“Oh, and you better not let her catch you out of bed,” Honor called as she pulled the door shut again.
I stared down at the comforter. I did not want to crawl into a mess of someone else’s blood, but she was right. If Mom caught me out of bed, there would be the inevitable tucking in and taking of temperature, all with the distinct possibility of chili.
I held my breath and shimmied between the covers. “Oh god.” I stifled a gag. This should so not be happening.
For fifteen minutes I stewed in someone else’s spilled vital fluids until at last my mom came upstairs to tell me she was headed out for the day. I nodded and tried to strike a balance between pathetic and capable. She blew me an air kiss after which it took another five minutes before I heard the garage door screech open and her car start.
I kicked the soiled sheets down to my feet and leaped out of bed. The next four hours, I spent washing and drying the sheets, spraying the lawn down with a power hose, running the dishwasher, and wiping the house clean of any stray drops. At the end, I collapsed onto the couch and lost myself in back-to-back episodes of whatever sitcoms were playing on syndication, too lazy and spent to change the channel.
I jumped to a sitting position when I heard the doorbell ring. My mom never rang the doorbell. My first thought was: cops? Bleary-eyed, I looked up to realize it was evening and I must have been sleeping. I peeked out the back door and saw that Mom’s car was back in the garage. She must have snuck in and let me sleep. I should have been figuring out what to do next, formulating some kind of plan. But what kinds of plans were available to someone who may or may not have killed someone in her backyard?
That was a stupid train of thought. I should have been trying at least.
Still dressed in my pajamas, I wandered to the door, on the other side of which, to my great relief, I found Paisley waiting. “Ugh, I can’t tell if you’re either really sick or just plain sad,” she said, letting herself in.
Funny, neither could I. “Come right in, I guess.”
She turned and looked back at me from the foyer with a look like, please. She was right. Up until the last few months, Paisley and I had practically lived at each other’s houses. We’d traded clothes, slept over on school nights, and shared an unlimited supply of inside jokes. But ever since this fall, sometimes it’d seemed like someone had taken our photograph and torn it in half. Thinking about it, I felt a ballooning in my throat. Turned out, I actually missed Paisley.
I hovered close to the open front door, which I knew didn’t exactly say make-yourself-at-home, but whatever. I was already at a disadvantage seeing as how she’d found me in my ratty pj’s and would probably tell the whole squad how I was headed for breakdown city.
“I brought your assignments,” she said. “Mrs. Van Lullen didn’t want you falling any further behind this year after … well, you know. After everything.”
“Great.” I took the short stack of work sheets and folders from her and tucked them underneath my arm. “But don’t worry. I’ve got it completely under control. I’ll be back to school tomorrow.”
She raised her eyebrows. Paisley Wheelwright was the Zen master of saying every condescending thing she wanted to without actually ever saying a word. Sure, it was convenient when you were in on the joke. But now? It was just a pain in the ass.
“Well, friend to friend,” she said, “I’ll just say that the girls thought it was a little strange you missed practice the day after your big rally cry.”
“Really? Because Ava texted me to let me know she was worried about me and hoped I felt better,” I lied. “You know, friend to friend,” I added. I pulled back my shoulders and attempted to look as dignified as possible for someone wearing elastic-waisted pants with kittens on them.
A frown flitted across Paisley’s face and then disappeared. “That was nice of her.” Her voice rasped just a touch at the end.
I was Homecoming queen. I was a perfectionist. I was Cassidy Hyde. I smiled and it felt like I’d glued on somebody else’s. “Well, thanks for this. I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”
Paisley nodded and moved past me toward the door like a stranger. “Yeah, take care of yourself, Cass.”
“I always do.”
As soon as I shut the door behind her, I twisted the lock into place and pressed my back into the wood, breathing heavily. All around me it felt as if reality was crumbling and I was standing at the bottom of the rubble heap waiting to get buried.