Looking good,” he said sarcastically. “When you’re done admiring your battle scars, can you get me out of this god-awful town?”

  They didn’t even discuss going to school, instead agreeing to go straight to Michael’s. As the searing pain in his skull subsided, Jason’s mind drifted to the necklace — where had it gone?

  “Dude, forget about the necklace,” Rakesh said when he voiced his concern. “Can we talk about why Luke Gray wants to kill us?”

  “Well, I don’t think it helps that we were digging up his sister’s grave. I mean, obviously we weren’t, but, you know.” Talking hurt more than Jason wanted it to. Thinking did, too, for that matter.

  The waitress barely raised an eyebrow at the two hobbling teenagers who arrived just before the lunch rush. She seated them at a comfy booth in the back room, and they took turns going to the men’s room to get cleaned up. While Rakesh was gone, Jason sipped at his water, hoping it would help to revive him. He felt like crap.

  As soon as he returned, the waitress came by to take their orders. After she was out of earshot, Rakesh asked Jason what he was going to tell his parents about his face.

  “Is it bad?” Jason touched the pads of his fingertips to the crease next to his eyelid. Even with next to no pressure, he winced in pain.

  “Uh, yeah, you should go look at yourself in the mirror.”

  Standing up, his body felt creaky and sore. His blood had pumped with adrenaline during the attack, but his energy was waning. The clock above the cash register said it was 11:15 in the morning, which seemed impossibly early with all that had happened since he’d woken up a few hours before. In the bathroom he surveyed himself in the mirror. It was like someone had spread the skin of an eggplant around his eye, attaching it to his face with silver eye makeup. The color was oddly beautiful, and Jason would have marveled at it for much longer if one of the line cooks had not entered the men’s room and caught him. He nodded curtly, rinsed his face with cold water, straightened his hair, and headed back to the table.

  “So seriously, what story are you going to give Karen?”

  “My mom and Mark are going away this weekend.”

  “What?! Why aren’t we having a party?”

  “Because we’re trying to figure out what happened to Lacey.”

  “That doesn’t mean we can’t have a party.”

  “I’m not having a party. The point is, I have until Monday to come up with a story.”

  “Why don’t
I invite some people over to your place tonight, and they can help you come up with a decent cover.”

  “Don’t you get it? Sooner or later my mom is going to catch on to the fact that I have not been disappearing to work on some chemistry project, and when she does, I am not going to be able to get within five feet of my laptop without her looking over my shoulder. I need to find out the truth, and I need to do it now.”

  “So what’s your plan for your open house? Are you just going to sit around with Jenna and Max and talk the possibilities to death? Challenge Luke Gray to a duel? Accuse Troy of attempted murder? I probably have internal bleeding from what your precious Lacey’s mental case of a brother just did to me, we’ve made no progress, and all I’m asking is that we have a little fun while we play mission impossible.”

  Ironic that it was the exact same thing his mother had told him the night before — especially since he was fairly certain his mom would be horrified at the idea of opening up her own house to half of Roosevelt High. He thought of Jenna, too, accusing him of looking down on kids who had a good time. But how was he supposed to enjoy himself like a normal teenager when Lacey would never enjoy herself again? That was the part no one could explain to him. Everybody was so convinced high school was this big party, but if that was the case, then Jason was pretty sure his invitation had been lost in the mail.

  He glowered angrily at Rakesh, but Rakesh ignored him. “You could invite Jenna,” he said in a singsong.

  “Oh, god.” Jenna. Last night it had been so easy to talk to her, but now, between his own lack of clarity and her loyalty to Luke, the idea of explaining what had happened seemed too daunting. The only thing that didn’t seem too daunting was crawling into bed and pulling the covers over his head. His cheekbones were throbbing and his insides felt like they’d had a few whirls in a salad spinner, and he knew he’d have to make an appearance at school this afternoon unless he wanted to risk someone in the office calling his house to check up on him.