Page 65 of Jar of Hearts
How could she have let this happen? She knew Calvin was violent. He’d been violent with her, and she’d seen him threaten other guys in bars. She’d seen the way he was looking at Angela all night, simultaneously disgusted and turned-on by her lascivious behavior.
Her boyfriend had raped her best friend. Maybe Angela had gone too far with the dancing and the flirting, and maybe she’d even kissed him—Geo didn’t know, she was passed out drunk, she had no way of knowing how it started. But she sure as shit knew how it ended. At some point, Angela wanted it to stop. She said no. Geo had seen her mouth form the word from across the room. There was no way Calvin didn’t hear it. And Geo had done nothing to help her.
She stayed in the shower until the water began to cool. Back in her room, she changed into sweats and buried herself under the covers.
Somehow, she fell asleep, waking the next morning to the sound of the phone ringing. She opened a bleary eye to where the cordless phone sat on her night table, and saw Angela’s home number on the call display. Automatically, she reached for the phone, and then her hand froze. Because it couldn’t be Angela calling.
Angela is dead.
She sat up, watching the phone ring, and then ring some more. The call display flashed. Outside, her dad was home, mowing the lawn, and in an hour he would come upstairs, have a shower, and try and sleep for a few hours. That’s what he did after an overnight on Friday.
The entire world was continuing on like normal, except for one thing.
Angela is dead.
She picked up the receiver slowly. “Hello?”
“Georgina? It’s Candace Wong.” Angela’s mother’s voice was brisk. “Sorry if I woke you, honey. Can I speak to Angie?”
“She’s…” Geo swallowed. “She’s not here, Mrs. Wong.”
“Oh?” The woman paused. “I assumed she was with still with you, since she stayed over last night.”
Geo took a breath. She had to tell her. She had to tell Mrs. Wong what happened, that Angela was dead. How she could not tell her?
Mrs. Wong misread her hesitation. “You can tell me, dear. She should have called us last night, once she got to your place. Victor was up playing poker until twoA.M.You think he would have noticed his only daughter didn’t come home.” She sounded cross, but not at Angela.
Candace Wong would never be cross with her daughter again.
Geo’s heart was pounding, and so was her head. Her stomach felt like she swallowed something horribly acidic. It was churning, sending a rippling, burning pain throughout her abdomen.
“I… actually, she didn’t stay over last night. I last saw her at Chad’s.”
She closed her eyes. She had just told the first—and most significant—lie that she would ever tell.
“Chad Fenton?” Mrs. Wong said. “Oh right, she did say something about a party last night. You girls didn’t leave together? You weren’t with Kaiser?”
Tell her. Tell her now.We did leave together, but neither of us went home.…
“No, she… we…” Geo took a breath, her thoughts spinning. “I left early, I wasn’t feeling well. I walked home. Angela and Kai were still at the party when I left.” The words were falling out of her mouth, and she couldn’t stop them.
“Her car must still be at Chad’s, then.” Mrs. Wong sounded pissed off. “Honestly, Georgina, I wasn’t too happy when her father bought her that car. She’s spoiled enough as it is. Were you girls drinking last night?”
We were drinking. I ate the fruit. I got drunk. I passed out.
“A little.”
A sigh on the other end of the line. “Well, there’s no point in lecturing you on underage drinking, that’s your father’s job. At least you girls had the good sense not to get behind the wheel of a car, but Angie issogrounded when she gets home. She’s in big trouble now.”
Yes, she is, Mrs. Wong. The worst kind. She’s never coming home. Ever.
“I play tennis with Chad’s mother,” Mrs. Wong said, her voice dropping conspiratorially. “Rosemarie’s a bit of a flake, and I know her husband’s an alcoholic. They keep their damn liquor cabinet unlocked, and I know the older son—the dropout—drinks, too. I’ll give her a call.” Another sigh, impatient this time. “In the meantime, Georgina, can you call around a bit? You’d know better than me where she’s likely to have ended up. If you talk to her, tell her to get her butt home. I’m going to call Kaiser’s house next, but if she spent the night at a boy’s house, she’s in big trouble.”
She’s in the woods, Mrs. Wong, buried in the dirt.…
Geo squeezed her eyes shut. She had to tell the truth. It was the very least she could do, and this was her opportunity to come clean, before she told any more lies, before they found out the horrible thing that happened.
It was now or never.
