DoesI’ll be fine with hermean he’s still alive?
I try to DM the account, but it’s closed to DMs. I add a comment on the post from my own account.DM me if you’re alive.I turn notifications on for Instagram DMs, so I’ll know immediately if he responds.
I suddenly remember something. He doesn’t mean Wednesday the day; he means Wednesday theperson.
Taylor. She was sexy Wednesday Addams for Halloween.
If Taylor took him, then I need to talk to her.
TWENTY-FIVE
Itext Jack right away, asking him if Taylor was there that night at the marina or if Jay or Lance mentioned at any point that she would be joining them for this night cruise. Jack doesn’t write back. I don’t know why I didn’t think of Taylor being involved before now. She is literally Lance’s sister. If this was all for the trust money, she’d also get part of it if Jay doesn’t claim it. I don’t know if this means Taylor killed Jay, or lured him onto the boat, or anything, really. Or maybe she helped him somehow. Jay wrote that he’d be fine, which means at the moment he posted that Instagram post, he thought Taylor would keep him safe. But it’s been five months since then, and no one knows where he is. Clearly Taylor did not keep him safe.
Jack finally writes back that he doesn’t remember seeing Taylor or anyone mentioning her, but he doesn’t really remember a lot.
Should I go see Taylor? There is no way she would talk to me. The girl hates me. Maybe Mia can help? But then, I’m pretty sure Mia hates me too. I sigh and grab my bag, hoping that maybe some shred of our friendship still exists.
I call Gracie and ask her to meet me outside West Hall. When we get there, we follow another student into the building and take the elevator to the fourth floor. I knock on the dorm room that was mine only amonth ago. It feels weird. I lived in this room longer than my room in East House, but this building now looks like a distant memory. It feels like a lifetime ago that I left Mia. I’m not the same person I was then.
Mia opens the door, and her face falls when she sees me. Maybe she is expecting ...hopingfor someone else?
“Aleeza ...whatare you doing here?” She glances at Gracie, and frowns. Gracie is wearing her black-framed glasses, a dress printed with multicolored cats, and a purple cardigan. I think she looks adorable. Mia’s wearing sweats and a T-shirt. Her hair is flat-ironed straight again.
“We need to talk to you,” I say. “Is Lance here?” I hope he’s not.
Mia’s face falls a little. I detect it because I know her. But she’s trying to hide her disappointment. “No,” she says.
“What about Taylor?”
Mia shakes her head. “No.”
“Okay, then, can we come in?”
She looks like she doesn’t want to let us in. It suddenly occurs to me that as strange as it feels for me to see her like this, it must be even stranger for Mia. I’m the one who walked away from her and never once tried to come back to the familiar place under her wing. I’m the one with new friends, with a new passion, with a new life.
Mia finally steps aside and puts her hand out to let us in. Walking into the room is like going back in time. It looks the same, because of course it does. All the K-pop posters, all the decor—it was always Mia’s choice. I was the afterthought. Only Ted was mine.
I’m not an afterthought anymore.
But wait. Kegan told me someone else moved in here. I look over to the door that used to be mine. “Did you get a new roommate?”
Mia frowns. “Yeah, that’s Taylor’s room.”
Oh. How did I not knowTaylormoved into my old room? And a better question ... why?
Mia sighs and sits on the small sofa in the room. I don’t want to sit next to her, so I sit on one of the wood kitchen chairs. Gracie takes the other.
“Did you and Lance have a fight or something?” I ask.
She doesn’t say anything.
“Okay, we’ll skip the small talk,” I say. “You know we’ve been looking into Jay Hoque’s death, right?”
She nods.
“Did Lance know?” Gracie asks.
Mia nods. “He and Taylor both knew. Taylor said you were pathetic, chasing a ghost.”
