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Nathan glanced at her through the corner of his eye. It was strange having Stephanie in the passenger seat, he was used to it being Tully. “Is this how you start a conversation?”
“It’s more like, this is how I try to find out if you’re the reason my best friend disappeared without notice.” At least she was straightforward.
“No. No, I’m not. Ms. Hill came and got her after school and I haven’t seen her since.”
“Ms. Hill? Did something happen?” Stephanie asked.
Nathan shrugged. “I have no idea. She didn’t say what it was, but Tully looked . . . worried.”
Stephanie considered it for a long moment. Bon Jovi kept the silence from getting awkward. They were at Stephanie’s house before either of them came up with an explanation.
She grabbed a spare receipt stuffed into his cup holder and wrote something down. “Call me if she calls you,” she said and handed it to him. Her phone number was written on the paper.
“Why would she call me?”
“It’s just a hunch.” She smirked, and got out of the car, lugging her backpack with her. “I’ll see you at homecoming tomorrow.”
Nathan made sure she got inside alright before he left. He wasn’t sure what she meant by “a hunch”, but he hoped she was right.
* * *
“Nathan! Tully’s on the phone!” Sandy called up the stairs.
Nathan dropped his magazine and rushed from his room. He’d tried to call Tully as soon as he got home, but no one had answered.
“Coming!”
He skipped every other stair and grabbed the phone from his mom. She grinned and left to go back to whatever she was doing. Still, it wasn’t far enough so Nathan stretched the phone cord to its limits and pulled it into the bathroom where he could close the door.
“Tully?” He needed to make sure.
“Hi.”
“Hey, what happened? You disappeared. I was worried.”
She paused on the other end, and Nathan leaned against the bathroom door. He pushed the phone further into his ear, thinking maybe he’d missed something, but then she finally spoke up.
“I’m grounded,” she whispered.
He blinked, surprised, and his mouth popped open. Tully, grounded? “What?”
“They said I stole the test answers for my exam.”
“What?” That was bogus. “How?”
“They found it in my locker. I-I have no idea how it got there. They wouldn’t believe me, no one believes—” Her voice caught.
Nathan’s chest panged painfully at the sound. She was crying, or trying not to.
He closed his eyes and on the back of his lids he saw her face: eyes red, lip quivering as she tried to hold back the tears. He wanted to reach out and touch her face, but he couldn’t. He opened his eyes.
“Hey, hey, hey.Ibelieve you, okay? I do. I know you didn’t do that. I’ve been watching you study to death for this thing. Why the hell would you need the answers for it? You’re the smartest person I know.”
There was a long silence on the other end, and Nathan urged her to say something. Was she crying? He couldn’t handle it if he heard her cry. He might just drive over there and kick down the door and—
“Thank you,” she said. Despite his worries, her voice was stronger. No crying to be heard. “I can’t go to the dance tomorrow.”
He frowned. “That’s convenient timing, isn’t it.”
