After Alex left with the cop, I told Mrs. Rogers I needed to go see the school nurse because of my shoulder. And my elbow. She didn’t argue. I think she wanted me out of the room. No one would look at me, except for Shelley, with her insinuating smirk.
I didn’t bother going to the nurse, though. I left campus and drove aimlessly around in circles around town until school was over. It was a waste of gas that I couldn’t really afford, but I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t stay there, and I couldn’t go home. Being alone was the only way to keep clear of questions.
I dropped the iPod down into the depths of my backpack before I went inside, unwilling to explain away such an expensive gift to Gran. And somehow I didn’t think she’d appreciate it the way I did. She’d never understood why I brought my MP3 player to school every day.
“Be brave,” she was always telling me. “Don’t hide!”
Like that was possible. She had either forgotten what school was like, or once upon a time it had actually been a kinder and gentler place, like something out of a fairy tale. Of course, her school had been about a tenth the size of mine. It was easier to hide from a few than from many.
“You got a phone call already, Aria,” said Granddad to me as I came in the door, a smile on his face, his tone light. “Guess that Will boy isn’t so strange after all, if he couldn’t even wait half an hour after school to call you.” He had his shotgun across his lap, cleaning it with great show, though I wasn’t the one I imagined he intended the display for. “So I got this out, just in case.”
“You old coot,” said Gran from the kitchen. “Don’t pay him any mind, Aria. I’ll make sure he puts it away before Will comes over again.” She stuck her head in the door. “He is going to come again, I’m assuming. Porter wrote his number down for you. It’s on the fridge.”
“Thanks, Gran,” I said, pointedly ignoring Granddad. I put my things away in my bedroom and then went into the kitchen to grab the slip of paper Granddad had written Will’s number on. He’d doodled a shaky heart in the corner. I couldn’t help but smile, just for a second. He might actually be happier about a boy calling on me than I was. I went in the living room and picked up the phone. Granddad had set the shotgun against the wall, the display over for now. But I knew he’d find a way to have it out if he was home the next time Will came to visit, no matter what Gran might say. That was the kind of thing he loved to do. Gran always said that if there were a chain to pull, Granddad would pull it.
“Just being polite,” I said. That wasn’t entirely true. I wished I had a cell phone for the first time in my life. I’d never really needed one before. I considered my options, and finally took the phone into my bedroom, the cord stretching down the hall far enough that I made it through my bedroom door. Maybe I could talk them into at least buying a cordless phone with some of the money I’d helped win. After all, I didn’t usually ask for much. And it wasn’t like I’d ever had a boy call me before. Clearly.
I closed my door and sat down, my back against it. It was as far away as I could get, tethered as I was to the phone. I dialed the number, committing it to memory.
“Hello,” answered Will.
“It’s Aria,” I said. “Granddad said you called?”
“Hey! Heard it was quite a scene in art class today. Someone said the cops dragged Alex out of there.”
“They didn’t drag him,” I said. “He left with them. One of them. I mean, there was only one cop. Not like a brigade or anything.” My hand clenched the curly plastic cord, straightening out a few loops.
He laughed. “I thought that was too good to be true. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that the police towed away Jade’s car earlier. So they obviously believed you.”
“Oh.” I don’t know why my mind always seemed to go into full panic mode whenever I talked to Will. Even when I wasn’t answering questions I still babbled like an idiot.
“I hope you’re liking the playlist,” he said.
The abrupt change of subject startled me, and I let the cord go. It sprang back into shape. “Yes, very much. Thank you again.”
“I put a few special songs on there for you. Let me know what you think.”
I didn’t need a prophecy to tell me I was going to fall asleep that night listening to the music, trying to decipher the meaning behind every song I heard and wondering which one was one of the special songs. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the one from Fall Out Boy.
There was a knock on the door, and Granddad’s muffled voice came through. “Aria, you’ve got a visitor,” he said gruffly. “Another boy.”
My heart froze. Alex? Why? Would the police have told him a girl tipped them off? They couldn’t know it was me. I’d been so careful. Would they have told him?
“Will, I have to go,” I stammered. “There’s—I just have to go. Talk to you tomorrow?”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll see you at lunch, if not before.”
I hung up the phone and opened the door. I knew it was him, but still my breath caught, seeing Alex again, sitting on our couch, making it look impossibly small. Granddad was back in his chair, cleaning his shotgun. I should have known. Alex was studiously not looking at him.
“Alex,” I said, ever the queen of the obvious.
“I need to talk to you,” he said, standing up. “Outside?”
“On the outside, always looking in,” I responded. I looked helplessly at Granddad. He and Alex both just stared back at me, Alex’s face growing darker. He probably thought I was making fun on what he’d said the other night.
Gran came to the kitchen door. “You go on outside and talk, Aria. It’ll be fine.”
I brushed past Alex, and he followed me out onto the porch.
He didn’t say a word, just stayed right on my heels. I almost walked right on off into the woods before I thought better of it. In the woods was where Jade had been murdered. I stopped at the edge, where the scrub pines began taking over and the sandy ground was carpeted with scratchy dead pine needles.
“What is it with you?” he asked softly behind me.
“I am what I am,” I said, which, considering everything, wasn’t as strange an answer as it could have been. “And you are what you are.”
I felt him step even closer to me. He whispered, even quieter now. “You’re not really pregnant, are you?”
I swirled around, my face immediately flaming red. He was too close, but I didn’t back down, not this time. “No!” Even my inner oracle was emphatic. “How can you even ask me that?”
He didn’t answer my question or even flinch. He just changed the subject. “I saw you at Jade’s service with Will. And at lunch today, too.”
“So?” My cheeks were still burning. Pregnant? How dare he?
“I told you to stay away from him,” he said.
I clenched my hand into a fist to stop it from shaking and hid it in the folds of my skirt. “I don’t see how it’s any of your business who I talk to.” I walked a few steps away and then paced back. “And I really don’t know why you’re here. Look, thanks for standing up for me in art class again and everything, but it isn’t necessary.”
He reached out and touched my hurt shoulder. I cringed. “Yeah,” he said. “I can see that. I saw how hard you hit that desk. You ought to get this checked out.”
Like we had money for doctor visits. It wasn’t broken. I’d be fine in a few days. I pulled away from him and took a few steps backward to put more distance between us. “Why do you care?”
He was silent for a moment, standing there with his hands at his sides. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
That made two of us. “I think you should go,” I said.
He didn’t move his feet, but he leaned toward me. “The police think I had something to do with Jade’s death,” he said finally. “They said we ran over that guy with her car. That I was with her when she did it. Or maybe they think I ran him over, I don’t know.”
I didn’t know if I should try to act surprised. I held my tongue instead and settled for not moving at all. Caught in the proverbial headlights.
“They think I killed her, but they have no proof.” He paused, and I wasn’t sure if he was even talking to me anymore. “Why would they even think I would want to kill her?”
“Will,” I said and bit my tongue. It was obvious to me now. He had been envious of Will and Jade’s history together. Who knows what it had to do with the hit-and-run. Maybe nothing at all. It was all about jealousy. I took another step away.
He seemed to expand in size, drawing his shoulders up, his fists clenched. “What did—”
“Aria!” called Granddad from the porch. “Dinner! It’s time for your friend to leave!”
I’d never been so glad that Gran and Granddad liked to eat senior-citizen early. I couldn’t answer a question half-asked, though even that small bit buzzed around my head for a minute. I walked around Alex, giving him a wide berth. “I have to go,” I said firmly.
I got only a half-growl in reply, but he stomped off to his car. I turned to watch him leave from the safety of the front porch.
“You think I had something to do with it, too, don’t you?” he called out to me. He didn’t wait for an answer, but my heart sank a little more as I whispered, “Yes,” to the silent trees.