“Oh. So, then I guess that means you’re not coming.”
I sat down at the kitchen table and opened my laptop, clicking on a new tab and quickly typing in the website Marley was talking about and finding Lior’s most recent post, which had gone live at six this morning.
“How do you get that she’s going to Seattle from that?” I asked, looking at the image she’d taken of her legs and shoes in what was obviously an airport and then reading out loud what she’d written. “Off to see the Wither?”
“Don’t you two talk all the time? It’s a long-standing joke she has with Addie.”
“It is?”
“Oh my gawd, G. Seriously?”
“Sorry. She failed to tell me that one.”
“They dressed up as Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz when they were in like, second grade or something. And there was a kid in their class with a lisp. He kept calling Addie the Wither.”
I laughed, picturing the two of them, and then sobered. She hadn’t told me last night that she was planning to go to Seattle. What had happened between then and this morning?
“Is Addie okay?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Marley said. “Seriously. I thought you guys were friends and talked all the time now. Has something happened?”
“I… Honestly, Mars. I have no idea.”
We got off the phone a minute later when she realized she was about to be late to class and I sat at the table staring at the picture on Lior’s social media page. What the fuck was going on?
The call came several hours later, Lior’s name lighting up the screen of my phone.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah. You?”
“I mean, I’m a little confused right now. Did you know you were going to Seattle today and just forgot to mention it last night?”
“No. I didn’t. At least, not while you were still there. I think I decided somewhere around midnight.”
“Okay.” I frowned. “Why?”
“I needed Addie. I… needed advice.”
“About?”
She didn’t say anything for a minute and then: “You. Us. My job. Seattle.”
“Are you still thinking of quitting modeling?”
“Not exactly.”
I was quiet.
“But what about what happened at that last shoot?” I asked.
“It wasn’t the first time.”
“Right but…. you said you were sick of it. And rightly so.”
