Before I pull out of the parking lot, I text Cecily that I’m home, like a world-class liar. But it’s because she won’t be able to sleep if she knows I’m still out.
 
 What Cecy and my parents don’t know is that I refuse the notion of spending any unnecessary time alone.
 
 Jesus. I can’t believe I’m graduating in a couple of weeks. What am I going to do without the buffer uni’s offered me?
 
 Make other cliques of friends outside? Join a thousand and one clubs?
 
 I desperately need to stay out of my parents' orbit before they figure out everything.
 
 With a sigh, I shove all those thoughts back to the back of my mental closet as I refresh my makeup.
 
 My phone vibrates and I freeze when I see it’s a text from Eli.
 
 Tin Man
 
 Are you going home?
 
 Me
 
 New phone. Who’s this?
 
 Your location better be on the way home.
 
 Guess where I am for a hundred quid.
 
 I snap a selfie while doing a kissy face and send it over, then silence my phone, and pull out of the car park. I nearly drive into a wall, but my car’s camera saves me in time.
 
 Oops.
 
 I follow the GPS and voice command the car to play music. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor fills the car and I release an annoyed noise as I punch the radio button and listen to some pop music instead.
 
 Classical music and I are officially divorcing.
 
 That’s what I said after my last failed attempt at winning yet another competition last year. Or more like, participating.
 
 And yet I went back this year. Only to make a bigger fool of myself.
 
 What did you see? Or not see?
 
 Eli’s words from earlier send a shiver down my spine.
 
 He couldn’t have known, right?
 
 No one does?—
 
 I stare at my rearview mirror when I notice a car without headlights following me.
 
 How long has that been there?
 
 I look ahead but the road is clear.
 
 Shit.
 
 Okay.
 
 I shake my head to come back into focus and speed up, just a tiny bit over the speed limit.
 
 The car matches my speed and my heart starts to gallop in a scary rhythm. I voice command my phone to call the police.