Page 57 of Wham Line
“What’s that supposed to mean?”I asked.“What do you think it means?”
He set his jaw.“I’m trying to have a conversation—”
“You’re trying to have a conversation with me?Is that what you think you’re doing?Great.So,now’sthe time for a conversation.”
“That was a big deal.That was important to you.We’ve talked about your submissions.We’ve talked about how much finding an agent matters for your career.We talked about it being a big risk, using a pen name, and how you were worried no one was going to offer to represent you.And then I find out you’ve been getting responses and not telling me about it!I don’t understand how you could not tell me something like that.And then, on top of that, I wake up, and you’re gone, Dash.Gone.Do you know what that was like, panicking, not knowing what was going on or where you were or if you were even alive, and having to pretend everything was okay in front of my dad and Eric?You don’t answer my calls.You won’t tell me what’s going on.Do you know how scared I’ve been?Is it too much to ask for you to talk to me?”
For several seconds, there was only the high-pitched ringing in my ears.And then I said, “You’re unbelievable.”
“I’m unbelievable?If you’d talked to me—”
“Don’t finish that sentence.”
Bobby’s look of shock transformed into something else.Anger.Beyond anger.The closest I’d ever seen him come to rage.“What did you say?”
“I said don’t.Stop.I’m not going to do this right now.Ican’tdo this right now.”I started around him; I didn’t know why I’d come into the den in the first place, but now I knew I had to get out.Away.“Fox and Indira think they’re Bonnie and Clyde, and I’ve got to find them before they do something truly stupid.”
Bobby grabbed my arm.“Don’t walk away from me!”
For a second, I did stop—because of the shock more than anything.That disconnected part of me, watching this from the other side of a television screen, couldn’t believe this was happening.Couldn’t believe this was Bobby.Then I ripped free of his grasp.“If you want to talk to someone,” I said, and my brain told me to stop, to let it go, not to say the words in anger—but I couldn’t help myself.“Call West.”
Bobby flinched.It was small, barely a movement at all.But it was there.
I made my way toward the front of the house.
“Get back here!”Bobby shouted after me.“Dash, I’m talking to you!Get back here right now and talk to me!”An inarticulate shout broke from him, and then his voice pitched after me, frenzied and almost unrecognizable.“I’m trying to make this better!”
Chapter 15
Somehow, I got out of the house.Somehow, I got into the Malibu.
And then I sat there, shaking, my hands locked around the steering wheel.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed before I was myself again,insidemyself again.I came back by degrees: the ache in my hands from gripping the wheel; the tightness in my neck; the hard, compacted mass in my gut.Then the sound of the wind scraping along the Malibu’s frame.The day was a sheet of iron flattened overhead.Lower clouds made seams and wrinkles—darker smears of gray that scudded along against the stationary mass of gray.The shadows were thick, but it was still early afternoon.
My gaze moved to Hemlock House.
No Bobby.
No sign of Bobby.
He hadn’t come after me.
The thought was a dizzying mixture—relief, disappointment, hurt, worry.My eyes were hot.I squeezed them shut and counted in my head until the prickling faded.
Fox and Indira.I had to find them before they did something stupid.
My phone was on the seat next to me, where I must have dropped it when I got back in the car.No missed calls.No messages.I tried calling Fox first.And then I tried calling Indira.I messaged Keme and Millie.Nothing from anybody.It reminded me of those high school fears, the suspicion that everyone was hanging out without me.Only this time, my friends weren’t hanging out without me; they were aiding and abetting a wanted felon without me.Which, maybe, was the adult version of hanging out.
I pressed one hand to my cheek, which still felt flushed, and tried to think.
Fox had called.
The sheriff was going to arrest Indira.
They had decided to run.
Now that I had a few seconds to think about it, that didn’t seem like Indira.On the other hand, thatdidseem like Fox—Fox was exactly the kind of person I would suspect of making a dramatic phone call to tell me they were on the run from the law.But why?What was the end goal?Were they going to flee the country?
