Page 92 of This I Know
She whispers, “And I don’t know where he is. Anyway,youkeep your voice down. I’m leaving now.” She turns to sprint away.
Quickly, I grab her.
“Let me go!”
“Why? Huh?” She knows what I’m asking, and it’s notwhy should I let you go.I lower my voice even further. “And you’d better keep it down, or you’llwake these people up and be in trouble sooner than you thought.”
“Because.” She pulls her wrist up, trying to get away. When she realizes it’s fruitless, she breaks down. “Because I can’t stand to see you two together, okay?”
My eyes narrow.
“And because Cole hates her, too. There. Is that enough for you? You wanted to hear it.”
“I’m going to let you go now,” I say. “If you try to go anywhere, I’m catching you and taking you to the cops. Do you get it?”
“Yes. Whatever.”
I drop her arm. She sighs, still catching her breath from that little chase she put me through.
“You I get,” I say. “But what’s Cole got against her?”
“Who the hell knows. Like I’ve bothered to ask him? That guy’s a walking, talking time bomb with everyone he comes into contact with. It doesn’t surprise me she got under his skin for one reason or another.”
Avery, getting under someone’s skin to the point of someone setting her house on fire? I don’t buy it. Cole hates just to hate.
“Fuck him,” I say under my breath.
She huffs and rubs her wrist. “Yeah, well. It is what it is.”
I gather my thoughts, then gesture around us. “You do realize what tonight means for you, right? What’s going to happen?”
She shrugs with an attitude.
“You’re in big trouble. You just committed arson.”
“I told you, it wasn’t me!”
“You said it wasn’tonlyyou. Don’t play dumb, Julia. Look at you.” I scan her body, up and down her black clothes, her filthy, fast bare feet. I scoop the hat off her head.
She reaches for it. “Give it to me.”
I hold it out of her reach.
“You and me … we’re over, Julia.” I realize the ridiculousness of what I’m saying. “Christ, we never even were! Ourfriendshipis over. Have you got that?”
She’s still rubbing her arm where I’d gotten hold of her. Despite all the shit she just pulled, I hope I didn’t hurt her.
She gives up on the cap, taking in my words, and in the moonlight I think I see the beginning of tears glisten in her eyes. She darts her eyes away from me.
Julia Crane? Offended by what I just said, to the point of actually crying? I can’t believe it. I’d always known she had a little crush on me, but I must have meant more to her than I thought.
My pulse is finally returning to normal, so I breathe slow and deep. I forget about the cap, too, and extend my arm out to her. I can’t stand her right now, but I don’t want there to be any more suffering. There’s been enough for one night.
“Look, Julia…”
“Don’t touch me again.” She moves back, but as though sensing my sympathy, she says, “I’m not crying because of you, Ethan. Far from it.” She wipes a tear away. “I just don’t want to get caught, that’s all.”
“You’re lying.”
