21

Geneva

Geneva stood on the front porch, waiting for her mother. Her parents still wouldn’t let her ride her bike because of Alice getting murdered. More than ever, she couldn’t wait to get her driver’s license. Only seven more months. It was stupid that she had to be driven to and from dance classes, to and from her friends’ houses, and even to babysitting jobs two blocks away. She felt like a prisoner, some overprotected girl from the nineteenth century who had to have a chaperone. It was embarrassing.

Everyone knew about the murder, but other parents didn’t keep their kids locked up. She hadn’t even mentioned her gap-year plans since Alice died. The way her mother was behaving about going from point A to point B in Flagstaff, Arizona, one of the safest places in the world, she would flip out if Geneva tried to talk about traveling around the world.

Something caught her peripheral vision. She turned and saw Kenny walking toward his garage. It seemed strange he wouldn’t go into the garage through the house, but people were hard to figure out sometimes. They did a lot of strange things. She waved, even though her mother had told her over and over to stay away from him. She was far away; it was fine to wave. It seemed rude not to, which was normally something that concerned her mother.

She called out to him: “Hi, Kenny.”

He stopped and stared at her for a moment, then began walking toward her.

She stepped off the front porch and met him halfway. If her mother was going to take forever finishing up her emails, coming close to making Geneva late for her class, then she could at least spend her time doing something interesting instead of just standing on the porch.

“What’s up?” Kenny said.

“Not much. Are you going out?”

“Why? Do you need a ride?”

“No. My mom’s taking me to my dance class.”

He scowled.

“What’s wrong?”

“I won’t be around here much longer, thanks to your mom.”

“What?”

“She’s been talking shit about me to my mother, to everyone on the street, telling people I killed her sister.”

“She didn’t exactly—”

“She even told the detective.”

“Yeah. But why won’t you be around? They aren’t going to arrest you, are they?”

“Nope. Not getting arrested. But she told Deborah all kinds of lies, and now she kicked me out.”

“That’s awful. Can’t you make her understand?”

He circled his finger by his left ear. “My mom isn’t all there. You can’t explain anything to her.”

“She seems fine to me.”

“You have to be around her on a regular basis before you notice. But after a while, it’s obvious—she says the same things over and over. It drives me mental. Maybe it’s good I’m leaving. Hopefully, she’ll be okay without me to help out. But your mom didn’t think about that. Some friend.”

“Where are you going?”

“Back to Phoenix, probably. Maybe I’ll go to California and check out LA. There’s more going on in California.”

She nodded. “It’s pretty quiet here. Unless you count murder.” She laughed.

Kenny laughed with her.

She liked that she’d made him laugh, but she felt a stab of guilt. It wasn’t funny, but the words just came out. In one way, it was a little funny, weird-funny. This wasn’t the kind of place where there was a lot of excitement. She had a sudden thought that she should go to LA with Kenny. But that would probably mess up her life. She really did want to finish high school. She got good grades, and she definitely wanted to go to college. Eventually. Still, she’d never been to LA. “Do you know people in LA?”

“A few. Shouldn’t be a problem. But I was staying here to try to save money. And helping my mom out. I don’t get why your mother has a thing against me. It pisses me off. She thinks she can say whatever she wants and doesn’t think about how it affects me.”

“Yeah.” Geneva wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t want to say bad things about her mother to him. Her mother seemed to think it was totally possible Kenny might have killed her aunt. Still, it wasn’t right to go around saying that about people when you didn’t have any proof.

“How old are you?” Kenny shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Fifteen.”

He tilted his head, studying her as if he didn’t believe her. Or maybe he was trying to figure out what she would look like when she was eighteen.

“You seem like an old soul.”

She laughed. “I never know what that means.”

“Have people said it to you before?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“Then why do you wonder?”

“What?”

He laughed. “Never mind. But you do seem older than fifteen.”

“I’m an only child. Some people say it makes you more mature.”

“Makes sense. Alice said you were whip-smart.”

Geneva smiled. She felt heat spreading across her cheeks and neck. Hearing something about her aunt felt good. It was cool that Aunt Alice thought about her enough that she talked to other people about her. She wondered if Alice had told people she worked with and her friends in Phoenix about her whip-smart niece.

“Are you?”

She shrugged. “How should I know?”

“I bet you know.”

She glanced toward the house. Where was her mother? She was taking forever. She pulled her phone out of her pocket.

“Getting bored talking to the old guy?” Kenny asked.

“No. I just wanted to see what time it is.” She shoved the phone into her pocket. They had less than ten minutes before class started. She hated being late, and the teacher would be annoyed if she missed the warm-up.

“I’ll let you go,” Kenny said.

“It’s fine. She’ll come out when she’s done.”

“I don’t think she’ll like seeing you talking to me.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “She hates me, kiddo. She thinks I’m a cold-blooded killer.”

“She—”

“They haven’t caught anyone, so she thinks it’s me. And she’s gonna keep hating me, even when they catch the real killer, because her sister was coming on to me and she doesn’t like it. Not at all.”

Geneva felt slightly ill. She didn’t want to talk about her aunt coming on to anyone. She didn’t want to hear anything about her aunt’s love life—or sex life. She glanced at the house.

“You are hot to get going, aren’t you?”

“I just don’t want to be late,” she said.

“Why?”

She stared at him.

“What’s the big deal if you’re late?”

“I…it’s rude.”

“Geneva!”

Her mother was on the front porch, screaming as if a mountain lion were charging at her, ready to tear her arms off.

“Geneva! You’re going to be late.”

Kenny laughed.

“Bye. It was nice talking to you,” Geneva said. “Good luck in LA.”

“I’m not leaving today.”

“Okay. Well, bye.” She turned, and suddenly her mother was right beside her. “Get in the car.”

Geneva stared at her mother. She wasn’t used to her mother speaking to her like that. Sure, she acted sometimes like Geneva was too young to look out for herself, but she never ordered her around.

“Geneva. Now.”

Geneva backed up, out of her mother’s line of sight. She really wanted to hear what she said to Kenny. Even more, she wanted to hear his response. He was kind of funny sometimes.

Her mother stabbed her finger at Kenny’s breastbone. “Don’t you ever come near my daughter again or I’ll get a restraining order. Do you understand?”

Kenny stared at her mother for several seconds, his expression unreadable. Then he stepped toward her, and before she could move, he wrapped his hands around her neck.

“Hey!” Geneva moved toward her mother’s side, not sure what to do. Hadley kicked at Kenny’s legs, unable to make contact. He leaned closer. He put his mouth up to her ear, speaking in a loud growl. “This is harassment. Stalking. You’d better watch your step. Ya know, your little girl seemed pretty interested when I said I was thinking of moving to LA. Do you understand?”

As Geneva watched, her stomach turning, her hands hanging useless beside her, Kenny stuck his tongue in her mother’s ear. Then he let go of her neck, turned and jogged back toward home.

Her mother began sobbing, her whole body shaking, tears pouring out of her eyes. Geneva put her arms around her and held her tight. “It’s okay. I’m sorry. I won’t talk to him ever again. I’m so, so sorry.”

In the car, they didn’t talk about it. Geneva was late to class, but the teacher’s disappointed look barely registered. She felt confused and angry. Life was impossible to figure out, and at this moment, she wanted to be as far away from all these people as she could possibly go.