Page 58 of Sort of Seeing Someone

“There’s got to be something buried under this hay. A key. A code.Something,” Ollie states to the group. This is the first time he’s engaged with the others and I can tell the gummy is working on him—a lot faster than I thought it would. “Everyone, start digging.”

I find his marching orders sexy, which means I’m feeling the gummy, too.

Sebastian is supposed to be digging like the rest of us, but instead he pulls a vape pen from his pocket and takes a rip. He taps Dan for a hit as he exhales smoke rings. Dan does the same before tapping Ollie, who rolls his eyes and passes. I also decline. Anna is next. Then Meg. And now the room officially smells like a strawberry haze.

“Hey! There’s no vaping in the escape room!” Tommy’s stern voice comes across the intercom.

Sebastian tucks it back into his pocket and holds his hands up like there’s nothing to see here.

“Ugh, this is, like,reallyhard,” says the birthday girl, Anna, as she sloshes some hay around and belches.

“Stay focused, guys. We’re running out of time to get out of here,” Ollie reminds the group.

“We’re not done yet?” Anna asks/complains.

“There’s one more room after this, then we’re free from the wood chipper. Keep looking for clues.”

Ollie discovers a black light flashlight under a pile of hay and shines it on the wall. Some gibberish numbers and letters written in what looks like blood appear.

“It’s a code of some sort,” he announces to no one in particular.

A part of me feels bad that he’s clearly the only one who is super into this, but the other part of me watches him in adoration. It’s kind of cute to see how all these trap doors, gears, switches, and life-size rodent toys do it for his engineering brain. In comparison, the flavor board at an ice cream shop has the same effect on me.

“Oh! I know!” shouts Anna.

“You know what the code means?” Ollie asks.

“Yup,” she says, belching again. “It means…”

Just then, Anna projectile vomits into the hay and we all immediately plug our noses and look away.

“Yeah, you guys are toast,” says Tommy on the microphone as he presses play on a pre-recorded soundtrack of what I imagine is supposed to be rats laughing and a wood chipper crunching up onour bones.

He switches on all the lights, kills the creepy background music, and opens the emergency door which lets us out into the lobby. The mood is instantly killed. The only thing that could make this worse is if weactuallygot put through a wood chipper, which, depending on how hard the puke is to clean up, might actually happen if Tommy has any say.

Anna is sobbing in the background, wailing that Sebastian doesn’t even love her, while Meg comforts her and the boys try to get out of paying the mandatory “puke fee” to Tommy. I look to Ollie who I can tell is still wondering if now’s a good time to ask Tommy about the hydraulics he used in the trap door. Instead, we grab our phones and coats and slither out the front door with our tails tucked between our legs.

“Well, that was fun!” I say as we exit into the cold, fall air.

“That was…a complete disaster.”

“But at least your gummy kicked in by now, right?”

“I guess so. I mean, Iamstarving. That’s a side effect, right?”

“Yup. The munchies are totally normal,” I assure him. “There’s a really good diner up ahead at the corner. Have you been?”

“No. Do they serve burritos stuffed with French fries, Miss California?”

“It’s more of a burger place. But don’t worry, I’ll just dunk my fries in a chocolate shake instead.”

“Because ketchup would make too much sense?” he asks.

I give it a beat before explaining, “I prefer to bepleasantly surprised by combinations that don’t seem to gotogether.”

17

Chapter Seventeen

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