BRI
REALLY?
TOBY
?
ME
Totally fine. The press conference was a pain, but it’s my dad’s issue, not mine.
BRI
Hm.
ME
What?
TOBY
She’s saying she doesn’t believe you.
PALMER
How can you tell?
BRI
No, Toby’s right. I don’t. But we can discuss it later.
ME
There’s nothing to discuss
BRI
Yes there is
TOBY
And when we discuss it, why don’t you also show me the curling iron thing?
PALMER
Toby, I thought we were going to be supportive.
TOBY
I AM being supportive! I even tried to drive over and be there for Andie, but the guard at the gate wouldn’t let me in.
ME
He wouldn’t let you in?
TOBY
No! Something about needing to be on a list, national security, I don’t know.
ME
Sorry, T. This should be back to normal as soon as all the press is gone
TOBY
Well, I was offended. He knows me, after all.
We go way back, me and Ronnie.
PALMER
His name’s Earl.
TOBY
Oh.
PALMER
But anyway!
We’re going out tonight.
ME
We are?
BRI
We are. We voted, and it’s a necessity.
TOBY
Absolutely. That’s what I tried to tell Ronnie.
PALMER
Earl.
BRI
There’s a party. We’re all going.
We think you need it after everything that’s happened.
I turned and looked out the window again, at the press corps that weren’t leaving nearly as quickly as I wanted them to. There were now reporters lined up in front of the house, cameras pointed at them, no doubt recapping what had just occurred. It didn’t seem like I was going to be leaving unnoticed any time soon.
ME
I’m not so sure that’s going to happen, guys.
TOBY
PALMER
No, it totally will!
BRI
Don’t worry
PALMER
We figured it out.
ME
But the press are still all over this place.
We’d need a way to get me out of here unseen. . . .
Don’t know how that’s possible.
TOBY
Andie, RELAX. We have a plan.
I looked down at that sentence, feeling a tiny stab of nervousness. The fact that nobody would tell me what exactly this plan was had me concerned. Especially if Toby was the brains behind it. I moved a little closer to my window, still trying to keep myself out of sight, and pushed it open more. There must have been a reporter doing her recap practically right beneath me, because suddenly I could hear it crystal clear, her miked voice traveling straight up to me.
“The last time the congressman was the focus of this much attention was five years ago, when, due to his wife’s failing health, he withdrew his name abruptly from Governor Matthew Laughlin’s unsuccessful presidential campaign, despite the fact he was seen as the front-runner for the VP slot. His wife, Molly Walker, died from ovarian cancer six weeks later. It’s unclear what this latest upset means for the congressman’s future—”
I slammed the window, shutting out the reporter on the lawn, and picked up my phone again.
ME
A party actually sounds great.
Let’s do it.
Chapter TWO
“Okay,” I heard Palmer say as the car slowed down and then turned left. “We’re almost there. Andie, how you doing?”
“Um,” I said from where I was lying between the seats on Palmer’s minivan’s floor, under a blanket that seemed to be covered in equal parts dust and cat hair, “I’ve been better.”
“Just a little bit longer,” Bri said from above me as what felt suspiciously like a foot patted my shoulder.
“Better safe than sorry,” I heard Toby say, with the blithe assurance of someone who wasn’t currently trying not to breathe through her nose.
“Toby, do I make a right?” I heard Palmer ask, as the car slowed and then stopped.
“To get to Ardmore?” I piped up from beneath the blanket, then sneezed twice. “It’s a left, then another right.”
“How can you know that?” A corner of my blanket lifted up, and there was Bri—a piece of her, at least, just wide brown eyes and side-swept bangs. “You can’t see anything.”
“She’s making it up,” Toby said confidently as the blanket dropped again.
“Check your map,” I yelled up through the blanket, then started to cough on the dust I’d inhaled.
“It’s . . . ,” Toby said, and there was a long pause in which she must have checked the directions on her phone. “Seriously?” she asked, not sounding impressed, but annoyed.
“Told you,” I said. I hadn’t been trying to track where we were going ever since we’d left my house, but there were some things you couldn’t turn off, and I liked always knowing where I was and how to get where I was going. It was the reason, whenever we needed to go somewhere in separate cars, everyone always followed me.