“Jo? Are you okay?” Nick moved toward her, placing a hand on her shoulder, but Josie shook free. It was even worse here than it was back home. Not only was this Nick not in love with her, he absolutely hated her.
Josie’s face burned. She was so humiliated, like she was reliving Madison and Nick’s betrayal. She hadn’t thought anything could be as bad as that moment, but the hatred she saw in Nick’s eyes was definitely worse. She wanted to get out of there, to run as far away from Nick Fiorino as she possibly could, in this universe or any other.
Nick glanced up at the horizon. “Sun’s going down. You’d better get in my car. I’ll drive you home.”
“Get in your car?” Was he crazy? Josie backed away. “I’m not going anywhere with you.” She wasn’t going to be the victim anymore. She wouldn’t put herself in the position to be hurt by this Nick in the same way she’d been hurt by her own. It was the only thing she could control.
“Jo, wait!”
Too late. Josie didn’t care if Jo’s BMW sat in the school parking lot all night. She needed to get out of there. Now. She swung around and stumbled around the corner of the gym, out of Nick’s sight.
TWENTY-FOUR
6:45 P.M.
HOW COULD SHE HAVE BEEN SO STUPID? HOW could she have thought things would be any different here? Whatever she’d seen in her dreams, whatever Jo had led her to believe, was all a fantasy.
Shadows started to creep across the landscape as Josie wandered aimlessly beyond the front lawn of Bowie Prep. She glanced at her watch. A few more hours until she could cross back through the mirror to her own wreck of a life. A life that suddenly didn’t seem so bad.
Josie paused when she reached the sidewalk. Nick was right: the sun was going down and it would be dark soon, and her feet hurt in the high-heeled booties. She should walk back to the parking lot and drive Jo’s swanky car home. But she couldn’t. Nick might see her, and that . . . well, she’d had enough humiliation for a lifetime at the hands of Nick Fiorino. It was only four miles or so back to Jo’s house. She’d just suck up the pain and walk.
The streets were mostly deserted. No one sat on their porches enjoying the warm spring evening. No one was out walking their dog. No one pushing kids in strollers. A few cars whizzed past her, and several of them honked at her. Well, at least someone somewhere in some universe still found her attractive.
As dusk stole across the town, an unnatural chill descended. Josie looked up, expecting to see towering thunderheads piling up into the heavens, but the sky was clear, though perhaps darker than Josie would have thought for that time of evening.
The bright streetlamps bathed the neighborhood with light, but without warmth or cheerfulness. Unlike the ones on Josie’s block back home, these were starkly blue, sterile, and extremely intense. In house after house, blinds were being drawn, shutters latched, like every household was hunkering down for the night. As Josie tramped along, she got a creeping feeling up the back of her spine. The entire town had an air of hostility.
Maybe it was the strangeness of the neighborhood, or maybe it was her confrontation with Nick, but in addition to seeing figures in the shadows, Josie now thought she could hear someone walking behind her. Footsteps, heavy and sharp, matching her beat for beat. But every time she turned her head, there was no one behind her.
Without thinking, Josie quickened her pace.
Up ahead, a trail cut through the thin woods that surrounded the neighborhood. Just like her favorite shortcut back home, it would eliminate a half mile off her walk. The sun’s rays had completely disappeared, leaving the light purply glow of twilight as night rapidly approached. But she knew this trail like the back of her hand, and the sooner she got back to Jo’s bedroom, the better. It was a no-brainer. She rounded the corner and ducked into the trees.
As soon as she was off the street, the atmosphere changed. It was silent. A complete and total lack of sound. The wind didn’t blow; there was no backdrop of chirping birds or the occasional car zipping by on the street that was just a few yards away. It was as if she were in a vacuum, utterly devoid of life.