Page 95 of People Like Us

By the time I reached the parking lot the boy was leaning inside the car. The wind smelled like wet dirt and fertilizer from the farms surrounding campus.

I slowed as I crossed the lot. He held something small and white in his hand, hooking it carefully around the rearview mirror.

A rabbit foot keychain. White and filthy at the tip. Recognition hit me so hard it almost folded me in half.

“Shannon?” The name tore out of me before I could think better of it.

The boy jerked violently, banging his head against the doorframe with a loud thunk. “Fuck,” he hissed. Then he looked up.

Shannon O’Kinzy grinned wickedly.

His face looked thinner than before he vanished, cheekbones prominent beneath oily skin, dark circles bruised beneath his eyes. His hair had grown longer, curling damp around his ears and neck. But it was him. Entirely him.

Alive. Alive.

A laugh burst out of me halfway to a sob.

Shannon slammed the car door shut and backed away from it quickly. His green backpack bounced against his shoulder as he moved. For one surreal moment neither of us spoke. Then he winked at me.

Like this was some private joke between us. His voice came out low and teasing, “Told you I’d see you again.”

Before I could react, he turned and bolted across the parking lot.

“Shannon!”

He ignored me completely, sprinting across the narrow road dividing the school from the farmland beyond it. Tires honked angrily as he darted between cars. Mud splashed up the backs of his jeans.

I took a step forward instinctively. Another.

I could chase him.

I could scream for a teacher.

I could call the police. My hand even twitched toward the phone in my pocket. But then Andy’s voice echoed through my memory from the truck before Winter Formal: Maybe he’s got a good reason to run away, that’s nobody’s business but his.

Shannon reached the edge of the cornfield. The dead stalks swallowed him almost immediately, dry leaves rattling violently in the wind around his disappearing form. One second he was there. The next he was gone. Like the earth itself had opened and taken him back into the wild where he belonged.

I stood alone in the parking lot staring at the trembling rows of corn while a cold wind whipped my hair across my mouth.

Then I started laughing.

Wild, breathless laughter that bent me nearly double. Relief flooded through me so hard it hurt. Weeks and weeks of guilt loosened all at once inside my chest like rusted chains snapping free.

“I’ll see you later,” I laughed to myself.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

After the final bell rang, I found August in the crowd of students flooding the parking lot, his back turned toward me. I called his name, and his steps faltered in recognition, but he didn’t stop or turn. His pace only quickened, bounding toward his pastel purple chrysler.

“Lola!” I heard my own name being called from behind me. I turned slightly to see Andy on my trail. I didn’t stop. I was only thirty feet or so behind August, as I did my best to catch up with him in the growing crowd.

My movement only halted when Wyatt stepped in front of me. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage already?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying to peer around him to keep my eyes on my target.

“Your stupid jock boyfriend is going to put him in the river if you don’t leave him alone. But I bet you knew that already. Is that why you keep leading him on?” Wyatt sneered.

“Wyatt,” I huffed, finally looking at him. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. But you’re in my way, and I need to catch up with—”