Page 263 of Heart So Hollow

“That’s it?” I sneer.

Everyone stills and Tate swivels his head around, “Do you have something to add?”

He doesn’t like my tone, which is fine, because the badge he’s wearing and the last name stamped next to it guarantees that I don’t like him, either.

“Yeah,” I dish just as much attitude back to him, “Evie told me she was meeting Bowen last night.”

Tate shifts his eyes with irritation and nods, “Yes, he was with the rest of her friends at the skate park.”

“Did he also tell you they were secretly dating and she dumped him last night?”

A heavy silence settles in the room as Wells and his other goon exchange awkward glances. Lena’s mouth opens in surprise, but no words come out.

“Dating?” Scott pivots to me, his jaw tightening as he catches my drift.

“Since when?” Lena calls across the room as she finally finds her voice. She whips around to Tate, “Did he tell you about this? What did Bowen say?”

Tate is quickly losing control of the room.

“Alright…Colson?” he asks as though he can’t remember my name. But that’s also fine, because he’ll remember it, soon enough. “What do you know about this?”

“Before Evie left, she told me they’d been together for a few weeks, but she didn’t want Hildy to know. She said Bowen wasn’t too happy she got into UCLA and started being a dick to her about it—”

“Wait, wait,” Lena cuts me off, “what you mean started being a dick to her? What does that mean?”

She probably has a pretty good idea what it means, and I’m not going to correct her in the slightest. “She said she was going to talk to Bowen at the skate park last night and break everything off because she’s leaving for school soon anyway,” I reply.

Scott swivels his head back around to Tate, the veins in his temple pulsing, “Was he the last person to see her? Have you talked to him yet?”

“Alright, alright,” Tate deflects, raising a hand to calm the situation quickly getting out of hand, “we’ll talk to Bowen and see what he has to say. Meantime, we need to get a location on Evie’s phone if we can.”

???

That’s about the last useful thing Tate Garrison does. Evie’s phone is still missing, but the last tower it pinged off of before it went dark is close to Palomino Park, which sparks a massive search two days later. It’s like we’re back on the soccer field, both teams, along with Canaan’s softball team and basically the rest of the town, shows up to search for Evie. Except, this time, we’re not throwing elbows or shit-talking after bad calls.

I’m not sure whether it started out as Bowen’s secret or Evie’s, but it’s out now. Rumors spread between the lines of comments in Facebook pages dedicated to finding Evie and trite posts about thoughts and prayers that never did anyone any good.

No one’s talking about it, but the menacing glares being exchanged across the parking lot as Tate Garrison explains how to conduct a search through the woods all but confirms the bad blood spilling out across the pavement. Everyone from Dire Ridge knows Bowen was the last one to see Evie, and everyone in Canaan is already on edge from one of their own going missing.

I can’t stand to even look at him, standing at Hildy’s side, leisurely smoking a cigarette while she’s on the brink of a meltdown. And she should be—fucking bitch. As soon as he catches sight of me and gives me a nod, I have to turn away before I charge through the crowd and grind his face into the gravel. It might help me, but it won’t help Evie. We have to find her.

I’m used to hiking through the woods for days on end, and so is Evie. We go hiking with Scott all the time and go on a week-long camping trip in August every year, which was why it doesn’t make sense for Evie to decide to walk into the woods in the middle of the night and vanish. These woods aren’t even that big. They aren’t vast like the Rockies or even Cuyahoga. But if you don’t know where you’re going—or someone lures you too far out—I guess it doesn’t matter.

Two miles in each direction and no one finds a goddamn thing. I go back every day for a week, walking the trails and trudging through the forest, until everyone is satisfied Evie’s not in the park. Everyone except me. I can’t find her, but nothing else makes sense. She didn’t run away, and it doesn’t make sense that she wouldn’t be around here, somewhere.

Besides that, I have terrible nightmares that only get worse by the day.

All I can hear is Evie’s voice. She’s crying and screaming my name. I scream back, calling out to her, begging her to tell me where she is, but she only responds with the same three phrases.

I’m here, Col!

Come get me!

Take me home!

It’s absolute hell.

Finally, six days later, I have a dream. Not a nightmare, but a dream.

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