“Wait,” Brynna said as they approached the edge of the grass. “Fallbrook is out here. He knows I have P.E.”
Evan put a hand over his eyes, shielding the sun. He did a quick scan. “I don’t see him. Besides, Fallbrook remembers what it’s like to be young. He’s not going to report us. He’s not been at Hawthorne long enough to get bitter and start hating his students.” He waggled his eyebrows. “He’s still fresh. So come on!”
Once Brynna was strapped into the passenger seat and Evan had cleared the Hawthorne campus, she tried to focus on him, on the road in front of them, but Erica and Michael and Ella and Jay kept whispering in the back of her mind.
“You said dare, you have to do it!”
“It’s not my rule. It’s the world’s rule.”
“Earth to Queen B!” Evan said, snapping a finger a half inch from her nose. “Want to get something to drink?”
She snapped to attention, eyes wide as she stared at Evan’s profile. Immediately, she could feel the hard burn of something smoky and dark as it slipped down her throat, singing away the memories, her reality. Her mouth started to water, and she could feel an icy cup in her hands, could feel the way her stomach churned with the first few swallows of vodka or whiskey or rum.
She was supposed to be over that. She was supposed to be better now.
But it wasn’t the alcohol she craved; it was the oblivion that came with it. She knew she was breaking every rule they had forced her to learn at rehab. She knew that she was breaking her probation. She didn’t care.
“Yeah, I do.”
Evan flashed a wide grin at her and flipped on his blinker. “Great. I know the best place.”
FOUR
The silence in the car was palpable, at least to Brynna. The waves kept crashing in her head, and all she could focus on was a drink, something to drown out the voices.
She leaned over and nudged the radio up. Evan shot her a glance and turned the volume back down. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you didn’t want to talk to me.”
Brynna gave a halfhearted shrug. “So Lauren didn’t want to come out today?”
“She’s already out. Mom picked her up to get her head shrunk.”
“Lauren sees a therapist?”
“Yeah. Sometimes I’ll drive her, but it’s over off Sand Dollar and there is nothing out there.”
“Sand Dollar?”
Brynna thought of the turns her mother took when she dropped her off at Dr. Rother’s office. She closed her eyes and visualized the street signs: left on Harper, left on Cole, right on Sand Dollar.
“Do you know who she sees?”
“I don’t know, some lady. It’s not like I engage the crazy.”
Does Lauren see Dr. Rother too?
Brynna started feeling like she was hearing information she wasn’t privy to. She knew she shouldn’t, but she couldn’t help herself. “Why does she go?”
Evan shrugged. “I don’t know, chick stuff, I guess. Or probably like how she’s depressed because she can never measure up to her beloved twin brother. Who knows? Maybe she’s a serial killer.”
A tremble went down Brynna’s spine, and she forced a laugh. “You’re joking.”
“Of course I am. She’s my sister.” He turned the wheel easily. “I think I’d know if I was sharing my bathroom with a socio.”
Brynna laughed with Evan, but there was still something nagging at the back of her mind.
Evan slowed the car, the wheels crunching over the gravel. He pushed it into park, and she looked up, surprised.
“Where are we?”
“This is officially downtown Crescent City. Try not to become a coked-up heroin addict.”
“Coke and heroin are two different things.”
“What’s that?” Evan asked as he fed quarters into a meter.
“Uh, nothing. So, why are we here?”
“Because.” He pulled open the glass door in front of them and she followed. “You are going to tell me everything you’ve been hiding from me.”
Brynna glanced up at the hand-painted sign above the front door. There were swirls and big hippie flowers, the name By Joe! painted in swirly white script.
He yanked her down onto a leather couch in the coffee shop that looked like it was born on a movie set. Two overhead fans turned lazily, slightly moving the warm, coffee-soaked air. Tiny round tables dotted the room—which could have been only ten feet wide, tops—and against one of the latte-covered walls was a heavy wood bar with curlicues of brass design going the whole length down. Ivy and leafy vines trailed from a hodgepodge collection of coffee pots set on the table next to the couch, giving the whole place a sort of coffee-jungle-type vibe.
“Where did you find this place?” Brynna asked.
“Sometimes I need to get away.” Evan stood. “I’m getting you their special. It’s called Cocoa Bananas. Coffee, chocolate, banana, malt, pixie dust, eye of newt, whipped cream.”