Page 101 of That's Not My Name

Their support is almost worse than the hatred. It’s made of nothing but guilt, and I’m not interested in their guilt. I have enough of my own.

My phone goes off again. I silence it a second time.

I take a deep breath and listen to the water. I can’t wait for graduation. In a few months I can leave Washington City and never look back. I can’t be here when the show drops. All it’ll take is one true crime enthusiast asking me for a selfie and I’ll end up in jail.

I hope Madison gets away before it premiers. Changes her name. Finds a new city where she doesn’t always have to be “the girl who escaped Wayne Boone.”

Her face appears in my mind like an old habit. I see her bruised and scared, wearing Lola’s jacket, her foot chained to a pole as she tells me what I already know. That she isn’t Lola. That Lola is gone. Begging me to leave her to die so Wayne doesn’t kill me too.

Nobody should take anything else from her. Ever. She’s lost enough.

Hell, we all have. But especially her.

I close my eyes and think of her standing beside me as we watched the authorities cart him from that basement on a stretcher, a sheet draped over his corpse. She gripped my arm with both hands, like she expected him to sit up and drag her back to the basement for round two. Because that’s the level of evil that lived in him. The forever kind. The kind that tricks you into thinking he’ll always win.

He didn’t win in the end.

The man who killed so many helpless girls was bested by a seventeen-year-old nationally ranked softball star in his own house. The corner of my mouth tugs up at the thought. I heard a rumor he was cremated and someone threw his ashes in the trash. I hope to god it’s true.

My phone rings a third time and I shimmy it out of my pocket with a huff. Autumn’s face shines back at me from the screen. I sit up and hit the answer button. “What?”

“What’s with the ’tude, dude?”

Nope. Not Autumn. “Max?”

He laughs. “My phone was dead, so I borrowed hers.”

God, I hate couples. “What do you want?”

“Are you still at the boat launch?”

I pause. “How do you know I’m at the boat launch?”

“Ah…I don’t? No reason. Don’t worry about it.”

“Max.”

I hear Autumn in the background, “Don’t tell him.”

“Don’t tell me what?” I say.

They both say “Shit” at the same time, then the line goes dead. I stare at the home screen for a few seconds. I don’t know what’s going on, but I know I don’t want to deal with it today.

I climb to my feet. I should leave before they get here. Go somewhere quiet, where I can punish myself in peace. But I don’t want to.As haunted and awful as this place is, it’sourplace. I can’t leave her here alone on her birthday.

I start walking back up the ramp to the car when someone appears at the top. I shield my eyes from the sun to see who it is, and the surprise of the face looking back at me hits like a fire poker to the guts.

Madison.

She stands in the middle of the concrete block, in a black hoodie with wide white bands on the arms and ripped skinny jeans. She looks…different now. Her hair is longer and she’s dyed the underside of it bright blue. But she still looks so much like Lola. Especially in the eyes.

I blink at her while my brain malfunctions.

“Hi, Drew,” she says.

Thank god she doesn’t sound like her too. I swallow the lump in my throat and croak out a hello.

“Max and Autumn told me where to find you.”

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