“Um, thanks,” I said, then turned around and zigzagged my way back out of the Walmart as fast as I could. Once I was safely in my car, I put my key in the ignition and just sat there for a while, trying to process what I’d just learned. Yet another one of my new friends was somehow involved in all this.
It wasn’t a coincidence. It couldn’t be.
I waited until my hands felt under control and then drove to the Bayview Diner. It was just south of Redwood City, a few towns away from Marbella, but it might as well have been in a different world. The town wasn’t nearly as affluent, and the diner was literally on the wrong side of the tracks—it was made out of an old train car, and it wasn’t all that far from the train itself. The décor was all retro: Formica tabletops, leather booths that had once been shiny but now had holes with the stuffing popping out, waitresses who wore wrinkled pink dresses with white aprons. A waitress whose real name was definitely not PINKY, despite her name tag, pointed me to a table where Raj and Alex were already sitting. They must have come early—they had a big plate of cheese fries in front of them and were drinking shakes.
“How did it go?” Alex asked.
“That depends on your perspective,” I said. “I got my prescription no problem. From Justin.”
Raj almost choked on his shake. “I’m sorry, did you just say Justin was working at Walmart?”
Alex looked even more surprised than Raj. “He’s in on this too?”
“He was working the register at the pharmacy. His tag said he was an assistant. He’s the one who got the prescription for me.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Alex said. “He would have told me.”
“It was definitely him,” I said. “He didn’t acknowledge that he knew me, though. That has to mean he’s in on it too.” I paused to think. “He seemed surprised to see me, but he knew exactly what to do. He was waiting for someone. I don’t think he’s Blocked Sender, but I can’t be sure.”
“No,” Alex said. “Besides, Justin can barely work his cell phone. He wouldn’t know how to block his number.”
“Besides, he’s our friend,” Raj said. “If anything, he got roped into it. Just like us.”
“Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think,” I said. “Maybe he’s got a secret life where he’s an evil genius who knows how to hack phones. Maybe he’s not such a good friend.”
Alex looked skeptical. “People don’t usually do a great job of hiding their inner selves.”
I so totally disagreed with her I didn’t even know where to start, except not with myself. “What about serial killers? Or even just people having affairs? People hide stuff all the time. Big things. Fundamental things.”
“Okay, I get all that. But Justin hates hiding things. He came out of the closet when he was like five.”
“He’s hiding his secret boyfriend,” Raj said.
“That’s because it’s fun.”
“Is that really it?” I asked. “How long has he been hiding him?”
“A while,” she admitted.
“So why would you think he’d tell you about Walmart if he won’t even tell you about the boyfriend?”
“Because—” She stopped. “You’re right. Maybe it was stupid of me to think that.” She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms over her chest. I was getting confused. Alex had barely seemed fazed at all when I told her Raj was involved, and she seemed to be much better friends with him.
“We’ll never know how he’s involved unless we ask him. Can one of you guys text and tell him to meet us here after work? Blocked Sender gave me from one to five to pick up the pills, which I bet means Justin gets off work then. If he’s in this like we are, he deserves to know what’s going on. And if he’s Blocked Sender, then we deserve to know that too. You guys know him better than I do—will you be able to tell if he’s lying?”
“Maybe,” Raj said.
“I’d like to think so,” Alex said. “If I’m wrong about him, then I don’t think I can trust my judgment about anyone.”
She got out her phone and sent the text message.
Raj polished off the rest of the fries while we waited, but Alex just sat and nervously stirred her shake.
Finally, Justin texted back.
Be there at 5:30.
That meant we had hours to kill—it was only two—so we decided to go back to Raj’s house and watch the rest of The Usual Suspects. Alex was right; I hadn’t seen the ending coming. The creepiness of it made us all anxious, though, and we still had time, so we watched some dumb comedy to try to take our minds off things before we headed back to the diner.
Eventually it was time to go. We drove over together in my car, Raj in the front seat, Alex in the back, complaining about the radio station like a little kid. The music was a distraction, but it lasted only until we sat back down at the table we’d left just hours before. Not-Pinky-the-waitress didn’t seem super happy to see us, at least not until we ordered more food.
And then we sat, waiting for Justin to arrive.
I was dying to know what he’d say.
17.
Five thirty came and went with no Justin.
“He’s bailing on us,” I said.