We just left. And now we’re … back?That, and chicken salad. I might actually puke it back up if I didn’t calm down real fast.
“Guys, I mean it,” Layla said. “I need…”
“What do you need, babe?” I asked, surprised to hear my voice sounding level, in control. Layla threw her hands up, then brought them down with a smack against my seat and Griffin’s. “I don’t know what I need,” she yelled, too loudly in the confined space, even with the windows open. “I just know I don’t needthis, whatever the holy motherfucking fuckthisis.”
Layla had been dropping F-bombs since we were, like, nine. Even then, how many she fit into a sentence was a pretty accurate gauge of either how upset or how excited she was. The needle was tipping toward red now, the zone where she lost control entirely.
I suggested.
Hunt said.
I turned in my seat to face all of them, keeping a firm grip on Bobo, who’d pulled his head inside the cabin at the panic in Layla’s voice. He was looking everywhere, attempting to locate the source of her distress so he could attack it. I ran a soothing hand down his back, and I wished someone would do that for me.
Griffin gripped the steering wheel with both hands, continuing straight on the road that was supposed to lead us out of town—not the fuck back into it.
“Okay then, Brainiac,” I told Hunt even when I normally wouldn’t. He wasn’t overly fond of the term.
“You all are as smart as I am and you damn well know it,” he said automatically, like he usually did whenever one of us was an idiot and called him that.
“Yeah, I know. Sorry. So…” I peppered Bobo with more pets. His tail was tucked though his ears were perked. My sweet boy didn’t know what he was supposed to be doing. “This ain’t normal, obvi. What are we thinking? A mistake in the signs? Maybe a prank? Wouldn’t put it past one of our moronic classmates to move it. Pike Bills would totally do something like this.”
Layla’s heavy breathing slowed some. “I could absolutely see him doing this.”
“He probably took a hard tackle in practice yesterday or something,” Brady added. “Got drunk with the guys, wanted a break from doing drive-bys on mailboxes or whatever the fuck they do for fun these days, and came up with this brilliant plan.” Brady laughed. “That’s gotta be it.”
But every one of us knew we were grasping at straws and clutching them for dear life. If everything else in our lives were ordinary, sure, then maybe it was Pike Bills and whatever crew of buffoons. But our lives weren’t ordinary. Not even close.
“So what do we do?” I asked. “Just keep driving?” I looked at Griffin.
“Yeah, let’s just keep going. If the signs were switched up, then nothing changes. We’re still out for a nice joyride.”
Griffin kept driving, and indeed nothing changed, just not in the way he meant.
Before long, we passed the road that led to Raven’s Lagoon, and soon after, the location of Magnum’s institute, concealed behind dense trees. Next, we drove by the turnoff for the Fischer House.
The closer we drew to the center of town, the more familiar and irrefutable landmarks rolled by, and the more that chicken salad insisted I wasn’t finished with it yet.
When we breezed past the high school, Layla whispered, “You guys…” And that was it.
I preferred it when she was laying down a long streak of F-bombs. A quiet Layla who couldn’t find the words, when to her most would do in a pinch, was unfamiliar territory. We already had enough of that to choke on.
Brady patted her on the leg before starting to rub comforting circles across her knee, a behavior just as unlikely as Layla’s trailing off yet again.
“I know,” Brady cooed to her. “It’s wack.”
I chortled darkly. “Wack? No, man, this is … dammit, this is next-level…”
Tears suddenly stung my eyes. I hid my face along Bobo’s neck. He craned his head back so he could kiss me, no doubt feeling my turmoil, but couldn’t reach.
“Maybe there’s a logical explanation that we’re missing,” Griffin offered, sounding wholly unconvinced.
His eyes flicked to the rearview mirror.
I said.
Brady only pursed his lips.
“Let’s just get to the end of town … uh, again,” Hunt said aloud, “before we freak out any more.”
