Page 15 of Paper Ghosts

“As do I.” Some of Gram’s gin sloshed out of the glass as she set it aside and got up. She nearly tripped over the hem of her caftan as she went to the rolltop desk and removed her checkbook. She scribbled something and tore out a check, extending it to Jack. “This, in exchange for you leaving town right now and never saying a word to anyone about what you and Willamena have been doing.”

He stared at the check in Gram’s hand for a moment, then looked at Wills for the first time. Several seconds passed. He finally stood and crossed the room to take it.

Wills could feel the blood leave her extremities. Her hands went numb in her lap. “Jack?”

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Are you?” she said incredulously. “Because this is the best possible ending for you, isn’t it? You make out like a bandit.”

“No, this isn’t the best possible ending.” He looked at her with intensity, trying to communicate something.

This went on for too long. Gram finally said, “Go.”

But Jack kept staring at her.

“Your time is running out,” Gram snapped.

Jack turned and walked out of the room. She heard the front door click shut softly behind him, but she winced as if it were a gunshot. She couldn’t believe it. He’d simply left. He’d built her up, and then let her down in a way that couldn’t possibly have made her feel more insignificant. Not even her own mother taking Gram’s money had hurt this much. Her mother, after all, hadn’t pretended to love her.

Gram turned to her. “Tell me if you find out you’re pregnant, and we’ll arrange something sooner with Terrence. If not, there’s no reason for him to know.”

“I don’t want to marry Terrence,” Wills said tonelessly.

“What other options have you given yourself? This was a very poor power play.”

“It wasn’t a power play at all.” Wills finally stood. “At least, not on my part.”

“And that was your first mistake. The real world will eat you alive and spit out your bones, Willamena. I’m only trying to protect you. This is the safest place for you. I hope you’ve learned your lesson. Never, ever give them your heart. And never, ever trust your friends.”

Wills had started out of the living room, but that made her pivot sharply. “What do you mean?”

“You were very good at hiding it, a little too good. I never would have suspected.” She took something out of a letter cubby in the desk and handed it to Wills before going to the couch and clicking on the television. “I received that in the morning post. No note. No return address,” she said, taking a very long sip of her drink.

Wills stared at the Polaroid of her and Jack outside the gym at prom. She knew in an instant who had sent it. She ran to her room to immediately call Dorothy, her whole body now shaking with anger. It took everything she had to keep her voice calm, to chitchat with Dorothy’s mother for a few moments before her mom called to Dorothy and she came on the line.

“Hey, Wills, what’s up?” she asked.

“You told Gram about Jack! You even gave her a photo! I trusted you!” she yelled, and then she slammed down the phone.

Later, Wills was on the floor in front of her stereo with her headphones on, staring up through the window as silver storm clouds gathered in the sky. There was a knock at her bedroom door. It could only be one person, because her grandmother never knocked, so she called, “Go away, Mrs. Orr. I’m not coming down to dinner.”

The door opened and Dorothy stuck her head in.

“How dare you show up here.” Wills sat up and pulled off her headphones. “Get out!”

Dorothy stepped in anyway and closed the door behind her. She set some papers on Wills’s desk. “Your grandmother is asleep on the couch. I told Mrs. Orr I needed to give you something for an assignment due tomorrow,” she said. “I didn’t tell your grandmother, Wills. I told Jani. Yesterday. She was the one with the Polaroid camera at prom, remember? She’s had it in for you ever since her brother died and your grandmother came to visit them.”

Wills knew what a powder keg Jani had become, so she had been on her guard with her. But she thought she could trust Dorothy. She thought Dorothy understood. “Why?” Wills demanded. “Why would you tell her?”

“She already had the photo and was connecting the dots. And I didn’t have a choice. Jani knows something about me.”

“What does she know?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, no,” Wills said with a harsh laugh. “You don’t get to keep this from me. You owe me.”

Dorothy sat on the bed and stuffed her hands under her knees. “She was at my house a lot after her brother died. Your grandmother didn’t want you around them while they mourned, remember? That’s when Jani found some letters from my mother’s old high school boyfriend.”