Page 38 of Find My Way Down to You

They’re scattered all over my pillow and mattress. Slender, soft, oddly familiar. I’ve seen them before. But where? As I search through my memories, I hear Max’s voice a room away:

“Would you please justwork?”

I leave behind the mess on my bed.

In the kitchen, Max fights with the waffle maker. A thin veil of acrid smoke hangs in the air. Globs of batter dirty the counter. Two blackened, misshapen circles sit in the sink. Clearly her first failed attempts.

“Can I help?” I offer.

She spins around, a fork pointed at my chest.

I raise my hands, surrendering. “Put down the weapon, Max.”

She blows out a breath to get strands of black hair out of her face. “Where were you?”

“In my room?”

“No.” She slams the fork on the counter. “Last night.What happened to you?”

“Oh, I was—” The words feel loose in my mouth. Cottony, wrong. I do my best to rewind through yesterday, but my memories are bleary. “I was at the party. With you.”

“No, you left me,” Max snaps.

“I did,” I say, more to myself, the images gradually coming into focus.

Those awful lights. The loud music. A boy with plastic shot glasses.

“You didn’t even let me know you were leaving,” Max continues. “We haverules, Auggie.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

A mixture of anger and hurt twists her face. “Then someone found a dead girl—”

The memory hits like a crash of cymbals. “The girl,” I breathe out.

Her pale skin. Long dark hair.

“No one knows what happened. Some assholes claimed she was on something. Her roommate said she’d never do that.” Max shakes her head, whispering, “It’s the Hal situation all over again.”

A chill like water slips down my spine. I remember:

The white sand shore. A bridge lifting from a black sea. The boy with a leaf crown made of cypress. His confident touch, striking grin.

“I saw Cary. And…” My voice trails off. I’m trying to wade through the rush of memories.

“You saw Cary andwhat?” Max’s foot taps impatiently.

My mouth opens. Nothing comes out. What am I supposed to say?

I saw Cary with the dead girl, and Ifollowedhim? Then fell into a fountain that somehow transported me to the underworld? Oh, by the way, that’s a real place. With a lot of weirdly hot, powerful people and a three-headed dog.

No, I can’t tell her about Aides. About what I saw or what happened. If I did, would she even believe me?

Max doesn’t give me a chance to say anything. “Oh my god.” She gasps. “I can’t believe it.”

“Believe what?” I ask anxiously. Does she alreadyknow?

Smiling, she says, “You hooked up with Cary.”