“What? Raped me? Hurt me?” Keira spat. “So could the guard who caught me in the Hall. Pretty much everyone in your world thinks I’m an experiment that needs to be ended, so what’s one more asshole who thinks he owns me? I took care of myself. I took care of you. A little gratitude wouldn’t be completely misplaced here.”
Walker pulled the car over to the side of the road and killed the engine. For a long moment he was silent, staring out the windshield at the empty street. A single slash of darkness appeared on the side of his neck, fading almost as quickly as it had come. Finally, he turned to look at Keira, his eyes sorrowful. “You’re right. You are so, one hundred percent right. I know you saved me. If you hadn’t come back, the guards would have taken me, and probably Smith, too.” He shuddered. “Thank you. I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner.”
Keira’s anger leaked out of her and she leaned back against the seat, limp. “It’s okay. I didn’t mean to freak out. I’m really not the freaking-out type. I just—”
“You’ve just had people trying to kill you all morning,” Walker interrupted her. “You’re not supposed to be all calm and composed after that, Keira. Let’s agree that we might both need a little help in the saving our own lives department, okay?”
Keira closed her eyes briefly, shutting out the disbelief and despair that she was even having this conversation in the first place.
“Okay,” she agreed. She would get through this the same way she’d gotten through every hard piece of music she’d ever played—by focusing on the next line, and nothing more. Not the movement she’d just played, not the hard crescendo that came later. Only what was in front of her. One finger stroke after the next. It was the only way through. The only way out.
“So, what next?” Walker asked.
Keira looked down at her bare, muddy feet. Her naked toes were mottled with cold.
“I need shoes,” she said. “And food. Let’s start with that.”
Three quarter notes and a rest. Food and shoes.
One thing at a time.
? ? ?
Keira had inhaled the bag of fast food almost before Walker disappeared into the shoe store. She’d shoved some money into his hand and instructed him to get whatever he could find in a size eight that was less than thirty dollars. She knew he hadn’t wanted to take her money.
She also knew that he could read her face well enough to realize that arguing would be pointless.
Alone in the car, she counted up the cash left in her wallet. It was barely enough to buy food for the next couple of days, much less enough for a place to stay or new clothes. And her clothes were starting to stink.
She was going to have to go home. The thought made her scalp prickle. It was so close to the Hall. The whole area was swarming with guards. But where else was she going to get clothes?
Her phone rang and Keira dug it out of the bottom of the bag, noticing that her battery was getting low.
It was Susan. Susan, who wore almost exactly the same size as she did. Who could save Keira now in more ways than one.
Oh, thank God.
“Hello?”
“Hi. It’s me. Why are you not at school? Have you heard from Walker or Smith?” Susan’s voice was all wrong and it sent a chill down Keira’s spine.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I think I need to talk to my parents. Or maybe even call the cops. I don’t know. I just talked to Smith and I think he’s lost his mind.”
Susan’s choice of words made Keira’s throat seize.
“What happened?” she choked out.
“We had this really amazing night last night, and he was totally saying all this stuff about how he hadn’t expected to feel the way he did. I was like, ‘Okay, I need to think about whether I want this to be more than a rebound.’ ”
Keira gagged silently.
“But then he called and was saying all this weird stuff about how he and I couldn’t be together and it wasn’t Walker’s fault, but that he still hated him for it. It didn’t make any sense, but I figured Smith was just being a drama queen, because, you know, he’s sort of a drama queen. But I still want to know what’s going on. Did I get dumped? Again?”
The burger Keira’d eaten swam unpleasantly in her stomach. There was no way out of this except to explain it to Susan.
“I don’t know what to say. I do think we need to talk, though.”
“Hang on, I’m getting a text.” When Susan came back on the line, her voice had gone squeaky. “I’ll say we need to talk. Apparently, word is out about you and Jeremy.”
“What do you mean? There is no ‘me and Jeremy.’ ”
“Not according to this. Tommy just texted me that Jeremy said the two of you hooked up this morning.”
Keira’s stomach dropped. The cell phone Jeremy had in his hand before she’d driven away with Walker—the horrible look he’d had on his face . . .
Oh, no.
Oh, no, no, nonono.
“It’s not true,” she said adamantly. “I mean, I’m with Walker. Why would I hook up with Jeremy?”
“So, why aren’t you at school with the rest of us? It’s not that I don’t believe you. I do. But it looks really bad.”