CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rebecca pulled the car up to the apartment after our successful outing to the shoe store. It had taken me quite a while to settle on a pair of shoes for the Christmas party, especially since the shoe was a madhouse with sales and early shoppers beating the season’s rush, plus the amount of gorgeous shoes in that place was staggering, at least to someone like me.
Eventually I settled on a pair of shoes that would have made Ada proud. At least Rebecca looked impressed. They were stilettos but with a 1.5-inch platform so the angle wasn’t too unbearable. They were raspberry red, almost magenta, and a smooth suede. I knew they didn’t match the teal dress but I found the color combination intriguing. Plus they took me from 5’2” to 5’7” and the feel of that height was intoxicating. The only problem was they were slightly too big but Rebecca got me to buy toe pads to stick at the bottom so I wouldn’t fall out as easily.
I gathered up the shiny bag and glanced up at the apartment. I had texted Dex to let him know I was on my way but he hadn’t responded.
“Well, thank you so much for lunch,” I told Rebecca.
“No hugs goodbye?” she asked, looking hurt, her maroon-lined lips pouting.
I blushed, not used to random hugging, and leaned over in the car to hug her. As I did so, I caught of whiff of heady wildflowers and Jasmine in her hair.
“Oh, before I forget!”she cried out and flipped open the console between us. She brought out a clear baggie of marijuana and put it on my lap.
“That’s for Dex,” she said simply.
I eyed the bag of weed in my lap. There was at least a quarter pound of it. “Um, what?”
“That’s what the money was for,” she said.
“Um…” >
“He goes through stages. I guess because he’s quitting smoking that he’s doing this now. I don’t know. We used to hang out a lot of Dean’s place and smoke but Jenn got suspicious and uppity about it. So don’t show that to her. You’ll get him in deep shit.”
“Okaaaay,” I said and placed the drugs in my purse, feeling paranoid and sketchy as I stepped out of the car and onto the rainy street.
I waved goodbye and was about to shut the door when she leaned forward.
“Wait, what are you doing before the Christmas party on Friday?”
I shrugged impatiently, wanting to get inside. A young couple with a baby walked past and they gave me a funny look. Oh, they could totally tell I was packing.
“How about I drop by before and we can get ready together. I’ll bring Emily. It’ll be fun.”
It did sound fun. I never really got to experience the whole “girls night out” primping ritual, even in college.
I smiled at her, feeling oddly touched and said, “That would be awesome.”
“Perfect,” she said and wiggled her ivory fingers at me. “See you then!”
I shut the door and then she was off.
I checked my phone to see if Dex had texted back but there was nothing. They had better be home; otherwise, I was shit out of luck.
But when I buzzed their apartment, I was let in with another anonymous click.
Turns out they were both home. Jenn let me in, giving me a strange look.
“I heard you went out for lunch with Becky,” she said. Her voice didn’t sound pleasant. It was almost jealous, if you could believe that. Then she spied the shoes.
“And you went shopping! What did you get?”
I decided to indulge Jenn. I placed the bag on the kitchen counter and took out the shoes. While she oohed and aahed over them, I looked around for Dex. He was nowhere to be seen but the door to the den was closed. I wondered how he was doing. The fact that I had messed with his meds hadn’t left my mind all afternoon.
“Where’s Dex?” I asked innocently.
She nodded at the room while rolling her eyes. “In there, working.”
She put the shoes back in the box and then looked me over, as if she couldn’t believe that I would be wearing them. Well, to be honest, I couldn’t really believe it either.
“Are you going to break them in?” she asked.
I frowned. “Break them in?”
“Yeah. You can’t just wear those straight out of the box, honey,” she said with an amused laugh and a hair toss. “You better start wearing them around the house. Today.”
I looked at the shoes like I was sizing up a new enemy. Who knew shoes came with so much responsibility?
“Actually I have a great idea,” she said, smiling and taking a step closer to me. My instinct was to step back, away from her, but I held my ground and tried to match her grin, which was predatory in nature. “You and I should go out tonight.”
Now Jenn wanted to go out with me? What the hell was going on today?
“Go out?” I repeated. “Like just us two?”
“Yeah. There’s a new club that opened near Pioneer Square. I think it would be fun. We haven’t had a chance to get to know each other yet.”
Oh, God, this was the worst idea on earth. Clubbing with Jenn? I couldn’t imagine a greater hell.
“I’m not really much of a club girl,” I admitted as politely as possible, hoping she got the hint.
“Neither am I. I mean, look at me. I’m thirty-one. I’m way too old for that shit, but that’s why it’ll be fun. And then you get to break in your shoes too.”
I’d rather break in my shoes by standing in a pile of Fat Rabbit’s shit, but I didn’t say that. I had to wonder what the hell was in it for her.
She put her tawny hand on my shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. She looked me straight in the eyes. Hers were all glittery and emerald and doe-eyed. Damn her, was she trying to glam me or something?
“I think it would make our man really happy if we did this,” she added.
I flinched. Our man? This was getting to be too much.
“I’ll think about it,” I said and turned away from her, picking up my bag and heading over to the den before she said something else that made me want to punch her lights out.
I hesitated at the door and listened. I couldn’t hear Dex working away inside. I looked sideways at Jenn, who was watching me, her arms crossed, then I knocked.
No answer. I knocked again.
“Dex?” I said loudly. Suddenly I had an image of him passed out on the floor, blood streaming from his nose, a tragic consequence of having played God with his medication. I pounded harder at that thought, the door rattling.
“Dex!” I yelled.
Finally it swung open and Dex was looking at me, worried as anything, but alive.
“What, what is it?” he said. He looked at me and then over at Jenn, who just shrugged at him and turned her attention to the fridge.
My heart was still beating fast but I gave him a look as nonchalant as possible. “Sorry, I didn’t think you could hear me.”
“I had my earphones on,” he explained and opened the door wider for me.
I walked in and he took his seat at the computer. He was in the middle of editing the footage we took. I paused and gestured to the door.
“Do you mind if I close the door?” I asked.
He was puzzled but didn’t protest when I did so. I was sure Jenn wasn’t going to be too happy about that.
I sat down on the bed as he turned in his chair to face me, leaning forward, elbows on his thighs, hands clasped.
“What’s the problem? Are you OK?” he asked. His eyes roamed my face inquisitively.
“Are you OK?” I blurted out.
“I’m…OK. A bit dizzy, actually, and tired, but I’ve been staring at this f*cking screen for the last few hours. Why? Do I look wonky?”
His eyes were a bit droopy, now that he mentioned it. But I was relieved to see that he seemed to be functioning relatively normally. And I knew that the dizziness was just the Valium working through him. He would have had to take another dose of his pills while I was gone.
“You look fine. But I have something for you.”
I reached into my purse and pulled out the baggie of weed. I held it in the air without giving it to him. His eyes lit up.
“Ah, my sweet Rebecca,” he said and reached for it.
I held it back. “No. First, tell me why you’re buying a quarter pound of pot.”
His mouth twisted into a confused smirk. “For the same reason I buy 26 ounces of Jack Daniels?”
“So you quit smoking but you’re smoking pot instead now. How does that work?”
“I don’t know, Perry Mason. It’s something to smoke. Since when did you become a narc?”
“I’m not a narc,” I said, looking down at my feet, but couldn’t find anything to add to that. The truth was, I didn’t really have a problem with him smoking pot. It was the fact that he would be doing so while on Valium, missing meds and taking the rest of his mystery pills. But I couldn’t say anything about that without blowing my cover.
“Perry?”
I looked up at him. He leaned in closer to me.
“What’s wrong?” He reached over with his hand for my knee. I moved it out of the way.
“Nothing, sorry. I guess I’m just weird about drugs now.”
“As you should be. Just don’t worry about me, OK, kiddo?”
I nodded and then gave him his weed. I wondered if he was going to place it in yet another hollowed-out book but instead he just stuck it in the top drawer of his desk. Interesting how it wasn’t as secret as his meds.
“So how was the lunch?” he asked.
“Great. Rebecca is…really cool.”
“I knew you guys would hit it off,” he said with a knowing grin and turned the chair to face the computer. “I’ve been going through our stuff and it’s looking f*cking rad so far. Still waiting to hear back from Dr. Hasselback about tomorrow night, though. We don’t have quite enough here for an episode but what we do have is f*cked up. Take a look at the handprint.”
I got up and peered over Dex’s shoulder at the screen. His black, shiny hair smelled like shampoo and some natural musk of his. I’m ashamed to admit that I closed my eyes for a split second and breathed it in deeply like a love-struck weirdo.
I turned my attention to the screen before Dex caught on. The handprint that we saw through the screen last night looked really good and bright on the computer. Clear as day, almost.
Then Dex zipped the edits back and showed me the shots that the camera got from being propped up on the sink inside the room. You could clearly see the doorknob turning back and forth. Of course, even though we knew we were the only ones there, it was one of those shots where the audience would probably assume it was faked.
Hence why we would need to get more footage. We just didn’t have enough to go on.
“What about the EVP, have you listened to that yet?” I asked, my mouth close to his ear. He shivered slightly at my breath and I took a little bit of pleasure in that.
“Not yet,” he said. He turned his head to look at me out of the corner of his eye. Our faces were so close that I could count the pores on his nose. “I’d say we could give it a listen now, but we don’t have enough time.”
I stood back. “Why, where are we going?”
“I’ve got some errands to run and then we’ve got dinner plans tonight with some friends.” He pushed pause on the footage and saved all of his work before shutting off the monitor.
“Am I included in these dinner plans?” I asked wearily, sitting back on the bed. The thought of having to go out for dinner with more strangers was tiring. I just wanted to hang out here and keep an eye on Dex.
“Of course you are. You’re my prisoner this week, don’t you remember? Personally, there are a million other people I’d rather introduce you to. Sarah and Jorge are really Jenn’s friends more than mine, but, you know, compromise and all that bullshit.”
“Dex Foray knows how to compromise?” I said. “You learn something new every day.”
“Yes, you do,” he said, and got up. He saw the shoes in the bag. “You went shopping with Rebecca?”
“Yep,” I said, pulling the shoes out of the box.
His brows went to the heavens. “Wow. Those are like…Jenn shoes.”
“These are not hooker shoes,” I said defensively.
“Well played,” he said. “You going to wear those to dinner?”
I told him no. I wasn’t even going to change since I already looked nicer than usual for the lunch date. But I didn’t mention the whole clubbing thing with Jenn. I was afraid there was a small chance he might think the whole thing was a good idea.
Unfortunately, Jenn didn’t keep her mouth shut about it. She was in the middle of parking the Mini near the restaurant when she brought it up to Dex.
“Did you see Perry’s shoes?” she asked him as she ran the back wheel onto the curb. Worst driver ever.
“I did. Dangerous looking things.”
“I want her to wear them clubbing later. She needs to break them in.”
Dex’s hand flew out and caught Jenn’s arm as she straightened the wheel and attempted parallel parking for the second time. “Hold up. What? Clubbing?”
He looked behind him at me. I tried to shake my head as subtly as possible but Jenn said, “Yes, I thought some girl time would be great for us.”
“Is Rebecca going?”
“No,” Jenn said, scrunching up her nose in distaste. “Why would she? It’s just Perry and me. I thought it would be great to let our hair down and get to know each other. Isn’t that right, Perry?”
Now she had turned in her seat to look at me. Both of them were waiting for some sort of reaction. I could see that Dex knew how uncomfortable I felt but he didn’t say anything. A “oh, let Perry stay home tonight” would have been a sufficient touch from him, but no.
“Yes,” I said monotonously. “Girl time.”
Dex shook his head, “You girls are f*cking nuts. It’s a Wednesday night. Who goes clubbing on a Wednesday?”
“Aww, Dexy Poo, are you jealous that we are leaving you out?”
Dexy Poo? Excuse me while I vomit.
“Ha!” he said, slapping his knee. “I sure wish I could get hit on by douchebags all night, dance to asinine monkey beats and drink $20 beers… Jesus Christ, woman, you want me to park the car for you?”
Jenn was now going back in for a third attempt at parallel parking. She glared at Dex but managed to do it this time. Third time’s a charm.
I got out of the car, squeezing out between the seats and looked around me. I had no idea what part of Seattle we were in, maybe Bellevue? It was quite a smart-looking area with lots of little cozy-looking cafes and posh boutiques that were done up in twinkling Christmas decorations. It was another reminder that the season was upon us and Christmas would be here before we knew it. I just couldn’t get into the spirit for the life of me. It seemed like my whole life had boiled down to just this one week in Seattle. Looking beyond this trip seemed impossible.
It had stopped raining, too, which was good, but the wind was picking up and for once the air was fraught with winter chill. The kind of chill that smells like snow, like a massive breeze had stormed down a snowy mountainside and danced in and out between the city buildings. I held my coat close around me, stuck my hands deep in the pockets and joined Dex and Jenn on the sidewalk.
>
“We’re a few blocks away, but at least it’s not raining,” Jenn said as we walked down the street together.
“Heaven forbid you try to find a parking spot close to where we need to be,” Dex sniped from behind us.
Both Jenn and I turned and gave him a look that probably matched. Maybe mine looked more concerned than Jenn’s.
“What the hell is up your ass tonight?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he shot back but as he did so, he winced considerably.
I stopped and made him stop, too, by placing my hand on his chest briefly. I was starting to worry again. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said, calmer now. He avoided Jenn’s eyes but once he saw mine, he relented and said, “Just a sudden migraine or something.”
Uh oh. The guilt took hold of my heart and squeezed it.
Jenn sighed and gave him the keys to the Mini. “There’s some Excedrin in the glove compartment.”
He nodded thanks, wincing at the movement, and took off down the road back to the car. Jenn pulled at my arm, turning me around and led me on our way to the restaurant, walking slow enough for Dex to catch up.
“Does he get headaches often?” I asked, hoping that he did. He never seemed to when he was around me. Maybe Jenn brought them on. That wouldn’t have surprised me at all.
“Sometimes,” she said casually. “He used to when we first started dating. Not so much in the last year or so. I don’t know, I don’t really pay attention.”
No kidding, I thought.
She caught the look on my face and explained, “You know Dex, it’s always something.”
That was true but he was still her boyfriend. Speaking of which…
I stopped and looked behind us expecting to see Dex heading back from the car. Only I couldn’t see him anywhere on the dark street.
I glanced at Jenn. “Where did he go?”
She shook her head and then had a quick look at her diamante watch.
“I have no idea but we’re already running late.”
Yeah, cuz you can’t park worth shit.
And then she turned around again and started back on her way. I couldn’t believe it. I stood my ground and said, “I’m going to go find him.”
She sighed, long and exasperated, but it made her stop. She came back to me and said, “Fine.”
We hurried down the sidewalk, looking for him. Maybe he was back at the car. Maybe he popped into a store.
But the car was empty and the closest store was a linen shop. Not exactly Dex territory.
“Dex?” I called out. A few passersby turned at the sound of my voice but kept walking.
“Arghh,” Jenn growled, and pulled out her phone. “I’ll just call him.”
We waited for a few seconds. I could hear the phone ring through her phone. And then I heard Dex’s suddenly ironic “Final Countdown” ringtone ring out into the air. Jenn and I looked at each other and then took off down the street toward the sound, which was actually past the car in the opposite direction.
“Dex?” she called as we looked around us.
We followed the sound, the ringtone that kept repeating, sounding more ominous with each tinny ring.
We turned a slight corner and found ourselves looking down a dirty, narrow alley. Halfway down, beside a Dumpster, Dex was sitting on the ground, his head between his legs, his hands covering his ears.
The sight shocked my heart. It apparently shocked Jenn, too, because she just stood there at the entrance to the alley, looking more annoyed and afraid then concerned. I gave her a crazy look and ran over to Dex as fast as I could go.
“Dex!” I cried out softly and dropped to my knees in front of him, the cold wet ground immediately soaking me.
I placed my hands gently on his shoulders but he didn’t look up. I looked wildly at Jenn and couldn’t believe she was still standing there.
“Jenn!” I yelled at her. I turned back to Dex and scooched in closer. I took a quick look at his body; he seemed fine, but was behaving like a little boy in the middle of a nightmare. I couldn’t see his face at all and it was unnerving.
I put my hands on his and lifted them off his ears. They were cold. I squeezed them and slowly tried to rub some life back into them.
“Dex?” I whispered. “It’s Perry. Dex, are you OK? I’m here. You’re safe. Please just let me know you’re OK.”
I felt Jenn come behind me and stop.
“He’s fine,” she said.
My jaw dropped and I whipped my head around to give her a vicious look. “How the hell do you know he’s fine?”
“Because he used to do this. Didn’t you, Dex? I thought he was done with the panic attacks.”
“Panic attacks?” I repeated and looked back at him. He slowly raised his head and looked at us. Me first, then Jenn. His eyes were red like he had been crying.
“I am fine,” he said, emotionless.
“See,” she said. “Now I’m going to the restaurant before Sarah and Jorge think we’ve ditched them.”
And then she just turned on her heel and walked down the alley, disappearing around the corner.
I wiped her behavior out of my head and turned my attention back to Dex. How could he be fine? He was sitting on the wet ground in a city alley, in the dark. He was the furthest thing from fine and even if it was just a panic attack, that was nothing to brush off.
He wasn’t looking at me anymore. His eyes were closed shut. I touched his cheek and laid my palm against his icy face.
“What happened?”
He shook his head slightly.
“Please, Dex,” I implored and leaned in closer. I put my other hand on his face and raised his head somewhat. He opened his eyes and looked into mine. My insides crumbled at how lost and scared he looked. Seeing him like this made brought the threat of tears to my eyes.
“What happened? You can tell me. You can trust me. You know you can. Is it…your medication?”
I don’t know why I asked this since I was pretty sure that’s what it was, but I needed to hear it from him. This was turning out to be one terrible idea.
But he did that slight shake of the head again. It actually didn’t make me feel any better.
“Perry,” he whispered, his eyes flitting to the right, toward the Dumpster. “Can you go look down the alley? And tell me if someone is there?”
“Someone?” I asked. He just nodded and closed his eyes tightly again. “OK, no problem.”
I got up and peered down the alley. I couldn’t see anyone. It was a dead end, after all.
I even took a few steps toward the Dumpster. I looked around the edge of it but there was no one there either.
I turned around to go back to Dex.
And then I did see someone.
Standing at the other end of the alley, where the people were passing by. It was just a silhouette, but one that I had seen far too often these past two days.
She wasn’t moving, but against the grainy streetlights I could see the blood slowly falling off of her.
Splat. Splat. Splat.
Then she turned, her broken neck at that unnatural angle, and was gone.
I walked over to Dex. He looked up at me. I stared down at him. We both saw it. And now I knew the problem.
I held out my hand for him and told him to get up. After a moment of hesitation he did so, and I steadied him with my hands as he got used to his feet.
“You saw her too,” I told him.
He breathed in deeply but didn’t exhale. I stepped closer to him, close enough so that he had to back into the damp alley wall. I ran my hands through his thick hair and held them there, holding his head steady.
“You saw her,” I pressed. “You saw her, you saw what I’ve been seeing this whole time.”
“Yeah. I saw her.”
He exhaled and tried to look at the ground but I held his head tightly. Headache be damned. He was going to look at me.
“What is the problem? She’s a dead girl. She’s a ghost. This is what we do, Dex. We see ghosts. We see things others can’t. Why is this any different?”
“Because I shouldn’t be seeing her!” he said through gritted teeth.
“Why not?” I asked. “Why not? Why not for you? Why do I have to?!”
“You don’t understand,” he said, trying to move his head out of my grasp. I grabbed his hair tighter and held him in place.
“Tell me then!”
His eyes darted around, trying desperately to not meet with mine. He was going to lie, I knew it.
“I…I know her.”
I wasn’t expecting that. I let my hands drop off of his head.
“What?”
“This is not a good sign, Perry. This is not a good sign,” he said. His eyes were watering. His low voice quavered. He looked so lost, so small, so helpless and afraid.
I stepped closer again and brought my hands around his shoulders and brought his head down into the nook of my neck. I held him for a few moments, feeling his cold skin against mine, his breath as he exhaled slowly. Eventually he took his arms and wrapped them around me, holding me so tight it almost took my own breath away. My insides felt like they were mourning, for him and for whatever pain he was going through. And if I had anything to do with it.
“It’s Abby,” he said after a few minutes, speaking the words into my neck in wet bursts.
“Your…ex…your old girlfriend Abby?”
He nodded.
Oh boy. That was a f*cking doozey. It explained so much. His ex had died in college after a fight with Dex. She had been cheating on him, Dex went over and they fought. Then she locked herself in the bathroom with a bottle of gin, escaped through the window and drove away. And then ended up being another victim of drunk driving.
And here she was, suddenly haunting Dex. But why now? Why now that I was in the picture?
“Dex…why do you think this is happening now? Has it happened before?”
He relaxed a bit in his grip but still held me in an embrace. I wasn’t about to let him go, so this was fine with me.
“No. I mean…” He brought his head away from my neck so he could talk properly. Our mouths were still only a few inches apart. He rested his forehead against me and kept his eyes closed. “Last time I saw her…was after she had died. She…well, she was everywhere I was. And it drove me insane. And I guess with my past…it was too much. And that’s how I got in the institute.”
“She literally drove you insane?” I asked, voice low, conscious of how close our mouths were.
“Yeah,” he breathed out. “Just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
I thought about that and tried to figure out what to do next. What was there to do? She was a ghost and like it or not, we were both seeing her.
“Did she try to harm you before?” I asked.
He sighed and straightened up, breaking up the closeness of our embrace. He looked around him at the dark alley.
“Not exactly,” he said. “But I never gave her the chance.”
“How did you get rid of her?”
“Medication,” he said. “Therapy. Whatever they did to me.”
At the mention of his medication, I swallowed hard and looked straight forward at his chest.
I debated on saying anything for a while. I didn’t want to make him suspicious. I already had a feeling he’d go home and check his meds, which meant I could easily be busted if I wasn’t fast and careful. In the end I couldn’t figure out what to say. So I just gave him a small smile.
“You’ll be OK, Dex,” I said. I was so close to leaning in an inch and kissing him delicately on the lips. Very close.
“Will I?” he breathed back, his frantic eyes powering down with a wash of passion.
I was starting to feel competing feelings of lust rise up throughout my body. It frightened me enough that I had to pull back. I let go of his back and looked away, back up at the end of the alley. Abby was still gone.
“Look, I know this is hard for you,” I said, finding my breath hard to control. “But at least we both see her. We’re not crazy. You shouldn’t have even been on any of those medications anyway, or in therapy. You can’t cure ghosts with doctors and pills.”
“Can’t you?” he asked.
I looked at him sharply, expecting him to be vindictive. But he still looked alone and cold, which melted my heart again. I reached for his hand and held it in mine.
Dex, I love you. That’s what I wanted to say. I wanted to tell him that and confess my sins of what I did to him.
But of course, I didn’t do either of those things. I just gave his hand a squeeze and said, “I’m in this with you, you know that.”
He nodded and fished a piece of Nicorette out of his pocket. “I really wish we could just go back home and be alone.”
Be alone? I was unable to hide the shocked look on my face.
He caught the expression and shot me a sly grin as he popped the gum in his mouth.
“Don’t worry, kiddo. I just meant I’d rather be with you and not with any of these f*cks that Jenn wants us to eat with.”
“I thought they were your mutual friends,” I said, crossing my arms.
“I said this was a compromise, didn’t I?” he said.
“So what do we do? Go eat or go home?”
He sighed and stepped away from the wall, shooting an anxious glance up and down the alley.
“Am I fit enough to go for dinner?” he asked.
I looked him over with a discerning eye. Of course everyone looked garish under streetlights in a dirty alley, but he looked OK. Eyes were less bloodshot and his hair was sexily messy thanks to my handiwork.
>
“Show me your ass,” I said to him, turning him around with my hands.
“Perry,” he admonished in fake shock but he let me twirl him. The back of his pants were all wet from sitting on the ground but luckily his black cargo jacket was long enough to cover most of it. He had quite the perky butt, which helped.
“I think you’ll pass,” I admitted. “I don’t know what Jenn’s going to think…”
“Who cares,” he said with a shrug and straightened up his collar.
“As long as you don’t,” I said sternly.
“I’ll be OK,” he said. He took a step forward, trying to walk away but I grabbed him and brought him closer to me. He was taken aback at my gruffness.
“You’re not allowed to lie to me anymore, you got it?” I said. “You tell me everything that’s going on. The next time you see Abby, you tell me, just as I would tell you. Just as I have told you. We’re in the same boat now. I don’t know what the f*ck she’s doing here or what she wants, but it’s something and I don’t think she’s going to go away until she gets it. You…me, we both have to be prepared for this. Got it?”
He blinked hard and then eyed my Kung-Fu grip on his arm. “I’ve got it. Wow. Perry…when did you…”
“When did I what?” I challenged.
He smiled. It started off small and then spread across his face until the corners of his mouth cracked. “When did you start acting like me?”
I paused at that. But just for a second. Then I hoisted him forward (which was really just a foot) like I was throwing him against the wall. He laughed and trotted off toward the street. I joined him and we went to the restaurant, leaving the alley and Abby behind.