“I guess, more accurately,” Cooper said, “helocked mein a closet.”
“What! Hewhat? For how long?!”
“I think it was four days?”
“Four days?!”
“He put a TV in there, though. And blankets and pillows. And he let me have all the Froot Loops I wanted.”
“Cooper! Are you defending him?”
“I’m just saying—it wasn’t that bad.”
“Yes, it was!”
“It was a long time ago. I’m fine now.”
“You’re not fine! You have cleithrophobia.”
“It’s mild.”
But I was so outraged on his behalf. “I can’t believe you went through all that! I can’t believe that happened to you—and all this time I never knew about it!”
Cooper gave a littlewhat-can-you-doshrug.
I said, “I want to give you a hug right now—but I can’t touch anything orbe touched.”
“It’s fine,” Cooper said. “You’re in your underwear, so that’s probably best.”
I looked down. I’d almost forgotten. “This bra is practically a bathing suit.”
“We can go with that.”
Fine. No hug. Instead, I looked into his eyes. “Cooper… I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “We all go through things.”
“But we don’t allget kidnapped.”
“It brings me back to your question, though,” Cooper said.
I couldn’t even remember the question at this point.
“About this,” he said, touching his scar.
“Your fencing scar,” I said.
I lifted my hand and ran the pad of my pointer finger over the spot. I could feel a little indentation that cut all the way down through the rim of his lip. “That’s deeper than it looks,” I said.
“It happened when I escaped. From my dad’s.”
“You escaped?”
Cooper nodded.
“I was hoping he’d just come to his senses and taken you home.”
Cooper shook his head, likeNope. “He forgot to lock the closethandle one day when he went out, so I climbed out the second-story window.”
