Brynna waited, holding her breath each time her tablet chimed, each time she logged into her email. She hadn’t told anyone about Evan, and no one else had taken responsibility. It had to be Erica.
But Erica is dead. The refrain kept ringing in her head.
???
After the final bell, Brynna sped down the hall, head down, watching her sneakers against the scuffed hallway’s linoleum. She spun when someone wound their arm in hers, and when she looked up, Teddy was there. Her heart stopped mid-beat, and she waited for him to say something, for his expression to crack and give her the tiniest clue as to what he was thinking, what he was feeling. Instead, he tugged her down the hall silently then ushered her into the empty choir room.
“Hey,” she said softly.
Teddy sat on a desk, his eyes locked on hers. “Hey.”
They were silent for a beat before Teddy went on. “What’s going on, Bryn?”
“I didn’t—I didn’t out Evan, I swear.”
“You don’t have to convince me. I know you wouldn’t do something like that. Besides, it’s not exactly like it was the secret of the century. So, since you didn’t do it, do you have any idea who did?”
Brynna pinched the bridge of her nose. “Meatball?”
She knew it wasn’t Meatball, but she threw it out there anyway, hoping to see what—if anything—Teddy knew.
He shook his head. “Doubtful. Meatball likes to torture Evan in person. And besides, have you seen the meat hooks on that guy? I don’t think he types so much as just mashes a bunch of keys together.” Teddy mimed apelike hands mashing at a keyboard, and Brynna smiled in spite of herself.
The whole school was mere feet away, but Brynna felt comfortable in the room with Teddy. He was warm and concerned, and when he smiled, everything bad about Brynna’s life melted away.
She wanted to smile as easily as he did. She slid up on the desk next to him. “You know how in movies the person always says, ‘now you have to promise me you won’t think I’m crazy’ before they tell the other person something crazy?”
Teddy nodded, but his eyebrows were raised. “Yes…”
“I’m not even going to say that because you’re going to think I’m crazy regardless.”
He smiled and gestured for her to go on.
Brynna sucked air through her teeth, her stomach burning, heart thudding in her chest. “I think someone from my old school might be after me.”
Teddy’s relaxed expression went to concern. His lips tightened, and his eyes widened. “What do you mean, ‘after’ you?”
“I think someone is trying to hurt me. Or scare me at least.” She swallowed, kicking her legs underneath the table. “I think that person wrote the headline about Evan. I think that person was in the pool with me the night that you found me.”
“The night you wouldn’t let me go to the police.”
She nodded slightly, watching her legs swaying under the table. “Yeah.”
“Brynna, you could be in real danger. You need to tell someone. We need to tell someone.”
Her lower lip started to tremble, and the classroom swirled in front of her. “I can’t go to the police. I’m chasing a ghost, Teddy.”
Teddy pulled Brynna to him, and she cried into the crook of his neck. He stroked her hair softly, and she cried out the tension of the last few hours, weeks, months.
“It’s going to be okay, Brynna,” he murmured softly. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll go to the police or your parents.”
Brynna breathed in the clean soap scent of Teddy’s soft skin. “Can we just stay here, like this, for a while?”
Teddy nodded, resting his chin against her head.
Brynna prayed that they could stay that way forever.
???
When Brynna got home that Friday, all she wanted to do was sleep, to spend the entire weekend underneath her covers, waiting for time to pass.
It was Saturday afternoon, and Brynna was flopped on her stomach in her room, reading, when she heard the echo of the doorbell. She paused, holding in a breath, when she heard the murmured conversation of both her parents and a guest. Interest piqued, she peeled out of bed and pinched the shade up an inch, her stomach falling into her shoes.
“Honey,” her mother said, rapping on the door before poking her head in.
“Teddy’s here.”
“Right.” Her mother’s smile faltered. “You didn’t tell us the dance was this weekend.” She looked Brynna up and down. “Did you forget?”
Truthfully, Brynna had. But she also had no reason to think about it, since her friends weren’t speaking to her. “Why is Teddy here?”
“I’m assuming to pick you up for your date. He’s wearing a tuxedo and he has a corsage and everything.”
Brynna could see that absolute joy in her mother’s eyes, and guilt stabbed at her. She probably thinks I’m all better, Brynna thought sadly. She probably thinks I’m normal again.
“Can you send Teddy up here, just for a second?”