Page 27 of Come Find Me
She swings her arm in the direction of his head, but he catches her wrist, laughing.
“You’re such a jerk,” she says, but she’s smiling.
I don’t get it. I really don’t. Sutton Tanner is an asshole, and she can’t get enough.
God, I have to get out of here.
“Want a beer?” he asks, fishing through a backpack. From the way he can’t keep still, there’s like an eighty percent chance that can of beer explodes if he’s the one who carried it in here.
“No thanks, I’m…” I’mwhat?Trying to find out what pi has to do with my brother’s disappearance, in the middle of the night, believing he’s sent me some sort of clue? Searching for the paranormal, and this is the prime spot?They stare at me, waiting.
A twig snaps in the distance, and Lydia jumps again, her head twisting.
“Did you guys hear that?” she asks, her voice shaky.
“Calm down, babe,” Sutton says.
Marco peers over his shoulder into the dark. “She’s still jumpy from this afternoon.”
“What happened this afternoon?” Sutton asks, looking between Marco and Lydia. You can tell, even now, he doesn’t like to be the last to know something.
Lydia shrugs. “Kennedy happened. Wanted me to take a look at something for her, and then she left me there.”
“She left you at the house?” he asks, shuddering.
“No, the shed.”
“Just as bad,” he mumbles.
“Right, and then I…heard something. I could’ve sworn she never left. Only she says she was at the police station, meeting with the prosecutors or something. She had the paperwork and everything.”
Sutton frowns. “Why were you evenatKennedy’s house?”
“She asked me to, Sutton. God. But really, you didn’t hear anything just now?”
“Iheard something,” I say.
They both look at me, surprised. Like they’d already forgotten I existed. Forgotten that they had just thirty seconds ago called me nearer, introduced me to their group, offered me a beer.
“Sutton, come on, I want to go,” Lydia says, tugging his arm.
He presses his lips together. Shrugs. “All right,” he says.Okay, not a complete asshole,I think.
Then he turns the whole thing around with a wicked grin. “Always give a girl what she asks for, my friend.” Nope, definitely an asshole.
Lydia nudges him as he walks past, then quickly falls into step. Even Marco trails after them. Back down the path, out of the park. No one really cares what I was doing here. No one wonders. It should probably feel more like relief.
Their voices carry, and I wait for silence. Sitting still, in the dark, with my eyes closed, I can feel the memory of the signal in the palm of my hand, the way it buzzed, in a rhythm. I picture a circle, myself at the center.
And then I try to listen for my brother. For whatever he’s trying to tell me. I focus on the way he looked during the fever dream, his mouth moving, trying to decipher the words he was saying:Help us. Please.
It takes a minute for everything to still around me, for every sound to have a place, until I feel it. Something else. Someoneelse.
I open my eyes.
The voices fade in one direction, but I remain behind. At first, the three of them were like a pull, like I could see my own shadow, see where it should be as I followed them. The hole left behind, an ebb of darkness. But the farther they get, the less I feel the need to catch up.
But now I’m stuck. I don’t want the guy in the clearing to notice me—since Sutton knows him, I’m assuming he’s not going to abduct me. But I also don’t want him telling Sutton that some girl was out here, watching them all. By reasonable deduction, they would probably realize that it was me.
