“Don’t get out,” I said sharply. Then I tried to laugh. “If you think Tiger was rough on my leg, you don’t want to see what our chickens do to strangers.”
Will looked at me. My face burned when I saw the pity in his eyes. He reached for something on the car’s backseat. “This is for you,” he said, handing me the copy ofA Moveable Feastthat I’d borrowed earlier. “You should finish it.”
I took the book and pressed it to my chest. “Thank you.”
“At least let me help you up the stairs. I can carry your bag.”
“This little thing?” I patted the bag on my lap. “I’m fine. Really. Thank you for the ride, Will. And the book. Thank you for... everything.” And then, before I could lose my nerve, I leaned over and kissed his cheek. When I opened the car door and stepped out, the air smelled of the sea, of home. The sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs filled the air. As I limped up the steps to the porch, I heard the car engine spring to life behind me. Lights slid over the boarded-up kitchen window. Wheels crunched against the dirt.
I stopped at the top of the stairs and closed my eyes. I waited until I couldn’t hear the car anymore.Goodbye,I thought when the sound of the ocean again filled the night. With Will gone, my connection to the Langfords was officially severed. In a moment, the experience moved from the present to the past, and something within me ached at the change.
“Fancy car,” Bear slurred. He muttered something else, but I could not understand him.
I opened my eyes. Bear had a spectrum of drunkenness and I could pinpoint his place on it the moment I heard him speak. When he fumbled to enunciate his words, he was drunk but aware. This was when his tongue was sharpest—it was when he referred to us as “the cunt and the runt” or spat at me and told me I smelled like chickenshit. When he stopped even attempting to speak clearly, and his words whooshed and churned like boiling water, I knew he was very drunk. When he was very drunk, he focused his attacks on Amir.
Right now, he was very drunk.
I dropped the bag I was holding. “Where is he?”
Bear shrugged.
“Where is he?” I shouted.
His bloodshot eyes roamed my face but could not settle in one place. “In his room.” I didn’t like the smirk that flickered across his lips.
I threw open the door to the cottage, calling Amir’s name. It was quiet. His room was empty. His pillow still held the indentation from his head. I put my hand on it.Amir,I thought,where are you?
Where is he?
In his room... in his room... in his room...
The shed.
