Three, Two, One (321)

The steps are metal, something I noticed when we came, so my bare feet don’t make much sound as I descend. If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he’ll know where to look for me, I’m sure.

When I get to the bottom of the steps, I put my shoes on real fast, and then I get in the car and wake up the sleeping phone.

I check the call history to see if the text he sent earlier was to JD, but it wasn’t. It is, however, an area code I recognize. And that makes me stop for a second.

Why the hell would he be calling DC?

What if he called my father?

No. No, he wouldn’t do that without telling me. It’s got to be something else. It’s got to be part of his secret and since this is the only real clue I have, I send a text to try to coax one back.

Did you get my message?

I get in the car and wait. Both texts have the little Delivered message below the balloon bubbles. So I know it went through.

But I didn’t come down here to snoop on his phone. I came down to call JD.

I press in JD’s number and count the rings, but it goes to voicemail. “JD,” I say in a low whisper. “It’s Blue. Please call me back on this phone. I need to talk to you.”

I hang up and slump down in the driver’s seat of the dead girl’s Camry. Who was she? I have no idea. But it’s not good when your boyfriend takes you to a girl’s house and you can smell her decaying body from the back door.

The buzz of the phone in my hand scares the crap out of me, and my heart skips a beat before I realize it’s JD calling me back.

“Hello?”

“Blue,” he says. He sounds sad. “Where are you?”

I look around the building. “I don’t know. Ark took me somewhere for the night. I’m in a big building.” I leave out the rest of the info about this place. The servers. The fact that Ark has been spending a lot of time here. The lies. I just want us to make up, so that stuff will have to wait. “He said you sold my pictures. Is that true? Did you sell the videos we made?”

“I never said that shit, Blue.” It comes out fast and angry. It comes out believable. “I have no idea why Ark’s trippin’, but this is bullshit. He thinks he owns you, Blue. He’s the one who’s been lying. And he’s pissed off that I found out about it.”

That’s true. Ark admitted a bunch of lies to me and I have a feeling that’s just the beginning. “I want to come home. I want Ark to bring me home. But he won’t until tomorrow. Do you think I should leave?”

“Can you leave?”

“I’m in a car. But I don’t know where I’m at. And I don’t know how to get home.”

“Does it have GPS, baby? You could program in our address and it will tell you how to get here. Do you think you can do that?”

“It does. It has a GPS. But, if I come, do you promise that we can all talk this through tomorrow? I know he’s hiding things too. I can feel it. And he’s admitted to some of them. They don’t add up, so I’m not sure what any of them mean. But JD, I need us to make up.”

“We can sort it out, Blue. I swear. And I think it’s pretty fucked up that he accused me of taking advantage of you thinking you’re a prisoner and then he practically abducts you.”

“Yeah.” JD has a point. “I know. I don’t want to stay here, JD. I want to come home. Ark’s scaring me. He says he’s gonna call my father and make me go back to them. I can’t do that, JD. I can’t tell the world what I did, and the world will certainly want to know where I’ve been for the past year and a half.”

“You’re in the car right now?”

“Yeah.”

“OK. Then start it up and program our address into the GPS.”

I start the car and the GPS comes to life. I had one a long time ago. It feels like a different lifetime, but these steps are familiar to me. I accept the agreement that I won’t mess with it while I drive, and then I punch in the address as JD reads it off to me.

“Just park in the garage and I’ll be there waiting for you, OK?”

“OK,” I say, pressing the button on Ark’s keychain that he used to open the roll-up garage door. “I’m on my way. Will you stay on the line with me?”

“Of course, baby. Of course. Don’t panic or anything. Just follow the directions.” As soon as JD says that, the voice begins to narrate the route home. “And take your time.”

JD talks soothingly to me as I drive. We are far away. Past Boulder, which is miles away from downtown, where I need to be. But there’s no traffic since it’s late. And when I start to get nervous, JD is there in my ear calming me down.

Finally, after more than a half hour of driving. I recognize the buildings around our street. I’m starting to feel better when my phone buzzes an incoming text. I glance at it as I wait for a light to turn green.

If you went home, just let me know. Don’t leave me like this. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for us.

It’s from Ark. I punch out my return message. I’m here at home. I need JD too, Ark. I need him tonight. And not the way you think. You’re lying to me.

The light turns green and I make a left and then a right when I get to the garage. JD is waiting for me. Casually leaning up against a truck, smoking a cigarette. I drive towards him when the return text buzzes. I pull into the parking spot where Ark’s Jeep was a few hours ago, and then glance down at the phone before I put the car in park.