Chapter 25

Tuesday

Something was seriously wrong with me. I had issues, but the vigilante did too. That's why it felt right. But that wasn't a good reason to run into his arms. Especially when I clearly had feelings for Miles too.

I bit the end of my pen as I stared at the words the professor was writing on the board. I should have been paying attention, but everything the professor said seemed to pass over my head. What was I even doing in this class? Despite what Liza thought, Sadie Davis wasn't talking about the four members of our group. She was counting down the days. I was running out of time to figure out what it all meant.

I shoved my notebook into my backpack and slipped out the back door of the large lecture hall. The professor didn't even turn around. No one's going to miss me. I immediately shook away the thought.

The leaves were just starting to change color. I took a huge breath of fresh air. The bright green of campus was slowly fading away. Just like I'm fading away. Stop.

Eli was supposed to meet me after class to walk me back to V's, but I couldn't make my feet stay still. There was no time to wait around. I needed to move, to feel the burn of my muscles. Three days wasn't enough time to learn how to defend myself. But it wasn't going to stop me from trying. Hopefully V would be up for a training session.

I started walking toward V's apartment when I saw her. Sadie Davis was sitting on a bench reading a book, like she was just another college student on campus. It was like she knew that I was going to walk by here after class. Did that mean she knew where V lived?

Unlike the other times I had seen her, this time I didn't freeze. I actually started walking faster. This could be my one chance to speak to her. I needed to understand why she was doing this. And what exactly she was doing.

As if sensing my presence, she closed the book and looked up at me. The expression on her face made it seem like she was surprised to see that I was coming toward her. She immediately held up three fingers. There was no smile this time. She looked like she was panicking because I wasn't stopping.

Hoards of students suddenly started to pour onto the walking paths between us, blocking her from my line of sight.

By the time I reached the bench, she was gone. But the book she had been reading was still there. I lifted up the tattered copy of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I had read it for an English assignment in high school. It had no connection whatsoever to what Sadie Davis was doing here. It was about a group of men sailing the Congo. The book itself did have a connection, though.

I loved reading growing up. It was like I was able to escape from my life through the pages of a book. But I had hated this one. It didn't feel like an escape at all. I could barely make my way through it. And it wasn't just because I didn't enjoy the story. I opened it up and saw the blood smeared across the title page.

I remembered blocking the bottle with my hand. Bleeding until I felt dizzy. Slowly pulling the shards out one by one. Wiping my palm against the pages of the book and hiding the evidence in my backpack. Thinking the bandages and the blood was enough to put him away. Being laughed at for having stories running in my head.

After Don found out I went to the police, I ended up with a broken arm, a welt on the side of my head, and a distrust of law enforcement. He beat me with the book I tried to get him arrested with. I hated that book. I hated him. But I learned to keep my mouth shut and I stopped believing in a better life. In a lot of ways, this book had been the end of my hope.

It wasn't just the memory that this book served either. My heart truly was filled with darkness, just like the title said. Don knew that. He had put the darkness there with his own two brutal hands.

I glanced at the bottom of the page where a note was scrawled. "This would have been more fun if you hadn't already stopped living, Sadie." My name was in quotes again, just like the notes I had gotten before Don had gone dark. He was back. This was his handwriting. And it wasn't Sadie Davis that I should be fearing. It was him.

 

***

 

"What other proof do you need?" I said and slammed my hand down onto the book.

Liza just stared at me. "Don could have written that awhile ago. We don't know how long he's been planning this. It doesn't prove anything."

"He's here. Why do none of you believe me?" I looked around the table. Eli and V didn't come to my defense. No one was on my side with this. But I was the one that actually knew Don. None of them did. He was back in the city. I could feel it in my bones.

"Look," Liza said. "If he was back in New York, I would know. I have facial recognition running non-stop on V's computers. He's not here."

"I don't need technology to know that he's close."

Liza leaned back in her chair. "Actually, you do. A hunch doesn't prove anything. He's not here, Summer."

"But..."

"Sadie," V said. "We'll look into it, but Liza is right. We have everything set up so that we'll know as soon as he's back. He couldn't have gotten past that much surveillance."

"And if you'd stop touching that book, we might be able to get some information from it." Liza pulled a pencil out from behind her ear that I hadn't been able to see underneath all of her hair. She pushed the book away from my hand with the eraser end of the pencil.

"It's just my blood. You can't get any new information from that."

"We can run it for fingerprints," Eli said. "Maybe that'll finally point us in the direction of some kind of connection here."

I wanted to slap everyone at this table. "There's no one else involved. Sadie Davis works for Don. She's his messenger. And he's back! And if we don't figure out what they're planning to do I'm going to be dead in three days!" I felt like I was hyperventilating. I couldn't seem to catch my breath.

"Hey," V said. He stood up and put his hand on my arm. "Why don't you go lie down for a bit while we run the book for prints?"

I pulled my arm away from him. "I need some fresh air. I'm going for a walk."

"Let me come with you," Eli said as his chair squeaked across the floor.

"I don't need an escort. There's no danger right? That's what you all think? That I'm crazy?"

"We didn't say that," V said.

You didn't need to. I could see it on all their faces. None of them had my back. None of them believed me. This time when I approached the window it opened without Athena saying anything. It was like she could sense my bad mood.

I wanted to hang out with someone who believed in me. Someone who had always had my back, even when I thought he hadn't. I pulled out my phone and clicked on Miles' name. "6th and Pine you said? I'm going to go check it out now." I pressed send before I could tell myself the millions of reasons why I shouldn't be talking to him. I started walking toward 6th and Pine. Even if he didn't respond, I could still use that ice cream. We had met early for our meeting because I had told everyone I had an important update. Which meant I hadn't grabbed anything to eat. And now I was starving and pissed. Ice cream was the perfect solution.

My phone buzzed before I had even taken a few steps.

"Ice cream for dinner? I'm in. Give me 20 minutes."

I smiled down at the text. For just one night I was going to be normal. I was going to do what I wanted. There was no guarantee that I'd get more time. I knew that I couldn't exactly be myself around Miles. But it wasn't really about that. It was more so that being with him reminded me of who I really was. And if I could have one more hour as Summer Brooks, I'd take it. It might be my last chance.

When I arrived at the ice cream shop, I was happy to see that it was actually ice cream and not some ritzy frozen yogurt joint. I wanted the real thing, not some barely healthier alternative. I peered through the window at the menu posted above the checkout counter. They had every flavor I could possibly think of. I stopped scanning the options when my eyes landed on mint chocolate chip. I smiled, remembering what it was like for Miles to know me.

 

"You cheated!" I said and grabbed the cards out of his hand.

"I did not."

"Miles, you only have three of a kind instead of four."

"Jokers are wild."

"They are not! You can't just make up rules halfway through." I folded my arms across my chest.

"Just because I'm better than you at this doesn't mean that I cheated." He picked up the spoon from his empty bowl and leaned over toward my bowl, which was still half full.

"Don't you dare touch my ice cream, Miles Young."

He smiled out of the corner of his mouth. "What'll happen to me if I do, Summer Brooks?" He leaned even closer toward my bowl that was sitting on the floor by my knee.

"Don't you do it."

He put his spoon in my ice cream and took a huge bite.

"You're a cheater and a thief."

He quickly picked up my bowl and stood up.

"Miles!" To me, stealing ice cream was sacrilegious.

"If you want it back, you'll have to come get it." He backed away slowly and took another bite of my ice cream.

I got up off the floor and ran after him. He laughed as I jumped onto his back. He tried to spin me off, but I was clinging to him with all my strength. I reached down, grabbed a sticky fistful of ice cream and smashed it against his cheating, thieving face.

His laughter only grew as he skidded across the linoleum floor. Suddenly he slipped, leaving us in a pile of sticky, tangled limbs.

"What on earth are you kids doing?" Mrs. Young said.

We looked up to see her with her hands on her hips, but there was a smile on her face.

"Summer stole my ice cream," Miles said with a laugh as he pulled away from me.

"I did not, Mrs. Young. He stole mine."

She shook her head, but the smile remained. She opened up the freezer door and pulled out the container of mint chocolate chip ice cream. "Here." She grabbed two new spoons and put them into the container of ice cream and placed it on the floor beside us. "You both need to learn how to share."

The truth was, I didn't mind sharing with Miles. I really just wanted an excuse to be tangled up on the floor with him.

He stuck his tongue out at me. "Fine, if we have to, Mom." He lifted up one of the spoons and held it out to me, almost like a peace offering. But when I went to reach for it, he wiped it across my cheek, getting a little ice cream off of my face. Then he proceeded to put the spoon into his mouth.

I gulped. It was the sexiest thing I had ever seen. We always just shared one bowl after that.

 

"You finally said yes."

I jumped, being pulled out of my memory. I turned to see Miles smiling at me. Seeing him still made me nervous after all these years. "Technically I asked you here. So...you said yes to me."

"Right, right. After standing me up last night I was a little surprised to see your text." He pushed his hair off his forehead.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I like to keep you on your toes."

He smiled out of the corner of his mouth. "That you do."

It felt like my heart was melting. "I hope you didn't wait too long for me last night."

"Only 3 hours."

"What? Really? I'm so, so sorry."

He laughed. "No, maybe fifteen minutes or so. I shot you a few more texts and when you didn't respond, I assumed the worst."

In a few days the worst would probably mean I was dead on the street. I immediately shook away the thought. I wasn't going to think about that tonight. For just a few hours I was going to hang out and be solely focused on the boy who used to eat way more than his fair share of ice cream.

He grabbed the handle of the door to the ice cream shop. "After you." He gestured with his hand.

"Thank you." Maybe he used to be a card cheater and an ice cream thief, but now he was a gentleman. "How has soccer been going?" For some reason, the thought of an awkward silence between us terrified me. We never used to have those. Any stretches of silence between us hadn't been awkward to me at all. They were just filled with thoughts of me wishing he would kiss me. I wondered if he had been thinking the same thing.

He shrugged. "Good. We're undefeated so far. I noticed that you weren't at my last game."

"You couldn't possibly have noticed that. Thousands of people were probably at your last game."

"I noticed."

I pressed my lips together and stared up at the menu that I had already studied.

"Next," the man at the checkout counter called.

"You first," Miles said with a smile.

I walked up to the front of the line. Even though there were dozens of enticing flavors, I knew exactly what I wanted. Not just because of the memory that brought a smile to my face, but because I knew it was Miles' favorite. "One bowl of mint chocolate chip," I said. I glanced over at Miles.

He had lowered his eyebrows slightly as if he was studying me. "Make that two," he said as he pulled out his wallet.

"Oh, no, I can pay for myself."

"I finally got you out on a date. I got this."

"But I..."

"I insist." He put the money down on the counter.

A date. I had been waiting twelve years to go on a real date with Miles. I watched him pay for the ice cream and we stepped to the side to wait for it to be scooped. "So that's what this is...a date?"

"Isn't it?" He smiled as his eyes locked with mine. It still looked like he was studying me.

I blinked, hoping my colored contacts hadn't shifted out of place or something. "That depends on what you classify as a date." I laughed awkwardly.

"Well," he said as he leaned against the counter. "Tonight I was thinking ice cream and a walk in Central Park. And if everything goes well..." his eyes landed on my lips. "We can end it with the best kiss of your life."